After last week’s lacklustre evening, I was psyched to see what the X Factor would serve up tonight. I was really impressed by the theme, which asked the contestants to uplift us and break our hearts.
Andrew Wishart is the perfect artist for a theme that plays on emotion. However if you don’t get the right song, it’s all going to fall apart. Neon Trees’ “Animal” was the wrong song on so many levels. The song itself is pleasurable, but hearing Andrew deliver it was more than a bit awkward. It also didn’t sit in his vocal sweet spot. Everything was against him, and it showed. Thank god he gets another song to play with.
Again Johnny Ruffo gave us a solid vocal with Ne-Yo’s “So Sick.” As far as sticking to the brief of delivering heartbreak though, he failed. There just wasn’t enough edge or emotion to it, which is probably down to a combination of the wrong song and the wrong performer. I just don’t think he’s got that in him. However he did what he did well.
Reece Mastin delivered the first truly heartbreaking song of the night with “Breakeven.” And considering he’s a young kid who’s probably never had his heart truly broken, I think he did a pretty good job. I certainly felt more watching him than I did on any other performance to that point, and that certainly counts for something. It didn’t quite match the original, but I still really enjoyed it.
When I heard Three Wishez were taking on The Black Eyed Peas “The Time/Dirty Bit” my heart sank. Then I held my ears. I hated when The Black Eyed Peas raped the Dirty Dancing classic, and Three Wishez didn’t make me change my mind. Was this the pleasure or the pain song? They may have received rave reviews, but I loathed every second.
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