‘The X Factor’ UK review: Luke Friend, Sam Bailey cover One Direction, Leona Lewis

In the most baffling decision of the day, we’re still trying to make a little bit of sense as to why “The X Factor” UK did not delay their show by an hour this week to not compete with the “Doctor Who” 50th Anniversary Special. We were forced to in some ways play catch-up thanks to it, and we feel for some of the singers who performed prior to the end of the special over on the BBC.

But we have to wonder if the show really thought they were stealing some of The Doctor’s thunder by doing an anniversary show in their own right, with this one focusing on performances from iconic songs in the history of the show. Some of the performances were solid, but we just don’t understand the logic of trying to get contestants to have their own iconic moment, while at the same time having to create that of someone else.

6. Tamera Foster, “Impossible” – The problem with Tamera is that she reminds us of the sort of professional athlete who has a ton of talent, and is good enough to get into a pro league because of it. But then, they think that the talent will be enough to allow them to automatically win every week. She has a great voice, but there were more issues with words tonight and something was off with the track. We just feel like she’s not working hard enough, and that’s pretty insane at this point in the season.

5. Hannah Barrett, “Hallelujah” – This song worked years ago for Alexandra Burke, but we don’t think that it really worked that well for Hannah here. There were too many off notes in the bottom register, and in putting her early on a night where The Doctor is airing, we almost wonder if the producers are just throwing in the towel when it comes to Hannah’s odds of going further in the competition.

4. Nicholas McDonald, “The Climb” – Ugh. Regardless of whether or not Nicholas is a Joe McElderry fan, this performance was just dull. Nicholas sang it very well, but there is nothing new or interesting that can actually be pulled out of this overrated song, which was originally for Hannah Montana of all things.

3. Rough Copy, “Don’t Let Go” – It’s interesting how big a divide there is this week between the top three and bottom three acts on the show. The only real fault to Rough Copy’s performance tonight was that it occasionally felt like their pitch suffered in spots, but there was so much swagger that it was almost easy to forget all about it. A nice little bounce-back follower their weakest outing of the season.

2. Luke Friend, “What Makes You Beautiful” – Isn’t it refreshing to know that Luke got to actually do something different with his song? He really feels like he knows himself better than any of the other singers in the girls or boys categories, and he nailed this. To think, he didn’t even a One Direction mentoring session to prove it, which many of the other artists had with some of the acts they were covering.

1. Sam Bailey, “Bleeding Love” – An impossibly tough song for anyone to sing, mostly because Leona Lewis is one of the best singers to ever be on any singing competition. But what makes Sam special is that she is able to not only sing just as well as Leona, but bring a similar level of emotional fervor into the performance. We don’t know how she does it, but she’s managed to excel yet again.

Overall, the easiest way we can summarize this is that a show with only 50% great performances makes for a mediocre 90 minutes: Grade. C+.

Who do you think was the best on “The X Factor” tonight? Share some of your thoughts below! Also, click here if you want to check out who we had at the top of our “X Factor” rankings leading up to the show.

Photo: ITV