Yes, it’s week 2 and it was 80s night. When I heard this, I thought – Oh no they’re going to ruin all my favourite songs. As a teenager of the 80s I am very familiar with the music of that era. However, I needn’t have worried because they didn’t cover any of the songs I used to rock out to back then. A lot of the song choices were terrible and there were some really weird remixes going on.
Having said that, I think the show was an improvement on last week. At least there were a few good performances. Lola did a very nice version of John Lennon’s “Imagine” – I have to say it warmed the cockles of my heart! (she works in a fish shop in case anyone didn’t know) Paul Akister was v good too. He sang “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” and didn’t butcher it – something which is quite easily done. Jay James’ version of “500 Miles” was also quite impressive. They slowed it down and it really worked. I think they knew that and that’s why they left him til last.
After that, I was less impressed.mainly because of the song choices. Chloe Jasmine sang “Fame” – one of the cheesiest crappiest pieces of music ever produced and I felt she was let down badly by Cheryl. We had Paula Abdul’s “Straight Up”‘ sang by Jack Walton, rearranged to sound dire. Stephanie Nala’s version of “Call me” turned in to a reggae song was just weird.
And then we had the dregs. Stereo Kicks – (they should have been kicked oft this week) – sang “Boys of Summer”. It wasn’t the song that was bad. It was them. Stevi Richie, I think, is kinda winging it a bit too much. Ok, so he’s enjoying himself up there, but are we enjoying him? I’m not so sure. Then we come to “Come On Eileen”. Eh..Come on, Louis – this is sacrilege to anyone who used to dance around to this in the 80s. I think it’s one of those songs that should only be sang by the original artist.
Stephanie Nala and Chloe Jasmine were knocked out this week and while I don’t think Stephanie is any loss, I was disappointed to see Chloe go. But you know, maybe she’s better off out of it. You could say,the mistake she made was entering the competition in the first place. After all, the X Factor doesn’t really do style and originality.
