lizziec | I'd Do Anything (Live Shows Week 4)

Jodie: Ooh, she just got engaged. Cool :D Pity about the song choice. After last week's sublime "Send in the Clowns", this weeks 9 to 5 was disappointing. She pulled it off well (in tune and in time, and she tried to act it), but oh, to have those show tunes back.

Samantha: Not in tune for at least part of it. I can see she was trying for emotion, but parts of it just felt over the top, but it seemed to work on those in the studio, so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.

Ashley: Seemed to struggle with dancing and singing at the same time, definite tuning problems there. Definitely not her best performance, though possibly struggling from an odd song choice.

Niamh: Another ballad this week. Trying to decide if this is preferential treatment for Niamh, as she carries them off fairly well, but most of Nancy's part involves up tempo songs with singing and dancing, so although it was a good technical performance I really have my doubts about Niamh as Nancy.

Keisha: Tuning all over the place. I didn't feel any connection/emotion with the song. Seemed to get shouty after the key change. I suspect she'll be in the bottom two again this week (unless the public love this song enough to save her this week). Not a good performance at all in my opinion - though the panel disagree with me. (My original notes for this performance read nothing more than Oh no. No no no. Please no. I hate this song.. As a consequence I had to watch it again. Talk about Karma.)

Jessie: A good technical performace and she can at least sing up tempo and dance at the same time, but the singing out of the corner of her mouth thing is starting to annoy me, and her crumbling in acting tasks is rather concerning given the amount of acting she will need to do as Nancy.

Sarah: This was a lovely performance, in tune and in time, so I don't think she'll be going home this week. Not sure about the dyed hair though.

Francesca: Hair scrunch, nose scrunch and nod (or shake of the head) still making up her "song acting" and it's really irritating me, but not as much as her pitch problems, which surfaced again (which is especially concerning when she said she'd been practising all week), and if anything rules her out of being Nancy it will be that in my book (though she also seemed to have vocal power problems too this week, which I haven't noticed other weeks).

Rachel: I liked this performance, and it seemed like a good way to end the show. John Barrowman was wrong when he said everyone thinks of Barbara Streisand when they hear the song by the way - I think of Doris' audition in the Fame film. I preferred the Fame performance to Rachel's, but it was still a good performance, though I struggle to get any stronger comment than "nice" (which possibly isn't good).

Hurrah! Kwayedza is through to the Semis. He's my favourite Oliver, and I'm genuinely happy he's through :D

Interesting that ALW criticised song choices again this week - I'd assumed he had a hand in it, in which case why choose those songs if they will not help the girls show Nancy, and if he doesn't have a hand in it, then he needs to have a word with the people who do, as this is the second week in a row (at least) that he has mentioned it as a problem.

Cross posted to

nancy_or_oliver

[Edit - Sunday] Good grief, the costumes for Viva Las Vegas were awful! The Olivers redeemed the results show with "I'll Be There" though, in my opinion :)

Anyway, on to the results:

The panel had its knives out for Keisha and Francesca in "who can't be Nancy", making me think that if Keisha was in the bottom two again, ALW would have let her go. Graham Norton seemed overly mean for stringing Keisha out as he did.

So the sing off is between Francesca and Ashley. Given ALWs comments about Ashley's voice, I suspect she will be going home (and as she had the fewest votes I suspect he'll use it as an excuse to let her go). Neither of them performed the song particularly well, both with tuning problems (and Francesca's nod and smile acting getting more on my nerves as the competition goes on). The look on Ashley's face is rather a condemned person look, and I feel bad for her being in the sing off after ALWs comments.

Goodness. He saved Ashley, and Francesca is going home. I honestly didn't see that coming. Right result? I think so (based on who was in the sing off), but I'm also really surprised. I honestly expected ALW to vote with his prejudice against Ashley and send her home.