The X Factor – Live Show 5
By Ross Levy at 7:41 pm on November 11th, 2009. Printer friendly version.
This weekend, the remaining 8 acts of ITV’s The X Factor battled it out once more in a movie themed week. With the series so far already producing some twists in the tale was this week going to end like an actual movie?
X Factor
Stacey Solomon got the clapperboard clicking this week. Last week she proved to judge Simon Cowell she could actually move on stage, her previous performances being quite static, and this week the solo-artist was adamant to do the same. Singing Son Of A Preacher Man, the well known hit by Dusty Springfiled and from the movie Pulp Fiction the performance was classed as “sexy,” by her mentor, Dannii Minogue, and it seemed that one of the public’s favourite’s had produced yet another acclaimed performance.
And acclaimed performances is just what the next contestant has been having a lot of recently. Olly Murs has been going from strength to strength and has impressed all four judges of late. This week, with movie themed week presenting a fairly wide range of song choices, he and his mentor decided they were going to go for some fun. Accompanied by some dizzying fancy footwork Olly sung The Isley Brothers’ hit Twist And Shout, the song coming from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Although judge Louis Walsh was not particularly keen on his fancy footwork, nor was he keen on the song choice itself, the performance rocked the audience, the four judges’ barely able to speak due to the thunderous applause that followed.
Cheryl Cole, mentoring the boys category this year, has lost one of her acts this year so far in Rikki Loney. The pub singer was booted off on week 2 but since then Cheryl has been without loss. This form came under severe scrutiny though last week, teenage heart throb Lloyd Daniels being plummeted into the bottom two yet coming out tops in the end. Lloyd hadn’t received sensational praise from the judge’s so far, Louis Walsh not to keen on the youngster along with Simon Cowelll and this week their opinions did not seem to change, his rendition of Stand By Me, from the film Stand By Me sadly not quite forcing the judges’ to all stand by Lloyd. However, it had already been established that Lloyd has quite the fan base-was this to see him through for another week.
As we reached the half way stage of the weekend’s performances it was time to head back to the Over 25s category, mentored by Cowell who has not had a single act eliminated from the competition so far. Before his next act, Jamie Archer, took to the stage as per usual we saw a VT highlighting quite a troubled week for the two, un-able to agree on a song choice. Despite this Jamie took to the stage singing Crying from the film Gummo. This not delighting Louis Walsh though, who once again classed it as “cheating,” as Gummo is not the most well known film in the world. Simon was obviously not delighted by the comments that he faced from Louis after a performance he gave yet another standing ovation to.
In fact, Simon Cowell had given a certain amount of praise last week to eighteen year old Lucie Jones. The teenager from Wales, who had perhaps found her comfort zone last week with a rocking performance, and her mentor Dannii Minogue decided to keep it on the same path as that acclaimed performance of Sweet Child O’Mine and this week she sung This Is Me from the Disney film Camp Rock, a real favourite with the youngsters. Louis Walsh too seemed impressed, rating Lucie to possibly be the last girl standing in this year’s competition.
However, it had been a very turbulent week for primary teacher Danyl Johnson last week. The strong favourite of the show who has had incredibly mixed reviews so far was dubbed looking un-confident on the stage, this following a sing-off the week before. Movie Week though held a great opportunity for the over 25 to get things back on track. With his performance of well known hit song Purple Rain, sung many a times before on The X Factor, from the film Purple Rain he managed to sway over the opinion of judge Cheryl Cole who had previously though him cocky and un-comfortable. This performance also accomplished to receive great comments from his mentor Simon Cowell who once again underlined his view that he thought Danyl was one of the best singer’s in this years competition.
John and Edward have, and it is completely fair to say this at this fifth stage of the competition, split the nation. With their high-powered performances along with some disputed vocals their mentor Louis Walsh has very much been backing the Irish duo and so far, despite negative comments especially from Simon and Dannii, they have managed to avoid the dreaded bottom two. With movie week now hosting a huge potential for another energy-filled performance they decided to take on the theme tune from Ghostbusters, a very well known song that has been mimickly covered quite a few times. It came as a great surprise to the duo then, when they had finished performing, that they had managed to sneak a smile onto the face of Simon Cowell who has previously not had anything good to say to the twins who have adopted the public name of Jedward. Cowell also stated it was “Sort of…good!” a great sign for the last remaining group.
