Smallscreen Features

X Factor - Week 2 Recap

By Ian Cullen Aug 29, 2010, 22:41 GMT

08/27/2010 - Katy Perry - Katy Perry in Concert on NBC\'s "Today Show" - August 27, 2010 - Rockefeller Center - New York City, NY, USA © Kent Miller / PR Photos

Last night saw the second week of auditions for X Factor 2010, and the auditions took the judges to Dublin, which was a first visit to the Emerald Isle for a few years.

So expectations were somewhat high. 

Joining the judges for the Dublin leg of the tour was Katy Perry, who brought her own brand of style and entertainment to the proceedings, and immediately won Louis Walsh and Cheryl Cole over with her fun attitude. 

A band calling themselves Temple Fire were the first up, and their rendition of the Wham song 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.’ If waking the judges up with this tuneless affair was the boy bands intention it was successful.

The band were triumphant. Simon Cowell was as po-faced as ever, while Louis Walsh who was blamed for the awful start was left totally speechless, and Cheryl Cole joined him.

Meanwhile Katy Perry had to ask a member of the band if they were serious? Obviously their answer to that was a yes. Though I get the feeling they were the only ones that were. 

Of course it wasn’t all bad. Things picked up a couple of acts later when a middle aged check out lady by the name of Mary Byrne astounded the judges with her rendition of Tom Jones's 'I Who Have Nothing'.

Cheryl and Simon both revealed that she was one of their favorite acts to date on the current series. 

Byrne revealed to the judges that her low self esteem had prevented her from auditioning and performing in public, but after a standing ovation and 1,540 yes’s from Simon, I’m pretty sure her self esteem issues will be on the back burner for the time being. 

Another act to impress in the London leg of this week's show, which reverts back to just three judges was Matt Cardle from Essex. Cardle related that he was down on his luck, and in a job that he feels doesn’t suit his talents, and then went onto blow the judges away with a rendition of the Amy Winehouse song 'You Know I'm No Good'.

Louis couldn’t pile enough praise on the singer, and branded him as "quirky" and "unusual".  

At the top of this recap we talked about the Boy Band that couldn’t. Thankfully the balance was tipped back in favor of boy bands when a group called The Reason gave the judges a reason to let them through to Boot Camp with their harmonious rendition of the Cheryl Cole song 'Fight For This Love'.