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Tag: X Factor USA recap

  • The X Factor USA Recap: Season 3 – And Then There Were 4

    X Factor usa recap

    If someone told you that Carlito was in someway related to the producers of this show, you wouldn’t be THAT surprised right?

    I wasn’t even sure that he was good enough to be part of the top 16 and here he is in the top four. Carlito’s ascension to the final four (and really, Restless Road too) shows a fatal flaw with these singing shows. It’s a man’s world thanks to the voting demographics. Out of the four acts left, one woman is left and she’s part of a duo. Now, I think we all agree that Sierra is the greatest thing since sliced Wonder bread, but I thought two of the best singers in the competition were Ellona Santiago and Lillie McCloud. And one of the best stories in the history of this genre was Rion Page, who can also sing. And yet they’re all gone.

    We see the same thing happen on American Idol. If you’re a half-handsome Caucasian young man, you have a great shot at winning that show. If you’re a woman, you have to really wail hard to win the show.

    Tonight, each act performed three times including a competitive duet. And yes, with just four acts left, they still made us sit through two hours.

    Let’s get to the X Factor Usa Recap for season 3.

    Performances of the night

    Well, you could’ve picked any Alex & Sierra performance. But since they have their own section below, I’ll add the best performance from someone else.

    Even though we’ve heard this song on just about every season of every singing show, I still have to go with Jeff Gutt’s version of Hallelujah. It’s not the best cover you’ve heard. But it was an excellent one.

    Props as well to Carlito Olivero for his version of ‘NSYNC’s Girlfriend. It was a song chosen by the audience and it worked perfectly for him as it opened the show.

    Dud of the night

    There was only one performance that looked out of place on this show, which was yet another strong show. I think Restless Road has been riding on their own coattails of their first few weeks. They haven’t evolved and they’ve been passed by. Their version of Luke Bryan’s That’s My Kind of Night was simply boring in comparison to the rest of the performances on Wednesday.

    Rank

    If I were to rank the competitors at this point, here’s how I’d rank them (with their Twitter handles if anyone cares):

    4. Restless Road
    3. Carlito Olivero
    2. Jeff Gutt
    1. Alex & Sierra

    Alex and Sierra

    X Factor USA recapAs you can see, I moved Alex & Sierra to the front of my ranking. Initially, I thought they were a bit gimmicky, but in these past few weeks, they’ve proven to be legit. And, man Sierra.

    Either of their three performances could be the best performance of the evening. But I’ll choose their first performance. This was also a fan’s choice. They performed Little Talks by Monsters and Men. It wasn’t quite Say Something (which went number 1 on iTunes for a short time last week), but damn, these two are good.

    Have I mentioned that Sierra is fine?

    Who goes home?

    It would be near criminal to not have a Jeff Gutt vs. Alex & Sierra final two. Carlito is decent, but his time has come. You can’t have the guy who continually says he’s getting better every week win the show. Restless Road bores me. So it’s not just a creative name.

    I think Restless Road goes home tomorrow. And this time, the judges have nothing to do with it. It’s all based on the fan vote.

  • The X Factor USA Recap: Season 3 – And Then There Were 6

    X Factor usa recap

    Sometimes, I’m pretty good at this.

    At the end of last week’s show, I predicted that Josh Levi and Carlito Olivero (who I always pick) would be the two going home. But my sleeper pick was Lillie McCloud. If this were an actual singing contest instead of a popularity contest, McCloud is a shoe-in for the final three and possibly wins. But that’s not what this is. Early on, her story was strong. She’s a grandmother who looks twenty years younger than her age who had a music dream that was lost and this was her comeback.

    I felt that they started to lose interest in her. Much of the voting on shows like this is heavily influenced by the production. It seemed like there was less and less attention to Lillie’s story. Was it by design? Who knows. But I do think that they started paying less attention to her and thus, because of it, one of the best voices on the show can go home very early in the ball game.

    It’s time for this week’s X Factor USA recap. Each act performed two songs so they could make sure to keep us in front of the TV for two hours like always. The first song was a diva song, which seemed to be there so that guys would have to perform powerful songs by female artists. The second, and better song for most, was the unplugged performance.

    Performances of the night

    It was yet another strong night, but I’ll keep it at my favorite two.

    My favorite performance of the night was by Rion Paige, who has taken this show by storm. Her first song was a Carrie Underwood cover and she made a lot of ugly faces in the performance. But her second song was Glass by Thompson Square. It was the perfect touch of emotion and vocals I’ve seen so far on this season. Tremendous.

    What was my second favorite performance? Well, I’m biased toward Sierra (and really, this groups should be called Sierra & Alex rather than Alex & Sierra), but this time, I didn’t have to be. I enjoyed both of their performances. They did Destiny’s Child’s Say My Name which was fun, but their second performance was mean. It’s a song I hadn’t heard of until today called Say Something by A Great Big World. Sierra went behind the piano and you could tell she was nervous and her hands were shaking. But she delivered, Alex brought the chops, and it was magnificent.

    Have I mentioned that Sierra is fine?

    Duds of the night

    Duds have been hard to find these days. I’d say the worst song choice was Ellona Santiago’s If I Were A Boy. The irony of that song is that if Beyonce were a boy, she’d be about 1/10th as famous as she is.

    I don’t mean to pick on Carlito Olivero, but Let’s Get Loud was probably the worst performance of the night.

    Who are the front runners?

    If I were to rank the competitors at this point, here’s how I’d rank them (with their Twitter handles if anyone cares):

    6. Carlito Olivero
    5. Restless Road
    4. Alex & Sierra
    3. Ellona Santiago
    2. Jeff Gutt
    1. Rion Page

    Alex and Sierra

    For the second week in a row, I’ve given them their own section. You can watch their performance that I described above:

    Have I mentioned that Sierra is fine?

    Who goes home?

    Two go home again. One of them has to be Carlito right? If he doesn’t go, I think the show is worse off next week. There’s another act that’s set to go home next week and while I think it should be Restless Road, I think their fans will save them. (By the way, I thoroughly enjoyed Emblem3 last year and haven’t yet looked forward to watching Restless Road.) I think it could be between Jeff and Ellona. I’ll say that Ellona goes home as a surprise.

  • The X Factor USA Recap: Season 3 – And Then There Were 8

    X Factor usa recap

    Last weekend’s vote was a surprise for me. I’ll admit that Khaya Cohen was stiff, but vocally, there’s no way she should’ve been eliminated yet. And while I was the opposite of a Tim Olstad fan, I don’t think he should’ve left the show before Carlito Olivero. However, since that last elimination was a mentor vote based on the sing-off, I guess it was Tim’s own fault he left earlier.

    But so far, out of all the voices, the only voice eliminated who could’ve actually won this show was Cohen, so I guess we’re doing a good job at keeping the right voices on the show.

    It’s time for the X Factor USA recap.

    Performances of the night

    I’ve never been a Jeff Gutt fan. I’ve always found him too pouty, too depressed and overly dramatic. But, with his performance of Feeling Good, he finally won me over. The guy is a single dad with a great story, but until that performance, I felt like he was pretending. That dude is real now.

    Ellona Santiago may have tied Jeff for my favorite performance of the night with Mamma Knows Best. She’s a vocal powerhouse. Just watch.

    Duds of the night

    Once again, there wasn’t really a dud on the show. I may have to change the title of this portion of the post. If I were to rank the bottom two, it’d probably be Carlito Olivero and Josh Levi. And yet, both performances were the two strongest of each so far. They just aren’t as strong as the rest of the competition.

    Who are the front runners?

    After tonight, it’s definitely Ellona. She was the favorite of each mentor. Rion Paige is also having a heck of a competition. Her performance of Swingin’ opened the show strongly. She looked super nervous and then by the end, was rocking out. She’s really the heart of this show, which counts.

    Alex and Sierra

    I have decided to discuss them (well, specifically my new wife Sierra) each week as long as they’re around. How adorable is Sierra? So what if Alex sings better than her? Sierra’s the money behind the act. And yes, even with boring Alex, they are who I’m rooting for.

    They also had the most creative choice, doing a big band version of Taylor Swift’s I Knew You Were Trouble. While I don’t think it worked 100%, it was pretty ballsy. And yes, Sierra rocked it.

    Who goes home?

    It has to be Carlito right? Or will his fans vote for him in droves because they saw how vulnerable he was last week. I’d also worry about Josh. An outside chance to leave this thing is Lillie McCloud even though I really enjoy her.