Saturday, November 9, 2013
The X Factor, fifth live show, review
Big Band Night! The annual occasion when ITV accept that the funky young hipsters they wish still watched X Factor are all out snogging each other in moody bars (in fact, they might even be snogging Kingsland Road on Kingsland Road) and that their core audience is old, tired and partial to a bit of Buble.
And this particular old, tired and Buble-sympathising X Factor viewer and reviewer rather enjoyed it. Even the boring contestants, like Abi Alton, managed to sprinkle a little bit of glitter onto proceedings – if she gets voted off this week, which she probably will, at least she'll have performed That's Life in a beautiful pink vintage dress and, for once, without any lipstick on her teeth.
It seems all that glitter put the judges in a chirpy mood too – for the past few weeks, stocky Essex boy Sam Callahan has been given an exceedingly hard time (because – whisper it – he's not actually very good), but tonight his rendition of Ain't That A Kick In The Head got the kind of comments that nice-but-dim kids find on their school reports: "An A for effort!" pronounced Sharon and Nicole. "Respect for getting up there!" said Gary, through gritted and somewhat patronising teeth.
Meanwhile, Sam Bailey said she "literally melted" when she met Michael Bolton, but thankfully managed to reconstitute herself into a human being to belt out New York New York with her usual ease, and Nicholas McDonald (known as "Baby Buble" to Louis Walsh… and absolutely nobody else) was similarly relaxed – but similarly slightly middle of the road – on Dream A Little Dream.
More exciting to watch were Rough Copy, the only group left in the competition, and one of the few X Factor acts proving themselves to be both fun and talented (plus hearing the crowd chanting "RC! RC! RC!" every week without a hint of self-awareness will never get old), and Luke Friend, the token "rock voice", who did a memorable version of Moondance with what appeared to be a an electronic tag on his ankle, but could also have been a mildew-laden friendship band acquired on the gap year he's too young to have had.
The biggest problem this year could be picking a favourite out of talented teenagers Hannah Barrett, with her loveable, dippy persona and her voice that's good enough to eat, and Tamera Foster, who oozes star quality but lacks warmth. Brace yourselves, as anyone who's been out in their respective hometowns of Croydon and Gravesend after 10pm on a Saturday night will know that things could get seriously RC between them.
Source : http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/568414/s/337fc9bc/sc/38/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Cculture0Ctvandradio0Cx0Efactor0C10A4355530CThe0EX0EFactor0Efifth0Elive0Eshow0Ereview0Bhtml/story01.htm
