WELCOME TO THE X FACTOR SEMIFINALS! *Drum drum drum cymbal*
Not a joke, but it IS a joke how quickly this day of semifinals has come upon us! We’ve got four good acts left-- Carlito Olivero, the latin lova; Restless Road, the One Direction of country; Alex and Sierra, the love children of Sonny & Cher and Jack Johnson; and Jeff Gutt, the soulful rocker dad.
There is apparently a TON of singing planned for us tonight, as Mario Lopez tells us in his dimply way that each contestant will sing THREE songs each tonight, including duets where contestants must go head to head with each other. WHAT A SITUATION! We better get to recapping now, huh?
The first songs the contestants sing today are audience choices. Carlito’s audience pick is Justin Bieber’s Girlfriend, which renewed my faith in the American public after they voted off Ellona Santiago last week, cause wow, has there ever been a more perfect song chosen for Carlito? I am like a huge Carlito fan all of a sudden. I’m not really sure where it came from, maybe the muscles he’s showing off today or maybe it’s his consistent tenacity every time he has a bad night. He’s still here, god dammit, he’s still here for a reason! The judges flip out about this performance, understandably, and Carlito can’t wipe that big ol’ smile off his face. I wanna see him in the finals.
Restless Road’s audience pick was Luke Bryan’s That’s My Kinda Night, a song which I immediately googled the lyrics to after hearing Restless Road sing the words “catfish dinner.” Performance was good, the arrangement was perfect for them, but Demi Lovato was bored by it and Kelly Rowland was too.
Simon Cowell’s golden children Alex and Sierra are up next, singing Of Monsters and Men’s Little Talks, a song they admitted to not knowing before America chose it for them. With a bizarre staging going on behind them that involved a screen displaying the lyrics to the song in analog style font, they rattled through the beginning of the song but finished on a strong note. Doesn’t really matter wtf Alex and Sierra do because America LOVES them and they LOVE each other and nothing can conquer LOVE, right? Alex and Sierra, as usual, get excellent comments from the judges, and they’re off to get ready for their next song.
Woah at Jeff Gutt’s first performance of the night, though. When I heard the audience pick for Jeff was Hallelujah, I was like “Oh, interesting slash not interesting!” But then once Jeff started to sing it, I was like “Oh, definitely interesting.” As Simon expressed during comments, Jeff’s version of Hallelujah might be his favorite version yet, AND SAME HERE!
Ok, so great first round for all the contestants. Now for the inane “competitive duet” round. Alex and Sierra sing with/against Carlito to the song Falling Slowly and I dunno, both sounded great. Restless Road sang against Jeff Gutt to Every Breath You Take and I dunno, Jeff sounded a bit better. What was the point of this round y’all?!? Oh yeahhh. More airtime for ADS, amiright FOX?!?!
In round three, the contestants sing songs chosen by their mentors. Carlito is up next with I Need To Know by Marc Anthony, probably the last hit song by a Latin American artist that Carlito has NOT covered yet on this show (and by that I mean: there aren’t enough. Carlito needs a recording contract to make more happen!) . Carlito’s energy and vocals sound perty dern gerd, but for me nothing can top his rendition of Boyfriend.
Restless Road sings Hunter Hayes’ Wanted which doesn’t really do it for the judges, and now I’m starting to envision an X Factor finals that does not involved Restless Road for the first time. Could they be the weakest link?!
Simon chooses Sara Bareilles’ Gravity for Alex and Sierra, a genius decision which made even more genius in practice-- what an incredible, incredible performance. Kelly is in tears and babbling about how Sierra is a “strong woman,” Demi is in tears cuz she loves this song, Paulina Rubio isn’t in tears but is trying really hard to be, and Simon is over the moon ecstatic. And as of right now, Alex and Sierra’s version of Gravity is #3 on the iTunes charts, OOOOH YEAH!
Jeff Gutt’s last song is Demons by Imagine Dragons. Good enough performance, but going after what maybeeeee was the greatest performance in X Factor history might hurt his votes a lil.
And there you have it y’all! Day 1 of the semifinals! Rumor has it there’s no sing-off tomorrow on the results show, so I wonder what kinda treat Mario has in store for us?! An elaborate group medley, perhaps? WOO! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxardTOk-M8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1rl7ajXp6I
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