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Tag: X Factor USA

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

    X Factor usa recap

    You have to hand it to the X Factor producers. They were able to stretch a show with just three acts left who were performing three times each, all the way up to the two hour mark. They sure stretched that first hour out, getting in just three full performances. But it was good TV.

    One of the things they do well is produce compelling human interest packages. It’s one thing to produce a talent show and it’s another to make people care about things they didn’t know they cared about. And it sounds like they’ll be back next year which is a good thing since this season was so excellent. The question is if Simon Cowell will have the same role that he’s had since the beginning of the US version of the show.

    We’re going to do this a bit differently than we’ve done this season. Who deserves to win? And who is going to win.

    Let’s get to the X Factor USA recap.

    Who should win?

    X Factor USA recap
    Via their Twitter page
    Everyone should know my love for Sierra by now. She’s all that and a bag of chips. While I jokingly say things like Alex doesn’t deserve Sierra and how when they break up I have dibs, he truly is the steak of the group. She’s the sizzle. But from the beginning of this show until now, she’s improved so much that if she were a solo act, I still think she’d be the front runner to win the show. She’s that magnetic.

    They also smartly performed Say Something which reminded everyone how their first performance of the same song was the best performance all season. They reminded folks who was boss.

    Carlito Olivero is the obviously not in the same class of singer that the other two acts are. But does he need to be? He probably doesn’t need to be now that he’s in the final three. I thought it would catch up with him before the finals, but his charisma carried him. He’s also clearly a hard worker. The man nearly sweats as much as James Brown in his prime. It’s all about the female vote. If he kills it with them, he could definitely win. But it doesn’t mean he deserves it.

    Jeff Gutt is also very deserving. I feel like Jeff wins last season running away and gives Melanie Amaro a helluva run on season one. He just has Alex & Sierra in front of him. But he also has a fantastic story. He was too big of a downer for me early on and while he has opened up his personality somewhat, there’s still some dark edges there. Will that hurt him? I think it will.

    I’m leaning Alex & Sierra with Jeff Gutt on their heels when it comes to who should win.

    Who will win?

    I think it comes down to a few things.

    1. Do the female voters love Sierra enough?
    It seems that they do. While the haters may be out there, I haven’t really seen them. I don’t think she did anything to irritate the young female voter on Wednesday, she and Alex are probably okay with the females.

    2. Is Carlito just cooler than everyone else?
    This is still a popularity contest. And you have to admit that Carlito is a cool dude. His performance with Prince Royce on Wednesday’s show wasn’t the greatest performance of all-time, but he looked like he belonged on stage. Now, I don’t really know Prince Royce’s work other than the popular cover of Stand By Me, but Carlito wasn’t overshadowed by him and belonged.

    3. Will Jeff’s tears overcome?
    I’m not sure if this was strategic or not, but Jeff Gutt cried his eyes out. He showed love for his mentor Kelly Rowand by giving her a photo of them together. He was cut previously. He does it for his son. His son gives him inspiration. If you’re looking to vote for someone based on story, Jeff has to be your guy. But to people like me, it came off a little heavy handed and I found myself a slightly lesser fan. It’s not because I’m cold-hearted. It just seemed a bit strategic, even if it wasn’t.

    Measuring all of those things, I still think Alex & Sierra win the entire thing. But if they don’t, I can see Carlito sneaking in. And if he does, we riot.

  • 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.