X Factor UK Season 14 Power List

The third weekend of live shows for 2017 was a mixed bag for me. One elimination really sucked and made no sense (Alisah). The other one would have sucked based on their first audition but made sense overall (Jack and Joel). This weekend’s winner officially turned this into a four horse race, and as people pointed out in the comments, at least we are getting some variety in the prizefight each week. But more on that later.

This week is love and heartache week, and despite getting the eliminations and rankings wrong every single week, I am fairly confident I will be right this time. Four acts will be going home, two each night, so this is as close to a The Voice-style-bloodbath as we’ve ever had on X Factor UK.

I waited until we knew song choices and which acts are on which night before I ranked this list, just like last week. This way, I can make more concrete predictions. I’ll still probably be off but here we go!

Predicted Finishing Order

Rak-Su – Last week wasn’t their strongest and they didn’t get a standing ovation from the judges. But I don’t think that matters. They still had three songs in the iTunes UK top 40, and they still got positive feedback. They are still the obvious producer favorites. Although they are not my thing, I know deep down that the show would benefit from having them win, so I’d begrudgingly accept it.
Kevin Davy White – Kevin had two great weeks in a row. His Fastlove performance was at a minimum his best of the season and possibly flat out the best of the season. He was in the prizefight again, even over Rak-Su, and he didn’t win it because he did a better job the first time. Kevin has rose up my list from being good to being just about tied for my personal favorite this season. The reason he’s not my predicted winner is simple: Simon doesn’t want him to win because he’s not that marketable, and Rak-Su are charting so well every week.
Grace Davies – I thought Grace was being set up to have a moment. The song choice was great and the a cappella start was beautiful. But when only Sharon stood up at the end, it hit me: Grace is not the favorite that I thought she would be. She’s been taking a beating in the British press recently as well, and as HooHooHooHoosiers said in the comments last Sunday, she’s super polarizing on Twitter. I hope for her sake that she has a true moment this week-the theme definitely lends itself to her strengths. But I don’t think she is going to win the show anymore.
Lloyd Macey – Lloyd won the prizefight last weekend and made Sharon cry. But Simon still tried to dampen the mood after his performance. The fact that Simon didn’t love his performance makes sense – as I wrote last week, “Lloyd can sing extremely well, but he belongs on West End/Broadway, not on a concert tour. And no song choice can fix that for him-it’s just the nature of his voice.” Genuinely, I can probably just copy and paste those two sentences each week until he goes home.
The CutKelvins – All four judges stood for them. I wrote a comment simply saying “ARE THEY DEAF?” I still feel that way. It’s unbelievable to me that nobody on the show seems to notice how grating Sheeren’s voice is. Maybe they do notice and don’t care. Regardless, I can’t see them making the top 4.
Rai-Elle Williams – Rai-Elle was Simon’s favorite last Sunday. I don’t think she was stellar but I think she was still good. And that should be enough to get her through to the semi-final.
Holly Tandy – With four acts going home, and the top 5 acts on my list being almost certainly safe, Holly or Rai-Elle will be in trouble. The judges seem much more positive towards Rai-Elle than they seem towards Holly. I like Holly, and she has given some great performances. But she doesn’t have the presence that Rai-Elle has, and that’s going to be a problem. I could be wrong, hell, I’ve been plenty wrong before, but I don’t think I’ll be wrong this time.
Sean and Conor Price – At one point they were second favorites to win. But after a string of mediocre performances, they are clearly the third place group this season. This week was ok, but it wasn’t nearly enough to reverse the trend. I think they’ll be going home this weekend.
Matt Linnen – Matt got great feedback last weekend and he deserved the credit he got. Unfortunately for him, Kevin is way better than him, and I can’t see two acts from either the girls category or the groups category going home this weekend.
Sam Black – Sam made it way further than he should have. He pulled off a true miracle surviving last weekend’s bussing, but with two acts going home each night this weekend, he’s a goner.