This weeks theme is Decades Challenge and this is a good way for us to get through the classic themes of 70s, 80s, and 90s without have to trudge through 11 performances from the decade. Instead we get to cherry pick the best three or four and make these dated themes feel welcome and not a bore. Very smart move by the producers to put this week together like this. Now let’s dive into the action!
Reigan Derry‘s “Chandelier” Reigan is going to win this competition and everyone else is just playing to compete against Dean for his inevitable second place finish to miss Reigan. I love how Reigan gets the biggest stage props of everyone. Reigan can do almost no wrong in my mind at this point. She is destined to win this. Despite her 11th place finish on Australian Idol 4, she is going to win this.
Dean Ray‘s “Reckless” this song is dark and mysterious just like Dean thinks he is. I love him just sitting there, bearing his soul for us all to hear. Dean has such solid vocals, that make him a contender. Last week I pontificated that Tee and Reigan need to be in the final 3, but this week I change my mind. Dean and Reigan NEED to be in the final 3, and Tee can or can not be there.
Marlisa‘s “Hopelessly Devoted to You” despite not know this song, Marlisa did a fantastic job with it. I give the edge to Marlisa over Rochelle because of her stronger pitch control. This song is meant for a teenager, it doesn’t matter what decade the teenager is in, this song goes well with any of them from anytime. Marlisa is probably the missing piece in the Reigan-Dean final 3. This girl can sing and has soul, despite her naivety but that can be overcome with time.
Rochelle Pitt‘s “Nothing’s Real But Love” it is always funny to me when someone does a former X Factor competitor’s song on the show, it happens all the time, but it gives me that warm feeling of being like oh I watched Rebecca Ferguson all the way until she got second place. Oh how much I loved XFUK7. This song suited Rochelle like a glove, it felt so good, she looked so good, the stage was simple and perfect. Rochelle that was pretty fantastic, of course there were some pitch problems at the end, but I am willing to see past them, because the performance worked. Good job Redfoo, fantastic song choice.
Caitlyn Shadbolt‘s “Is She Really Going Out With Him” this song worked for her pretty well. Nothing hit me over the head special, but that isn’t Caitlyn’s thing. She has always been consistently good to very good, never great. And this fits right into her pattern. I think Caitlyn could be a dark horse to make the final 3 if she delivers this consistently all the time and then does some really strong performances in top 7/6 area. Overall good song choice and a good performance.
Jason Heerah‘s “Runaway Baby” a very serviceable performance, a very good and personality filled song, but to me this just sort of highlights Jason’s lack of stage presence. Not to say Jason isn’t fun, not to say he doesn’t deserve to be there, Jason is good, but with performances like this I could never choose for him to be the winner against Dean or Reigan. Jason is such a nice guy, but nice guy doesn’t have anything exciting about it unfortunately. I wish him luck, but I just think when push comes to shove, I doubt he will even be in the top 5.
Tee‘s “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)” this felt a bit like karaoke. Not to say I don’t love Tee, because I do, but this performance was literally nothing special, despite the random neon-lit Cantonese symbols on the stage this performance didn’t have much spark. I am not sure what Tee could’ve done with this song, but he needed to do it, bring in the bass and make it a modern-disco track a la Daft Punk? That couldn’t have hurt. Tee definitely didn’t make it his own and that is frustrating.
Brothers 3‘s “Happy Birthday Helen” this song really suits them and their probably their potential audience. This pub-rock anthem comes with a side of harmonica that I wish wasn’t dropped so soon. I suspect they will be performing this song at many of pubs in the future, that all being said. I don’t think this was a competition winning performance, but I can see them getting another week out of this. Is this the equivalent of Kristy Lee Cook doing “God Bless the USA”? Maybe.
Sydnee Carter‘s “Video Killed the Radio Star” this song is content-wise a very good choice for her. Sydnee reminds me a bit of Ani Defranco or Alanis Morissette at least in terms of vibe. The real problem with this performance is I wanted to love, I really really really did, but I couldn’t. The falsetto was nice, but there was some significant underlying pitch problems through out the performance that I couldn’t ignore away. This girl better watch out, because there is at least a decent chance she could be near the bottom 2 tomorrow night. Even if she doesn’t go, she needs to be prepared because that ticket is probably going to be called at least once in the coming weeks.
Adrien Nookadu‘s “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” I’ve been saying that Adrien just needs to stand there and deliver a strong vocal. He did just stand there this week, but I don’t know if it was a strong vocal. This felt a bit like Michael Jackson karaoke, I wanted more artistry from this, something that made it distinctively Adrien or at least a more solid vocal. My next suggestion for Adrien in the future is twist up a modern R&B-ditty acoustically. If he survives tomorrow night. Adrien gets points over XOX because he at least genuinely seemed to like his song.
XOX‘s “Groove is in the Heart” this performance did not work all that well. Serenity was a highlight, but it didn’t feel that fun Dannii, it just felt dated and ultimately didn’t work. Girls you may never want to be in the bottom 2 again, but after a performance like that, you may just find yourself there again tomorrow night. This performance needed to be more “Ray of Light” and less this song that these girls couldn’t connect to, no matter how hard they tried.
Rankings:
1. Reigan Derry
2. Dean Ray
3. Marlisa
4. Rochelle Pitt
5. Caitlyn Shadbolt
6. Jason Heerah
7. Tee
8. Brothers 3
9. Sydnee Carter
10. Adrien Nookadu
11. XOX
This week we may very well be getting a reprise of the two previous Bottom 2 survivors of XOX vs Adrien, with a good chance that Sydnee could be taking one of their spots depending how the votes fall. Honestly between Adrien and XOX, I would rather XOX stay, but I can see a case for both, so either way one of them is probably not going to be in the final 10.
Sydnee vs Adrien, I am glad to see that Sydnee came out on top, I wish it didn’t have to go to deadlock to come to that conclusion, but alas, here we are with a solid final 10. I wonder when they will do the double elimination to fix the extra person they got from wildcard. Sound off your thoughts below.
Thanks for reading,
Edward Giordano
