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X -Factor Recap - Contestants Set Vocals To Scare

By Ian Cullen Nov 1, 2010, 1:39 GMT

10/20/2010 - Cheryl Cole - Cheryl Cole Unveils Her New Wax Figure at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in London on October 20, 2010 - Madame Tussauds - London, UK © Solarpix / PR Photos

With the weekend being Halloween, X-Factor did what it always does for such a holiday and based the entire show around it. As if some of the acts were not scary enough one their own. 

Below is as comprehensive a recap as you’ll get from me this week.

The show opened with Mary Byrne who won the judges back with a pretty good rendition of the Barry Manilow song ‘Could This Be Magic’, and won a really good reception from the audience as well. I wasn’t to sure about it really, but maybe I’m being a tad hyper critical. It wasn’t the way she sang that I had a problem with. It’s basically the whole way in how she presented herself. The whole Halloween stuff. Just didn’t really do it for me.

Aiden Grimshaw was up next with a rendition of Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’, which made my ears bleed. I’d rather listen to Freddie Krueger run his extra long nails across a chalk board repeatedly than listen to this. Grimshaw changed the song, in much the same way as he’s changed all his songs. Only on this occasion the song was sung and presented in a less upbeat way than the original. To me Thriller is one of those songs that shouldn’t really be covered, and Grimshaw’s rendition should be used only as a last measure of torture for getting information out of terrorist. They’d soon surrender information.

Belle Ame did a really rough rendition of the Bananarama song Venus. As to the presentation, the costumes worked well for them, but the whole performance for me was sub par average and didn’t really have me wanting to buy the record. Though if you play it backwards while taking a dump on the bog. It is believed that listening can speed up bowel movements tenfold. So at best, you could market it as a laxative.

Fourth up to perform was one of my favorites in Rebecca Fergusan, who put in another fantastic performance, and totally sold the song well. This girl is definitely among the strongest singers in the competition, and I only hope she stays in the competition long enough to get picked up with a recording deal of some sort after the show.

Fifth up was TreyC Cohen, who was a bit shaken after last weeks events, which put her wrongly in the bottom two. This week Cohen put in a very sexy performance of the disco and Take That classic ‘Relight My Fire’! I wasn’t sure about the black lipstick though, but the red dress definitely had me thinking impure thoughts. Powerhouse singing performance though, and as Dannii Minogue rightly points out. They need to find what TreyC’s strongest style of song is. I.E. something that can identify her with her niche audience. Though I personally have enjoyed her vocals on pretty much most of what she’s done thus far.

Simon Cowell said that Cheryl Cole’s packaging of TrayC could be at fault, and accused Cole of lacking any sense of connection with her artist.

Sixth up was Matt Cardle who stole the show last week and this time was tasked with singing a Leona Lewis song, and wasn’t half bad. Though singing Leona’s hit song ‘Keep Bleeding Love’ was always going to be tough for pretty much any male vocalist to cover.

For my money he put in a confident showing, but didn’t quite make the song his own in the same way as he did with the Britney song that he did on last weeks show.

Next up was the Borat of X-Factor in Wagner, who sang in an operatic style this week. I guess it was operatic, but if he was trying to raise hell with a badly sang version of Meat Loaf’s ‘Bat Out Of Hell’ he failed miserably. Definitely a very off week for Wagner. His timing was well off the mark, and he was out of tune throughout all of the song.

The eighth act to face the wrath of the judges was Paije, who continues to have the likability factor, and sang fairly well this week with a fairly strong rendition of ‘Back To Black’, and for me he seemed more confident and on his game this week than in prior weeks. Something, which impressed Simon Cowell, who felt it was a vast improvement over his prior performances.

Up ninth before the judges was Katey, who did a version of the song ‘Bewitched’ again it was more about Katey and her quirky look than it was about a particularly good vocal performance, fact is the girl doesn’t have a powerful enough voice for half the songs she is given to sing, but thankfully this week her vocal range didn’t really matter given that she is now being packaged as a more quirky performer for Halloween. Does she have the X - Factor though? For me she doesn’t have it, and vocally she still isn’t all that strong, but very middle of the road and karaoke-ish.

The tenth act to scare us all was Simon’s Boy Band ‘One Direction’, who did a bloody awful rendition of ‘Total Eclipse Of The Heart’... If I’m totally honest. Out of the remaining bands on the show. The girl band seems to be more cohesive and work better as a band, at least everyone in the girl band sounds different. The problem I have with ‘One Direction’ is that vocally they all sound like clones. There isn’t a stand-out vocalist amongst them.

Of course the teeny-boppers in the audience love the boys. I’d rather yank out my intestines with an ice cream scoop AND watch paint dry. I don’t get it, and the only direction they should be going is out of the door.

The last act to go up was Cher Lloyd, whose normal dress code would suit Halloween, and sang a version of the Shakespeare Sisters song ‘Stay’, which suited her limited vocal range. I rather enjoyed the simpler approach, but still feel that Cher has a bit more to prove and needs to do more actual songs as apposed to the mash ups she’s done in prior weeks.

I much prefer the original Shakespeare Sister version, but this week Cher was a slightly better than in prior weeks.

The two acts that went head to head were Katy and the all girl band Belle Ame. Unlike last week’s sing off both these acts in my opinion were the weakest of the week. If I could have chose three acts to go up. One Direction would have been in the bottom lot as well.

First up to sing for survival were Belle Ame, who were a bit flat for my taste and in segments of their song were a bit here, there and everywhere.

Second up was Katy who once again chose an old Etta James song to sing in hopes that it would buy her a stay of execution. Of course her song was followed by the usual drama queen antics, which didn’t really buy her any sympathy from me. Muahahahha. Hey I didn’t open the door for Trick or Treaters either.

Simon chose to stand by Belle Ame and opted to give Katy the old heave-ho, and predictably Cheryl went with Katy.   Leaving the decision to Louis and Dannii whose vote took the final decision to deadlock, which meant the act with the fewest votes had to go, and that act was Belle Ame. Which means Simon only has one act left in the competition, which is not a position that Simon Cowell is used to being in...

With only ten acts left in the competition. It will be interesting to see who stays and who goes over the next few weeks. Especially given that most of the weaker acts seem to have left, and we only really have Wagner, One Direction and Katy, Aiden and Cher to get rid of now. Though I have a feeling Cher will be around in the final weeks given that she seems to have the Emo vote.