web analytics

Pop Rock Nation

Tag: Simon Cowell

  • The X Factor USA Season 2 Top 6 – What You May Have Missed

    I’m thoroughly confused about the elimination show. Is every show from here on out a double elimination night? Was it planned like this? Or are they making it up as they go? Don’t they know it’s utterly unfair for the person who finishes third from the bottom to have a chance to be eliminated?

    By the way, there’s a reason why American Idol is still the top show in this genre. While they change it up from time to time, we know exactly what hand they’re playing every elimination show. Ryan Seacrest has clear instructions with everything they’re doing. I feel like the folks behind the X Factor don’t know what they’re doing until they do it.

    So what happened?

    They immediately went to the first elimination and America’s fascination with CeCe Frey continues even though she’s the worst contestant to get this far in a competition since Sanjaya. I’m not sure CeCe has even sung in key yet. She can continue to go on as long as no one who has a chance to win the competition leaves before she does. And I think there are only three acts who can win. I list them at the bottom.

    Paige Thomas received the lowest number of votes and was booted. She was fairly calm and even said she was moving onto bigger and better things. Really? Bigger than X Factor?

    Alicia Keys also performed and to me, Katniss Everdeen will always be the girl on fire. Quit biting Alicia!

    The final two came down to Diamond White and Vino Alan. You can put that one on LA Reid. There’s no way that Vino Alan should’ve been in that spot. LA made a last second song choice change that resulted in Vino giving his worst performance of the season after being ranked highly during every week before. Diamond looked awkward last night clearly not wanting to dance, but having to at least give the old middle school try.

    Who went home?

    Following Paige “Bigger And Better Things” Thomas out the door was … VINO ALAN!

    Diamond performed “I Was Here” from Beyonce’s latest album. It was a fairly boring performance, but then again, it’s a pretty boring song even when Beyonce sings it. Vino performed “Trouble”, which was one of the songs he did early in the auditions. If you were basing the entire elimination on this performance, Vino wins.

    You knew that Demi would vote Vino out. She and Britney seem to be slightly intimidated by him even though he’s a big teddy bear on stage. And when Simon eliminated him rather than Diamond, you had to think that maybe, he was sticking it to LA just a bit. In the end, Diamond is probably more marketable because of her appeal to kids, but for this show on this week, Vino was better.

    What was the voting order?

    1. Carly Rose Sonenclar
    2. Tate Stevens
    3. Emblem3
    4. Fifth Harmony
    5. CeCe Frey
    6. Diamond White

    What does it all mean?

    Even though she was Carly Yawn Sonenclar on Wednesday’s show, Carly Rose has figured this thing out. Early on, she was so robotic like she was doing an impression of Vicki impression from “Small Wonder”. But she’s absolutely figured out the stage presence thing. She may be unstoppable because she also has the best voice.

    I think the top three acts are the only acts who can win the show. I would love to see Emblem3 move Tate Stevens out of his second spot so they can challenge Carly Rose for the top spot. I think they have some tricks up their sleeve.

  • 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 Season 2 Top 10 – What You May Have Missed

    Via Creative Commons
    The Thursday elimination show is now one of the weirdest on television.

    Because the popularity rankings are now the most important part of the show (and I’m not sure why), they sped through the eliminations. Yes, I said eliminations. They did two of them. I find it a bit unfair to do two eliminations, which unless I simply wasn’t paying attention on Wednesday, were unannounced. And it shows a major flaw when they do double eliminations.

    What makes the X Factor different from American Idol (and I don’t watch The Voice, so I have no idea what they do) is that rather than eliminating by true popular (or non-popular) vote, they take the two least vote getters and have them sing off. The mentors get to choose who they’d like to eliminate. I think it works well generally.

    But instead, since they had to eliminate two acts, they allowed the popular vote to completely eliminate the first act. The act that received the least amount of votes just went home at the start of the show without a chance to sing (or rap) for their lives. Yet, the acts that finished second and third least popular were able to sing for their lives and the mentors chose who stayed on the show. Lyric 145, while I wasn’t a huge fan, you got did and did hard. It was completely unfair.

    By the way, I predicted that Lyric 145 may have hurt themselves because of what I perceived as rudeness from Lyric Da Queen on Wednesday. I’m still not sure what happened on Wednesday, but they were unfairly treated on Thursday.

    So what happened?

    After Lyric 145 were rudely sent home, there were two more acts that needed to be put up to get chopped down. When it was announced that Cece Fray was safe, she couldn’t believe it and was in the middle of laughing and crying. Demi was so happy for her.

    In the midst of all this, Taylor Swift performed State Of Grace. I know this is the new single, but I so badly wanted to hear We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together for the one-millionth time.

    (By the way, I’m still waiting for someone to blend Outkast’s Ms. Jackson with Swift’s song so when Taylor sings, “We! Are never, ever, getting back, together,” Andre 3000 can then come in with, “Never ever, ever ever?” That would be golden.)

    The elimination came down to Paige, Jennel, and Fifth Harmony. I think they just did that to screw with Simon. There was no way Fifth Harmony was going home. Both performances were bland, but Jennel’s was much more bland. She performed The Reason and tried to add some showy vocals, but it didn’t work. And then Paige performed Paradise which didn’t set the world on fire either.

    But there was a difference in performances. Jennel looked really scared and beaten while Paige had some stage presence and always gives off a look of a diva in dispair. I think voters will get tired of that look down the line, but it works for her now. She cares and cares a lot.

    Who went home?

    Out of the two, I think America got it right. Jennel needs some seasoning. Her vocals are really good and better than Paige’s, but she’s missing something. Paige stayed and Jennel went home.

    There was an odd ending to the elimination though. I think Simon was just pulling rank, but after LA and Britney chose Jennel for their elimination pick, it was Simon’s turn. If he was to vote out Jennel, Demi wouldn’t have to say anything. But if he chose Paige, Demi would have to pick. He threw a stubborn fit and didn’t want to give out his selection before Demi. And as it turned out, there was no need for Demi to have said anything because Demi chose Paige to go home and Simon then chose Jennel. So he did it just to make Demi have to play bad guy with one of the acts that she’s been mentoring all season? Dick move, Cowell, dick move.

    What was the voting order?

    1. Tate Stevens
    2. Carly Rose Sonenclar
    3. Vino Alan
    4. Emblem3 (+2)
    5. CeCe Frey (+7)
    6. Fifth Harmony (-1)
    7. Diamond White (-3)
    8. Beatrice Miller (+2)
    9. Arin Ray (+2)
    10. Paige Thomas

    What does it all mean?

    The top three stayed exactly the same. People love them some old dudes. And Carly Rose’s voice is connecting with fans even though it doesn’t seem her personality is, but maybe that is connecting too. CeCe Fray makes the huge jump which has to be the pity vote because I thought she was terrible again on Wednesday. And Diamond White takes the biggest fall, which means Britney may have to stop putting her out there to do what is pretty much the same song over and over again.

    Seacrest out! Whoops. Mario Lopez out! Or, how about this one? Khloe Kardashian Odom out!