It’s time for Judges Houses on The X Factor UK! Sure, the judges probably aren’t actually making the decisions, and these are definitely not their actual houses, but who cares? We are going to narrow down the top 24 to just 16 acts, and there have been no spoilers this year! In this episode, we will see the girls perform for Simon Cowell and 50 other industry faces, including Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul, Ryan Seacrest, Adam Lambert, and Leona Lewis. The show starts at 3 PM EST, so join me then!
Judges houses starts now! Three of the categories are in Southern California this year. Louis and the boys are somewhere else.
The girls are up first and we first see them relaxing. They found Simon’s star, and he arranged a shopping trip for them.
Simon found fifty different people to join him. We see the names as some of them appear on camera. Simon is sitting at a table with Ryan, Randy, and Paula – yay! The girls apparently had no idea there would be so many people in the audience.
Molly Scott is up first. She’s singing a BTS song called Fake Love. She sounds pretty great. I don’t know the song, so I don’t know if she changed the arrangement. Halfway through, Paula tells Randy she likes it when she sings softly. Simon says it was clever, “Respect, Molly.” Randy Paula and Simon all seemed to like it.
Georgia Burgess did three sing offs at six chair challenge. She’s singing Somebody Else’s Guy. She’s got a great voice, enough so that Paula lets out a woo and starts chair dancing. This might be my favorite performance she’s given thus far. Paula stands up for her after. Ryan says “she’s got it and she’s likable.” Simon says she reminds him of Kelly Clarkson. I don’t think she’s that good but still.
Shan is up next. Simon says that it is good she’s nervous, it means she cares. She sings an original song called Get Back. I actually like the song, and she’s got a great voice. She’s a ready made artist. Ryan flat out says afterward “you got to keep her.” Simon thanks her for doing her own song. Randy utters another meaningless platitude – and since I haven’t seen him in four years, I’m not mad about it.
Maria Laroco sings California Dreaming via video. She’s got a great voice. I’m so mad she’s a goner, because she does have an awesome voice. Simon says she would have thrived in this atmosphere.
Bella Penfold is up next. She rambles incoherently on stage, Ryan says it’s “nervous energy.” She performs Same Love – I like the song, I don’t really like Bella’s voice. And based on the like-dislike ratio of her YouTube videos, I don’t think I’m alone. Randy and Paula like that she’s unpredictable.
Ryan says that these great performances are because they are all together again. LOL.
Scarlett Lee is last up. She’s happy to be here – “finally!” She’s sort of joking with Simon, and I like her a lot. She’s singing I Didn’t Know My Own Strength in front of Diane Warren, the woman who wrote the song. She absolutely kills this vocal. I think Simon has the strongest category of pure singers this year. Diane Warren is singing along and clapping, and crying. At the end, she stands for her, as does the rest of the crowd. Ryan says Simon would be an awful person not to put her through, Randy and Paula say her voice is “ridiculous.”
Ryan says that the contestants seemed nervous but when they stepped into their songs, they seemed ready for this. Leona Lewis talks with the girls. None of the guests namecheck Shan except for Diane Warren. They all namecheck Scarlett. Randy, Paula, Simon and Diane Warren pretend to argue over the cards. Paula says that it’s good problem to have.
Time for the results. First up is Shan. Simon says that she’s afraid to show who she really is. Simon doesn’t even fake her out – she’s in the live shows, Simon says she’s better than she knows.
Molly Scott is determined. Simon puts her out of her misery, and then says she’s through to the live shows!
Maria Laroco does not make live shows. Simon tells her to come back again. He says that was not a nice phone call.
Scarlett Lee is next. Simon says he’s never seen Diane Warren cry before. He puts her through to the live shows. He thinks she was amazing last night. Simon says “don’t change your personality, I love you…but don’t go orange again on me!”
Bella Penfold and Georgia Burgess are the last two girls up. One makes it, one doesn’t. Georgia didn’t make live shows – ugh. I saw that coming but it doesn’t make it any better. Bella gets the fourth spot. Ok then. #idoldisagree
Top 4 Girls:
Shan
Molly Scott
Scarlett Lee
Bella Penfold
