X Factor Blog: Will Chris Rene be sent home?

Two weeks into the X Factor USA live shows and some of the kinks from last week have thankfully been ironed out. Last night we were presented with a set of rather impressively polished performances, more so than what one usually sees in a show like this.

The opening slot (often considered the worst one to be in, understandably, by the end it was hard to remember the first couple) was taken by The Stereo Hoggz doing Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation. It was slick! They have improved from their first couple of auditions. Though in saying that, I wouldn’t be fussed if they went home. They don’t interest me much as an act. They were followed up by Chris Rene…wow LA, wrong choice! I don’t get it, vocally he was weak, the song was boring, the performance was boring (no matter how much pointless staging they threw at him). Please America, send him home!

LeRoy Bell was reliably impressive but as with a lot of Nicole’s song choices I felt it missed the mark. It was good, but quite run of the mill. It doesn’t help that I’m Already There by Lonestar sounds like the sort of thing Simon would pick for a winners song. Rachel Crow was adorable as always to watch. She did what Simon tried to pass off as an original take on Walkin’ On Sunshine though he blatantly pilfered it from Gamu Nhengu, an auditionee on UK X Factor last year who was controversially sent home at judges houses…so…not that original, but still cool. Whoever is styling Rachel is doing a great job, she looks awesome!

Lakoda Rayne took on Landslide by Fleetwood Mac and covered by The Dixie Chicks and therefore exactly the sort of song they should be doing. I agreed that their styling was a little off. They looked beautiful, but the whole seasons thing didn’t quite work. In what appeared to be another poor song choice Josh Krajcik was given Jar Of Hearts, and for the first little bit it certainly seemed wrong for him, but he pulled out all the stops in the second half of the song and injected some of his own flair into it. It could have easily gone the other way though in the hands of someone less talented. I stand by my judgement that Nicole is not a very good mentor. Boo Nicole!!

Next up we got, hands down, the best two performances of the night. Melanie Amaro came out with Desperado and it was flawless. I can’t rave about her voice enough. It was, without a doubt the best performance of the night. She was followed by Astro, who was so polished. It didn’t seem like a talent show performance it really didn’t. That boy has some serious talent and amazing stage presence. Fantastic show from him.

InTENsity were actually the best group for me tonight. It shouldn’t work in a talent show setting but they really do. It was a shrewd mashup of Kids In America and Party Rock Anthem as it retained that “Disney” feel but gave it a nice mainstream tone as well. Paula really was the best mentor for this category. She works so well with groups. The last of the girls, Drew was given a similarly shrewd song choice. She was in danger of going to far down that folky singer-songwriter path but Simon gave her Just A Dream by Nelly and she worked it. I love the tone of her voice, it’s wonderful to listen to. She sings so much older than she is.

Marcus Canty got given a song LA wrote himself (how many times are we gonna have to hear that throughout the show I wonder). He was very slick on stage. The man can move! He’s not my favourite in the competition but he deserves to stay definitely. Stacy Francis closed the show with Up To The Mountain, which has already been done in the judges houses stage so I was a little disappointed to see it trotted out here, but listening to Simon’s advice was the right thing to do. It was perfect for Stacy and a fitting closer to the show.

I was genuinely impressed last night as I thought there were very few missteps overall and nearly everyone pulled it out of the bag for a night of great performances. Something you don’t often see on such shows. As I said already, best performance goes to Melanie, and the worst to Chris Rene. I’m having a tough time picking the bottom 2, but I think it will consist of anyone from Chris, The Stereo Hoggz, Lakoda Rayne and LeRoy Bell. I’m avoiding twitter today as I want to find out when I watch tonight.

What did everyone else think? Leave a comment below and let me know!

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