X Factor Blog: Rihanna, Enrique and Pharrell pop in to the judges houses

Judges houses! After a brief delay due to a bit of rain in the USA (well timed to as I was busy on Thursday night) X Factor resumed last night with the first judges houses show. The acts have finally been split into their respective categories and sent off to the perform for their mentors at their homes (yeah…right, their own homes) and have their last shot at making it through to the live rounds.

Each judge was assisted by a celebrity guest from the music industry to help them make their choices. Nicole had the assistance of Enrique Iglesias who tried to relate to the over’s by talking about what it’s like for him being over 30 and in the biz. Of course he is assisted in his career by the fact that he looks 21 and is a perfect specimen of physical beauty, none of the auditionees have that advantage. LA Reid was assisted by Rihanna who clearly must have an album coming out soon as we heard three of her songs performed throughout the show. Paula drew the short straw a little and landed Pharrell who might have been more exciting back in 2004 but, not so much now. Simon was meant to be assisted by Mariah Carey, but alas she was grounded by a hurricane. Shame, I would love to have seen her wander out in a t-shirt and start handing the contestants popsicles. As it was, Simon had to go it alone.

I did love the moment when the over’s found out Nicole was their mentor. It was a bit of a reverse of when she found out last week. This is not a match made in heaven, they didn’t want her and she didn’t want them. It’s a shame as she has some real talent in her category and I hope she does give it 100% like she promised.

Brian Bradley was first up. He is definitely talented. He’s got a golden ticket to the live rounds whatever happens as LA loves the boy. Rihanna practically wanted to pull an Angelina and adopt him then and there. I enjoyed his performance, though I’m not a huge rap fan so not sure how many weeks I could take of what I would basically see as the same thing over and over again.

Simone Battle doesn’t really deserve to be at this stage of the competition. She did not do nice things to Your Song last week and her “I’m so unique, there’s no one like me in music today” thing was old right from the start. There’s tons of girl’s like her in the music industry! She toned herself down a little this week (though not in her choice of outfit…wha??) and did Help by The Beatles. It’s a whole lotta ok.

Over to Nicole and Dexter Haygood. Forgive me, but I find him entertaining. He’s not a terrible singer, but alas tends to come across as one. His version of Beyonce’s Crazy In Love was pretty bad, but still entertaining. I kinda wanna see him go through…but get voted out in the first week. Then we won’t have to constantly listen to the “I was homeless…skid row…boo hoo” story every single week.

Skyelor Anderson was…average…I don’t get why he’s here. He has a capable voice but he better not go any further than this. The Brewer Boys took on Only Girl In The World by Rihanna and were awful. Please oh please let them stop here as I cannot take one more performance like that from them. Bad karaoke. Newly formed pop-country girl group Lakoda Rayne (who have really grown and become like sisters so fast…blah blah blah, sure you have) do an ok version of Born This Way but came across very much as 4 solo singers singing together, as a group they have a lot of work to do.

Stacey Francis and Elaine Gibbs both gave great performances. Stacey of Purple Rain and Elaine of Stop Crying Your Heart out. They are quite similar performers though and I think Nicole will take only one…which of course will be Stacey. I just hope we aren’t going to have to deal with a barrage of tears after EVERY performance.

Philip Lomax is one of my favourites, I definitely want him to go through. I like the whole rat pack shtick and I enjoyed his take on Please Don’t Stop The Music (in front of Rihanna herself no less). Similarly impressive for me were both Caitlin Koch and Drew Ryniewicz. I love listening to them sing! I want them both through to live shows.

We are just one more show away from finding out our final contestants. I’m curious to know what other people think and who they wanna see go through, so leave some comments. I think it’s gonna be a girls or an over’s win this year. The talent in both groups is, for the most part, stunning. It’ll be a nail biting show come Monday!

A special catch up episode of X Factor screens on TV3, Monday at 7.30pm

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