X Factor: Girlband went home

Another week, another X Factor, and another girl band went home. This girl band just happened to be named Girlband. Seriously ladies, no points for creativity. Let's recap my previous point about the winners and runners up of the X Factor. White, male, solo artists have won 3 out of 4 X Factor series. White, male, solo artists have been 2 out of 4 of the runners up. Which means that they've taken 5 out of 8 top spots. Will another white, male, soloist win X-Factor 5? Guess who I have my money on. Moving on to the second live show. I am simply amazed at the difference between the group's acapella singing and the performances. All of these singers were seemingly flawless from their auditions straight through to the end of boot camp. Suddenly, they get on a stage with shiny lights and background music and they choke. What happened? Another thing that I've noticed is that the microphones just seem to be for decoration. All of the contestants have mics clipped to their shirts, as does Dermot. But one would expect a singer to have a microphone which probably fulfills a psychological expectation in the audience and the performers have something to hold. Moving on, it was Micheal Jackson night. Which I knew was going to be interesting. However, I don't know any of these songs other than "You are not alone," which I'll get to in a minute. I'm not comparing these performances to Michael Jackson's or anyone else's. And yes, Cheryl. There are people out there that are not Michael Jackson fans. Of course, I'm going to start off by bitching that Girlband went home. I've never taken to the cute boy singers crooning ballads about looking into a girl's eyes. I've always preferred girl bands. Last year I was rooting for Hope right up until the point where they murdered "2 become 1." But even with my bias I was disappointed with Girlband and their polar bear performance of "Heal the world." Their second performance, "Don't wanna miss a thing," only managed to be annoyingly screechy. Yes, they deserved to go home. There. I admitted it. But other acts weren't exactly on par either. Daniel Evans was just... I don't even have words to describe his performance of "One day of your life." The first note he sang was off and it didn't get any better from there. The judges blasted him and yet he stays... Rachel Hylton's performance of "Dirty Diana" also fell short. I have to agree with Simon, the shirtless guys on motorbikes and everything else that was going on around Rachel was distracting and annoying. When I first saw a shot of one of the bikers all I could think was "Why am I looking at this?" It's great that the acts want to do more than stand there with a microphone and sing, but come on. This is just taking it too far. Diana Vickers singing "Man in the mirror" was almost surreal. There isn't a man in her mirror. Also, I have really high expectations for her. After seeing her perform acapella I know she has the most unique voice in the competition. If anything, the music gets in the way. I would like to hear her sing something by Norah Jones. The people I like: Compared to the other acts I have no idea why Ruth was in the bottom two. I thought her performance, "I can't stop loving you," was brilliant even though she didn't have a big flowing drape-like dress and she didn't sing in Spanish. Her voice was great and she looked comfortable up on stage. Why don't people like Ruth? Well, besides the obvious fact that she's not white or male. Austin is going to be a finalist if not win it all together. I know I've said this before, but as annoyed as I will be if yet another white, male, soloist wins he does put on an awesome performance. He rocked the stage with "Billie Jean." Eoghan. Again, finalist if not winner. But he's so adorable. Cheryl was right to tell Simon off about obvious song choices. "Ben" could have been written for him. He was a little shaky, but overall, wonderful. I adore JLS. "The way you make me feel" was great, without question. They really do have the X Factor. On a side note, I have a theory about why groups don't fare well. When Girls Aloud was formed they were recognized as singers in their own right. Girlband and Bad Lashes were already together. One weak vocalist could be the downfall of the whole band. Imagine if Rachel, Alexandra, and Ruth formed a group. They would be awesome. Even Louis tried to cobble together Priority based on the same principle. If the boys had actually gotten together to practice (and stopped looking like pouty school boys) they could have gotten through. Now that there are no more girl bands left to eliminate, let's see who's out next week.