Oh, and Jason going home? Shocker! Not.
Onwards...
Top 12 (for reals this time): Divas!
Jannel Garcia
Last week: #7 - "Proud Mary" by Ike & Tina Turner
Vocally, I didn't love this performance. The song didn't sit consistently right in Jannel's voice... not a terrible fit, but not as good as it could be. But the performance as a whole? Fantastic.
Tate Stevens
Last week: #1 - "From this Moment" by Shania Twain
Like my criticism of "A Thousand Years" last week, the beauty of this song is in it's simplicity... which was completely lost in the translation from female solo to male solo. Though that said, this was a good performance. Not as good as the judges are making it out to be, but good stuff.
Diamond White
Last week: #4 - "Already Gone" by Kelly Clarkson "Halo" by Beyonce
The worst thing for Diamond was to show she could belt that one time. Now, she's given these giant vocal ballads that she absolutely cannot handle... Whitney last week, Beyonce this week. C'mon now. Pitch problems throughout, and the power wasn't there consistently. Naturally, this isn't discussed by the judges, but it does sound drastically different live, absolutely. Can we get something age-appropriate next week, Brit?
Beatrice Miller
Last week: #10 - "Time After Time" by Cyndi Lauper
Zzzz.... It seems to me that Britney has a little trouble picking out songs for Beatrice. She's a hard one to figure.
Lyric 145
Last week: #9 - "E.T." by Katy Perry / "We Will Rock You" by Queen
My head hurts. I think it's from Lyric 145 yelling at me in conjunction with obnoxious strobe lights. And it's all sad, as I've enjoyed Lyric 145 thus far. Also, the group ignoring the judges, shouting out to the crowd over the critiques? That makes them come off even worse.
Arin Ray
Last week: #11 - "Crazy for You" by Madonna
There's an inherent danger when you strip a performance down, leaving a performers vocals the star of a particular performance. That danger was fully realized here... as Arin isn't a great vocalist. That was as a borderline trainwreck. Ouch.
Paige Thomas
Last week: #8 - "Last Dance" by Donna Summer
Holy trainwreck, Batman! I don't understand a word coming out of the judge's mouths. I don't think I could find a redeeming quality in that performance if I tried... everything was atrocious. Ho boy.
Fifth Harmony
Last week: #5 - "Hero" by Mariah Carey
All of Fifth Harmony's performances are exactly the same... trade solos, add harmony, call it a day. Also, that's how One Direction operates. Coincidence? Not at all. This, like last week's, turned a relatively simple song into something much more complicated... but this week, it worked. It's a Mariah song... subtlety isn't a concern. The chick in the middle, though... trainwreck on the massive key change. Good thing there was WAY too much production and wailing going on to really notice...
Carly Rose Sonenclar
Last week: #2 - "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion
On one hand, when the song got real big at the end, the performance got a bit messy. But on the other hand... that was fantastic. Normally I get annoyed by the judges playing the "OMG, YOU AREN'T REALLY HOW YOUNG YOU SAY YOU ARE!", but I completely agree with them. I would *never* guess Carly was 13. Never.
Vino Alan
Last week: #3 - "Let's Stay Together" by Tina Turner
Tina Turner did a cover of this... so it's a diva song, I guess. Whatever. Either way, this was a boring, overdone performance. Once again, there's no subtlety in Vino's voice, so the softer parts of the song just don't work.
Emblem3
Last week: #6 - "No One" by Alicia Keys
I'm going to sound like Simon here: if Emblem3 were to release that to the radio today, it would be a big, big hit. That is probably the first time all season where I can honestly say that about an performance on the show... but it really is true.
CeCe Frey
Last week: #12 - "All By Myself" by Celine Dion
You know, through the first half of the song, I though CeCe was making it work. Painful song choice, trite production... but then the wind machine started up, CeCe started shrieking, pitch went out the window, voices started cracking... ho boy. The train went off the cliff.
Predictions
Since apparently this is the season of the leaderboard on XFUSA... I'll come up with my own rankings. These are my rankings based on tonight alone.
- Emblem3
- Fifth Harmony
- Carly Rose Sonenclar
- Jannel Garcia
- Tate Stevens
- Beatrice Miller
- Diamond White
- Vino Alan
- Lyric 145
- Paige Thomas
- Arin Ray
- CeCe Frey
I really want to like CeCe Frey. I do... but she's kind of a trainwreck. She'll almost surely be gone... as for the second person to be eliminated this week, I can easily see it being Arin Ray or Paige Thomas. Or even Lyric 145. All four deserve it after tonight's performances.
