‘The X Factor’ UK live review: Andrea Faustini, Stereo Kicks, Fleur East hit the jukebox

We find it somewhat random that “The X Factor” UK even decides to label this weekend’s show with a theme, basically because the only real theme to it is “no theme at all.” The contestants are tasked with doing two different songs, and each one of them was chosen by either the public, or a celebrity guest.

If you want to see which star selected what for the performers, we’ve got that information for you over here. With that being said, let’s get into critiquing the show itself.

Ben Haenow, “Come Together” – This was a solid performance by Ben. It wasn’t a risk, he didn’t really do anything that creative, but he sang the song really well. It may still be enough to get him to the next round, given that he has yet to be in the bottom two.

Lauren Platt, “Clarity” – Lauren was performing sick, which may explain some of her vocal problems. There were some weird things about this performance, from the heavy backing track to the dancing that wasn’t quite there. We love this song, but we still don’t quite feel like anyone has done it complete justice.

Stereo Kicks, “Just the Way You Are” – We appreciate the effort here, since we really get the sense that these guys are all working extremely hard to be a great boy band. It’s just unfortunate that there are so many little issues holding them back. Namely, a couple of the guys just weren’t as strong as some of the others, and the routine was boring.

Fleur East, “A Fool in Love” – Emeli Sande may actually have given Fleur the worst song out of the group, at least in that no viewer under the age of 30 will have ever heard this Tina Turner track. Fleur did a good job with it, but in all honesty it’s looking like this entire first round is full of duds.

Andrea Faustini, “Chandelier” – Excellent. The best of the first round by far. Andrea gets huge points for nailing the emotion of the song, but also hitting all of the notes and taking us somewhere else. We actually liked that the song got more intense as it went along, contrary to Simon Cowell.

Lauren Platt, “Don’t You Worry Child” – It was a lovely performance, and a good comparison here would be Ben’s performance at the start of the show. It wasn’t particularly memorable, but she did herself proud.

Ben Haenow, “Thinking Out Loud” – Ben’s best performance in a while. While we wouldn’t say it changed our lives, it was easily enought o punch a ticket for him to the next round. There is no reason to think that anything otherwise is going to happen now.

Stereo Kicks, “Run” – It didn’t make us want to run in the other direction, but why do a song that you’ve already done in the competition? We blame the public more for us feelings slightly off here, since they picked the performance.

Fleur East, “If I Ain’t Got You” – We’re going to be worried about Fleur going into tomorrow’s show. This just wasn’t that interesting, and the song has been done so many times, it is hard to impress us with something new.

Andrea Faustini, “Hero” – We close tonight’s humdrum night with an excellent performance of a pretty predictable song, but it is at least something that Andrea should feel pretty good about. He recovered from being in the bottom two nicely, and he may be able to avoid it now.

Who was your favorite during this show? Share with a comment, or in the poll below! You can also sign up to get some other TV updates on all we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: ITV.)