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Tag: Beatrice Miller

  • The X Factor USA Season 2 Top 8 – What You May Have Missed

    Well, at least Mario let us know this time on the Wednesday show that they were eliminating two acts again. He failed to let us know about this last week and it came as a surprise. They’re really speeding through the show to get it done before American Idol comes back. Just based on how many acts are left to eliminate, I think we’re going to see at least one or two more double elimination nights.

    So what happened?

    Like last week, they quickly sent home the lowest vote-getter who turned out to be Arin Ray. It wasn’t much of a surprise as I predicted that he’d be one to go home. But my second prediction wasn’t correct as Paige Thomas went through to next week and she was just as surprised as I was.

    In the bottom three were Emblem3, Beatrice Miller, and CeCe Frey. And one of those three was not like the others. They predictably sent Emblem3 through as they should’ve. It was down to Beatrice and CeCe.

    On Wednesday night, Frey was super-emotional talking about her older sister who passed away from complications of cerebral palsy. Her performance wasn’t good and it was a bit heartbreaking because after her story, you wanted her to do well. But it’s time. She deserves to go.

    Beatrice was good, though I think the show and the opportunity are too big for her. Unlike Carly Rose who seems to be built for this opportunity, Beatrice can’t seem to handle the pressure and the bigness of the show.

    In a terrible strategic move, CeCe decided to sing “Because Of You”. Did Demi’s eyebrows help her choose this one? When your vocals are nowhere near as powerful as Kelly Clarkson, it’s bad meaning bad, not bad meaning good.

    It should’ve been easy money for Beatrice to go through after CeCe’s off-key performance, but she couldn’t keep her composure. She cried throughout the song and vocally wasn’t sharp.

    Who went home?

    LA Reid chose to send home Beatrice and Simon did as well. And it was such a huge mistake. Simon was right in that Beatrice might not be ready for this. But that’s not his job. It’s Britney’s job. If you shape Beatrice up, you can sell her to the masses. No one is ever going to buy a CeCe Frey record. She’s just a terrible, terrible singer.

    What was the voting order?

    1. Carly Rose Sonenclar
    2. Tate Stevens
    3. Vino Alan
    4. Emblem3
    5. Diamond White
    6. Paige Thomas
    7. Fifth Harmony
    8. CeCe Frey

    What does it all mean?

    It shows that Carly Rose is becoming a much better performer. Early on, she was uneasy, but now she’s piling up the votes. Unless someone stumbles, next week looks like CeCe Frey’s last ride. Emblem3 is also creeping up the fan voting as well. If Simon can give them a bit more tenderness, they may get inside that top three and I think Tate Stevens is the one who will fall.

    See you next week.

  • The X Factor USA Top 12 (Again) – What You May Have Missed

    One Direction via Creative Commons

    Wednesday night’s X Factor live show was an improvement over last week’s show. Last week, the acts looked nervous, sounded nervous, and the mentors weren’t on their A games. Now they know their acts a little better and we’ll see more Vino singing soulful stuff and less of him singing wannabe rock.

    If I could describe Wednesday night’s show, like Britney, I would say in one word, it was hot, hot, hot.

    In my recap of the performance show Wednesday night for Popblerd, I opined that CeCe Frey was deserving of being eliminated. She looked like a fish out of water singing a song that she didn’t feel. She should’ve performed more Christina Aguilera.

    As good as Wednesday’s live performance show was, Thursday’s elimination show was all over the map. Instead of saving all the drama for the end, they eliminated someone in the second to last segment. Why? Well, this year, they have a rankings system. At the end of the show, they displayed the order in which the votes came in. Why? They didn’t really explain. I have a theory.

    I think it’s about audience participation. A way to get the ratings and participation up is to get the TV viewers even more attached to their favorites. Before, the voting audience didn’t really know how much their votes counted. They would only know if their favorite left the show and by then, it’d be too late and it’s possible they’d tune out.

    Now, if they see their favorite at the bottom of the pack, they’ll probably vote often and be a bit more invested in the results show which is the lesser rated show every week. But it also begs the question – if they care so much about how the votes were sorted out, why don’t they just eliminate the lowest vote getter instead of making the final two sing off? My guess is that they didn’t really plan it out because even though the audience now knows who is the top vote getter, it’s not like it makes any difference in the competition.

    So what happened?

    Since Diamond White came back to the show on Wednesday, there were thirteen to choose from rather than twelve. After One Direction opened up the show with their catchy song Live While We’re Young, Mario Lopez and Kourtney Kardashian Odom quickly went through the first six acts that made it to next week. One Direction came back to perform again and they quickly named three more who made it to next week.

    That left CeCe Frey, Jason Brock, and the newly named Fifth Harmony. There’s no way that Fifth Harmony deserved to be anywhere near the stench that was CeCe and they happily were pushed through. Thus, we had a quite predictable final two. Jason Brock hasn’t looked comfortable for a guy nicknamed Mr. Entertainment. Last week he was horrendous. This week he was fine, but his look is what may hold him back. The loud jackets and faux hawk aren’t endearing. Vocally, he’s better than CeCe, but she’s a much more interesting character for the show.

    For the mentors, CeCe performed You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me. It was a strong performance, even if it was vocally uneven. She looked determined, but worried. Jason’s performance of Total Eclipse of the Heart was exactly what he needed. It was heartfelt and authentic.

    Having the mentors whose acts are on the chopping block be part of the vote is dumb. Of course Demi wanted to send home Jason and of course LA wanted to send home CeCe. Britney decided that she wanted to send home CeCe and Simon wanted to send home Jason which made it a tie. To break the tie, the lowest vote-getter would be eliminated, which again begs the question, why doesn’t the act with the lowest votes just go home every time? If the mentor voting is dumb and you want the voting audience to feel more invested, why not just put it completely in their hands? Oh, because that’s how American Idol does it. And American Idol still nearly doubles the rating of the X Factor. Okay.

    Who went home?

    America voted wrongly and they hated Jason Brock just a little bit more than they hated CeCe Frey. My man Jason didn’t deserve to leave this early. No way.

    What was the voting order?

    12. CeCe Frey
    11. Arin Ray
    10. Beatrice Miller
    9. Lyric 145
    8. Paige Thomas
    7. Jennel Garcia
    6. Emblem3
    5. Fifth Harmony
    4. Diamond White
    3. Vino Alan
    2. Carly Rose Sonenclar
    1. Tate Stevens

    What does it all mean?

    I think it means that the country demo is hot and heavy for these shows and some of these acts will be singing country next week. But I wouldn’t take these too seriously. It’s clear that Emblem3 is far and away the best act of them all and they came in sixth behind Diamond White who the mentors didn’t even think deserved to be on the show. It also means the acts with an urban sound may be in an uphill battle. But I think we already knew that.