{"id":7941,"date":"2014-12-02T10:19:24","date_gmt":"2014-12-02T10:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/195.21.21.161\/epop\/?p=7941"},"modified":"2019-03-21T16:06:40","modified_gmt":"2019-03-21T16:06:40","slug":"ive-a-guest-reviewer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/2014\/12\/ive-a-guest-reviewer\/","title":{"rendered":"XF Quarter Finals \u2013 And I\u2019ve a guest reviewer!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/many-faced-lw.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"7667\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/2014\/08\/the-50-faces-of-louis-walsh\/many-faced-lw\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/many-faced-lw.jpg?fit=625%2C390&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"625,390\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-title=\"many-faced-lw\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/many-faced-lw.jpg?fit=625%2C390&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7667\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/many-faced-lw.jpg?resize=625%2C390&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"many-faced-lw\" width=\"625\" height=\"390\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Yes, that&#8217;s right it was the quarter finals this weekend and because there were only 5 acts left in the competition they were now singing 2 songs each. Oh no! I groaned. This is too much for me to handle and then I had a bright idea. Why not get someone to watch it with me and we could review it together? That way they could take over when I was losing the will to live. But do you know what? No friends or family were prepared to give up a mere 2 1\/2 hours of their weekend. So in the end I had to settle for my cat, Brian. He&#8217;s happy to sit in the front room for hours on end and he&#8217;s not shy about letting me know how he feels.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- Random Ad stuff --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:block\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2076862002005673\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"3107208401\"\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins><\/p>\n<p><script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The songs were chosen by celebrities for the first round and then by the public for the second.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Ben Haenow was on top form, back wearing the leathers and rocking &#8216;Come Together&#8217;, his first song. His second the much slower &#8216;We Found Love&#8217; worked equally well. Brian was purring away at the end of both and I felt with Ben was definitely on course for the final.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Lauren Platt I thought was a lot weaker. Her first song, &#8216;Clarity&#8217;, although nicely sung didn&#8217;t inspire me much and I felt she was swallowed up by the large ring of dancers surrounding her. She was much better in round 2 with &#8216;Don&#8217;t You Worry Child&#8217;, which really suited her voice, but I still feel she lacks vocal power and the charisma to become a star. Brian was sleeping by the end of her performance.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Stereokicks really blew it with their first song, &#8216;The Way You Are&#8217;. They were woefully out of tune and poor Brian was meowing to get out (It&#8217;s cruelty to animals, really). They did pick up with their next effort &#8216;Light Up&#8217; &#8211; How many times has that been done on X Factor? but I still think they didn&#8217;t really gel up there &#8211; it always looks awkward with 8 of them.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Fleur East was at the top of her game this week. Her first song, &#8216;Such a Good Man&#8217; was flawless and she looked really slick. Again for her second performance, she was looking amazing in an elaborate green dress and it was also flawless. Brian settled down for the first time since I dragged him back after Stereokicks. There is no doubt about it &#8211; that woman will be working on the high class cruise ships this time next year.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Andrea Faustini was left till last because he really is the best, in my opinion. His rendition of Sia&#8217;s &#8216;Chandelier&#8217; was sublime &#8211; it really was an inspired song choice. For his second performance he absolutely killed &#8216;Hero&#8217; by singing the first few lines in Italian which made it really special. He has my vote to win the competition but this year it is hard to call it. I reckon it will be between Fleur and Andrea.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Stereokicks got kicked out this week and I definitely agree with this decision. I can&#8217;t see them becoming the next big thing either. Boyband? more like Boycrowd!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I&#8217;d like to thank my guest reviewer, Brian. I don&#8217;t think he&#8217;ll be back next week, though. He runs to the door now everytime he hears the X Factor theme tune!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yes, that&#8217;s right it was the quarter finals this weekend and because there were only 5 acts left in the competition they were now&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7824,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[433,494,477,478,479,463,157],"class_list":["post-7941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-andrea-faustini","tag-ben-haenow","tag-fleur-east","tag-joan-treacy","tag-lauren-platt","tag-stereokicks","tag-x-factor"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5yMhl-245","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":92942,"url":"https:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/2025\/10\/greg-hoy-gives-us-his-last-quarter-in-second-single-from-latest-album-hit-music\/","url_meta":{"origin":7941,"position":0},"title":"Greg Hoy Gives Us His &#8216;Last Quarter&#8217; In Second Single From Latest Album, &#8216;Hit Music&#8217;","author":"Lisa Hafey","date":"21\/10\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Greg Hoy embraces the big band sound on his latest release, 'Last Quarter', the second single from his album, 'Hit Music', which he released back in March this year.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Music&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Music","link":"https:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Greg-Hoy-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Greg-Hoy-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Greg-Hoy-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Greg-Hoy-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Greg-Hoy-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":23396,"url":"https:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/2016\/10\/trav-torch-quarter-tank-of-gas\/","url_meta":{"origin":7941,"position":1},"title":"Trav Torch \u201cQuarter Tank Of Gas\u201d","author":"Lisa Hafey","date":"01\/10\/2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Trav Torch has already established himself in the R&B world with his tracks, 'Love You Down', and 'Red Bull and Hennessy'. 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