X Factor Blog: It’s getting to the business end!

Boot camp is over. The 32 acts progressing to judges houses have been selected…with, admittedly, few surprises. Last nights show was pretty by the numbers. A last little push to highlight the real standouts and separate those off who were merely “quite good”.

Firstly we had to finish the mildly awkwardly put together group performances from Thursdays show. I must say I did love the blink and you’d miss flashes of two of the groups which basically said to us “you don’t even need to know who’s in these groups, you’ll never see them again”.

To be frankly honest, none of the group performances tonight were particularly notable, and the ones doing Snow Patrol’s Chasing Cars were pretty awful. I felt a tad sorry for Ma’at in the Marvin Gaye group, she was cute, and talented, but unfortunately for her the position of frizzy haired cute 12 year old has already been filled in all of our eyes. Rachel Crow does it way better. I still don’t see why so much song and dance over Chris Rene. He’s ok, but his voice never particularly impresses me.

Once again a third are cut in a big “thanks, but sorry” moment. Considering I recognized virtually none of the faces in that group it wasn’t overly heart-wrenching.

The final challenge for bootcamp is a straight out solo performance by each contestant (or group) from a list of 35 songs. They get to pick whichever one best represents them as an artist and perform it in front of the judges and a packed crowd.

Rachel Crow, considering her age, did a damn good rendition of If I Were A Boy and clearly secured her position in the next stage of the competition. The cutesy shtick would be gratingly annoying if she wasn’t so talented to back it up. Tiger Budbill and Josh Krajcik both did very worthy performances, with Josh once again really impressing me. He doesn’t look like a star but by god he sounds like one. My only niggle is that the way they keep attributing songs to the wrong artists. Up To Mountain was sung by Kelly Clarkson on Idol a couple of years back, but it’s not her song! Ah well. What can you do?

Most acts are opting to completely rearrange well known songs, putting their own spin on them…they shouldn’t. Simon throws a hissy over it after several dodgy ones (Simone Battle, you butchered Elton John, may you never be forgiven!). Siameze Floyd thankfully put the final nail in his coffin with a note that I can only call unholy! I was worried because Paula kept pushing for him to go through, but even she can’t argue for him after that performance.

Stacey Francis did an emotionally wrought version of Summertime and revealed for the first time that her father died on her first day at bootcamp, and while I’m not one to be swayed by sob stories I did feel sorry for her, and she poured everything into that performance. While no one has doubted from the very beginning that she’d go through this far, I feel she’s earned it.

So after all this and some tense shots of the judges arguing over people we find out our final 32 going through to judges. As I said before, few surprises really. Siameze is cut thank goodness. Stacey is called last in the over’s category (she looked worried waiting there). The only thing notable was only 6 groups were called, but if you’ve ever watched the UK version you’ll know what’s going on. 14 contestants are brought back on from the rejected soloists/groups and formed into two separate new groups, a 4 piece girl group and it seems a 10 person…I don’t know what…Disney/Glee rip off? If they make it through judges houses what’s the bet their first number is Don’t Stop Believing.

Our final news of the night is finding out which categories each judge is mentoring. I got 50% in my predictions yesterday. LA got boys, Paula got groups. Simon however got the girls and looked very pleased. Who else loved Nicole’s really thinly veiled disappointment at getting the over 30’s, that “reeeeeeeeeeeeally” was a wee bit of a giveaway. It was like she was opening a Christmas present and saying “oh Grandma, yes, socks, just what I wanted…so useful and practical, and the colours, yes, I won’t wear them now, I’ll save them for a special occasion”. Not to sound a little bit bitter and childish…but Cheryl totally woulda got the girls if she’d been a judge still…

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