THE X FACTOR 10/25/11: Top 17 Performances + *POLL*

Now that the Top 12 have been announced, here are my favorites:

MARCUS CANTY:

• To be honest, my favorite was Phillip Lomax, but since LA CUT him, Marcus is now my favorite guy.  He doesn’t sing the type of music I would BUY, but of the remaining guys, at least he’s a good SINGER.  I’m NOT a fan of rappers, so I can’t back Chris or Astro.  Plus Marcus seems like a good/nice guy.

LAKODA RAYNE:

• Kinda LOVING Lakoda Rayne.  I still can’t believe they WEREN’T a group initially.  Their voices blend SO WELL together, plus they LOOK so good together.  Not to mention I’m loving the country twang.   They were HANDS DOWN my favorite group for sure.  I would totally buy their album.

JOSH KRAJCIK:

• Josh was my favorite guy coming in to this round, and that DEFINITELY HASN’T CHANGED.  Wow.  His performance was SO VULNERABLE and SHOWY.  Great job.  Plus he’s so cute when he’s not singing…when he’s standing there smiling.  I just wish he would change his hair.  If he had a clean cut look, that would make him that much more appealing, imo.  But so far, LOVE HIM.

DREW RYNIEWICZ:

• Drew. Wow. Only 14 years old. AMAZING.  Plus she’s so cute.  I’m just so impressed with how MATURE she is with her singing.  And I LOVE all the lifts she does with her singing.  Plus she can belt.  It’s just…WOW.  Now all we have to do is see her perform a real upbeat song.

MELANIE AMARO:

• Melanie, Melanie…You are definitely the showstopper.  Perfect song choice, albeit a predictable one…but that’s what she does best — power ballads.  She’s got that big booming voice.  Again, what I love about Melanie is her genuineness and humbleness.  That plays a big role in her likability/accessibility to America.  When she broke down at the end of her performance, I just felt for her.  After everything she’s been thru in this competition…now singing last in tonight’s show…Talk about overwhelming.  But she proved why she deserved to be there.

RESULTS:

The results in general were pretty predictable…and overall the right choices EXCEPT for the boys — still think Phillip should’ve stayed.  But the girls group was definitely the TOUGHEST call…mainly because I was worried Simon would keep ONE of those girls JUST to make a point.  But thank goodness he came to his senses!  The one thing about Simon…he DOES listen to AMERICA.  He’s not dumb enough to keep someone just cause HE likes them, but America DOESN’T.  Phew.

Next week’s Top 12 should be a GREAT SHOW!  It’s a great group of contestants!  Can’t wait!

THE X FACTOR 10/13/11: Judges’ Houses – Part I

Tonight was the first of the mentoring sessions with the judges…Each contestant has to perform one on one in front of their judge a song pre-selected by their judge.

Here are the standouts for me from tonight…and I will say overall these contestants impressed me more than I thought they would:

PHILLIP LOMAX Please Don’t Stop The Music:

• Phillip said he totally changed Rihanna’s song…but for me, he really didn’t THAT MUCH.  He only added his “standard twist” to it.  But I really liked it!  It was different and he had a much stronger voice than I thought he had.  Plus how hard must it have been to sing Rihanna’s song RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER?!

LAKODA RAYNE  Born This Way:

• Considering this girl group was PUT TOGETHER by the judges during the audition rounds, they really impressed me!  They had a bit of a tougher road for this performance since they weren’t even familiar with each other to begin with!  They actually sounded great together…they blended really well!  Most likely they will just get better the longer they perform together…and so far they’re the kind of the group where I would actually buy their album.

STACY FRANCIS  Purple Rain:

• Stacy was pretty memorable in the auditions, but I thought tonight’s performance of that famous Prince song was even better.  Her voice was so rich and pure.  Then when she starting belting…HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS!  Wow.  You can tell how MUCH she wants this…

THE ANSER  Perfect:

• Interesting song choice for 3 guys to pick a Pink song.  They really surprised me.  Didn’t expect them to blend so well.  And loved how they passed on the solos/spotlight to each other.  I really liked them.

DREW RYNIEWICZ  It Must’ve Been Love:

• Drew was hands down my FAVORITE tonight.  I LOVE this Roxette song…but once again Drew won me over with her version (like she did with her version of Justin Bieber’s “Baby” during the auditions)!  I can’t BELIEVE she’s ONLY 14 YEARS OLD!  Seriously?!  She has such CONTROL over her voice…and if I’m being honest, when you look at her, you really don’t think a voice like that is going to come out of her.  She kinda has this “teeny ditzy girl” look to her.  But once she starts singing, she really is so natural, comfortable and confident.  The performance really was so simple…but the things she did with her voice (all the little lifts, falsetto)…not to mention she was so vulnerable…AMAZING.  I was actually quite blown away.  LOVED IT.

THE X FACTOR 9/28/11

Here are just to two standout moments for me from last night’s auditions:

• Umm, I seriously did not take this girl seriously during her intro piece.  I thought she was just a typical Bieber groupie who just wanted to be on TV so that she could get closer to Justin Bieber.  AND she said she was going to sing Justin’s song “Baby” for her audition?  COME ON.  BUT once she started singing, I was like…OH WOW.  She sounded good!  AND she made that song her own!  AND she did it in front of LA Reid, who signed Justin Bieber!  GREAT JOB!

This wasn’t really an audition moment, but it was pretty awesome.  Simon Cowell criticized this one girl’s audition and compared it to “Nicole Scherzinger’s first audition as a 20 year old wannabe.”  Well Nicole did NOT like that.  And I don’t blame her.  Simon was basically saying that Nicole can’t sing and all she is is someone nice to look at who can dance.  I know/have read that Nicole really does thing of herself as a SINGER first and foremost, so I know it annoyed/offends her when ppl think she’s basically just eye candy…

So in response to Simon’s comment, Nicole did an impromtu “audition,” singing Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You.  It was quite an awesome moment!  Good for you Nicole!  Show them how it’s done!