Your Saturday night starts right here! It’s time for week 2 of the X Factor UK auditions. Last weekend we saw the debut of a new judging panel (Simon Cowell, Louis Tomlinson, Robbie Williams and Ayda Williams) along with several great acts. I missed last Sunday’s episode because I was in New York City seeing David Cook on Broadway (which, side note, was totally amazing), but I watched the acts on the bus ride home, and my two standouts of the night were Anthony Russell and Brendan Murray. Hopefully tonight and tomorrow night are chock full of more talent, but even if they aren’t, we’re all going to find out together! The show starts at 8:30 PM London Time or 3:30 PM Eastern, so please join in the discussion!
I missed the introduction due to proxy issues, but my stream is working great now. Just in time to see the judges carpooling to work for some reason. At least I didn’t miss anything important.
First up tonight is Natasha Boon. She’s 26 and works in a flower store. She says she’s never sung anywhere before, calls herself “exclusive.” And as she starts to sing James Arthur’s Impossible, I’m not blown away. Some of her choices bugged me. But it’s a competent first audition. And then all four judges stand up for her. Louis pointed out the shaky vocals but says she delivered anyway. Ayda says she commanded the stage beautifully and says she has a lot of potential. Simon loves her personality and says he’s happy for her. She raps for Robbie Williams for some reason and she should stick to singing. He calls her a star, and makes a lot of insane comparisons to Adele and Amy Winehouse. Four yeses, she’s through.
Aaliyah is up next. She’s 14 and has a ton of personality. Robbie says that Simon’s jeans are older than her. She wants to prove that young people can do this. She sings Sail by AWOLNATION. I think she’s great, but Simon stops her 10 seconds in and says she picked the wrong song. They send her off to try to pick a different song.
Next up is Acacia K. She’s 15 and she’s excited to see Louis Tomlinson. She sings Bed of Lies by Nicki Minaj and Skylar Grey. Aaliyah is a much better singer, but Acacia is a pretty great rapper. Simon stops her as she’s just about to get to the chorus. He talks to her backstage and tells her that he’s putting her together with Aaliyah to perform together. I think this could work actually.
While they rehearse we see Owen Matthews, a fan of Robbie Williams. He goes by Ozzie and he’s 17. He sings Trouble and I don’t get this one at all. He’s weird moving around on stage and the vocal wasn’t good. Simon says he’s fantastically nuts and votes yes for some reason. Owen gets four yeses.
And now Aaliyah and Acacia are together on stage. They had an hour and Simon says the odds are against them. After a break, they perform Bang Bang. Aaliyah’s voice isn’t that strong. But for an hour of rehearsal, I see lots of potential with these two. All four judges stand for them. Simon says it wasn’t perfect but loves their fun and sense of humor. Louis says they remind him of the first time 1D performed. He meant it as a compliment but I didn’t take it that way LOL. Ayda points out that ages added together, they are still younger than Robbie and herself. Robbie says they’ll need each other as they go on. Four yeses.
Felix Shepherd is 20 years old. He’s currently studying song writing (which I didn’t think was something you can study). He’s openly trans. Ayda asks if his family and friends have been supportive and they have. He sings All I Want by Kodaline, the first song he ever performed live. He’s got a good voice and a nice tone. It’s far from perfect, but it’s a nice audition. Really happy I got to see him. Louis says it was a brilliant audition, calls out his tone and says that he’d be a great recording artist. Simon’s happy he trusted them, says he’s got a great voice, and that when he went off, he liked it even more. Felix says he no longer has a falsetto that he had before, and Robbie interrupts his self-doubt and says that he killed the vocal. Ayda says it’s about personality as well as talent, and that they’d be very lucky to have him on the competition. Four five thousand yeses.
We’re back and it’s a hot day outside. I was in London during a heat wave, which was notable because there was no air conditioning in my dorm. Not fun. Patrick James is a pub singer from Dublin. He sings Human by Rag’n’Bone. Very deep voice and Simon stops him, says he won’t remember him in an hour. It’s a no. Robbie wants personality. Adam Davis plays Is This Love and Robbie stops him early. Louis likes the song but says he has no star quality. He’s sent off too. Alexander Stewart starts performing Feeling Good and Robbie and Simon remark on the lack of personality, send him off – I actually liked him.
Ivo is 42 years old and walks out with his shirt open. Ayda asks if he got his shirt from Simon, which Simon was totally expecting. He’s a contemporary choreographer and apparently a songwriter. The song is called Lucky Day, and I have no idea what it’s about. Simon is confused as well, but he likes the hair. His voice isn’t bad enough to be funny for me, nor is it anywhere good enough to justify going through. It’s honestly annoying. He skips around the stage. The audience is booing (I would be too) but they’re totally going to let him through anyway. Louis says it was the most bizarre thing he’s seen on the show. Simon asks if Louis will remember it, and he says he’s going to remember it but not for the right reasons. Simon found it fascinating. Robbie says he wants to see him again and the audience is booing. Louis votes no, but the other judges vote yes for some stupid reason. Can’t Simon figure out that people don’t like joke acts? Ivo says he wants to prove weird isn’t automatically bad. It’s not, but that doesn’t make what he did good. Louis Tomlinson is the voice of reason. That’s a sad state of affairs.
After we see Louis Tomlinson’s audition paperwork from 8 years ago (could be fake but Simon insists it is real) we have our last act of the night. Maria Laroco is 17 and from the Philippines. She always wanted to be a star and she flew over just for this audition. She’s got a very bubbly personality. She sings Purple Rain by Prince. She’s got killer pipes, just like Alisah Bonaobra and 4th Impact from past seasons. But if I’m honest, I think she could have made better choices with the song. It was great, but it could have been spectacular. All judges except Simon stand halfway through, and Simon stands at the end. Dermot backstage asks her family if anyone from the Philippines can’t sing which makes me laugh. The judges obviously loved it. Simon is very positive, gives her infinity yeses. But based on past seasons, I don’t expect the love to last forever. The love is here for now but a bus is coming down the road. Four yeses.
The best act tonight was Maria Laroco. I think if she picks the rights songs, she could go far. Aaliyah and Acacia also have potential, but I’ll need to see more to make up my mind.
