Yes, it was the X Factor semi final and being the month of December, there was a decidedly festive flavour to proceedings. But who was going to be safe and who was going home for Christmas? Read on to find out……
For the first round, all of the contestants sang Christmas songs. I didn’t feel that any of them sparkled with their first performances.
Fleur East with ‘All I Want for Christmas’, while she looked fabulous, I didn’t feel delivered. Her rendition just didn’t compare with the original.
Lauren was as wishy washy as ever with ‘Stay Another Day’. Even the judges – in between throwing snowballs at each other- were quite critical of her – Always the kiss of death at this late stage.
Ben looked very tasty as always but I didn’t like the choice of song.
And as for Andrea’s rendition of ‘Oh Holy Night’ – All I can say is Oh, holy crap! did he have to warble so much. I always feel that less is more when it comes to this song.
The second round kind of brought the front runners in the competition to the fore, I thought.
Lauren sang ‘Story of my Life’ complete with pictures of her life in the background which, in my opinion, couldn’t save it from being a mediocre performance.
Fleur brought the competition to a new level with ‘Uptown Funk’ (newly released). Everyone agreed she killed it in every way, looking amazing and bringing an energy to the performance with some very professional dancing.
Andrea is starting to slip down the line up, I think. His second song, ‘Wrecking Ball’ didn’t really do it for me. He sang it really well but I don’t think he has enough stage presence for that type of song.
Ben, who I think is looking second place at the moment, sang ‘Hallelujah’. I found it a bit boring and thought the display of tears at the was a bit yeuch. To me, it was just a cynical attempt at getting the sympathy vote.
Very predictably, Lauren was voted off on Sunday after a sing off with Andrea. So it’s looking very much like Fleur to win, Ben second and Andrea third but of course this poor sucker will still watch the final and I hope you all will have a look at my last X Factor round up next Monday!
