No theme tonight, the contestants just have to impress us with one song which can identify them as an artist. First liveshow defines who is a contender and who is a trainwreck. Will Patricia continue impressing? Will tonight be Babou's final performance? Who will be the big surprise? Also tonight, the current title holder, Thomas Ring is returning with his brand new single, "Break the Silence" which is released on March 7!!! Excited? I am!! bong is back again, and will be throughout the season, to help me tonight! ... It's time to face the music!

Ratings, comments and videos after the JUMP ...


(bong) I am looking forward to hear what Thomas Ring will come up with. It would be logical to play the expected "hit" from the album, so we will finally get to see what we can expect from him in the future.

And then, I suppose this is the right moment to come up with some bold conjectures as to how this year's contestants will fare in the competition? Gee, that's a tough one. By category: Overs. Annelouise, Ercan, Patricia. Annelouise has still failed to impress me, and some viewers may have a difficult time with identifying themselves with Ercan for various reasons, so I am pretty sure that Patricia will be the one who fares best of these. As far as I can recall she has never set one foot wrong, but continued to impress from the very begining. There could certainly be a future for Ercan in the music business. Unders. Babou, Rasmus, Sarah. What to say? They all have strong and week sides. Rasmus and Babou have the voices. Sarah and Rasmus have likable personalities. So I should say Rasmus, but actually I think he is the one who will go first. I really don't know about these. Groups. DeeVibez, JR, Rikke og Trine. DeeVibez to go furthest, by far. They have everything performance-wise, or more precisely, you can build them out to be great performers as a group. JR are good, but not that good, and Rikke og Trine, well, pending Pernille's magic touch, as I see it, they only have their voices. So there you have my predictions. Of course, anything can happen, and this is completely silly of me. Finally:

The ultimate winner will be — a pure conjecture, let us agree that we have very little to base this on, and we will be much wiser after tonight having had a chance to compare the contestants directly — and I still cannot pick just one — either Patricia or DeeVibez. Pernille will fight for her groups. There, I've said it. Please don't blame me if you lose any bets over this.

The show

(bong) I might watch if they gave Lise Rønne, the host, her own show. It's very easy to look at her. Oh, well, back to the X Factor. In the following I am going to report how I like their performances; not their winning chances or their personality (I don't know them), but simply how I like this one performance by each contestant.

DeeVibez


"Well, Well, Well" (Duffy) - 8/10 They are definitely my favourite group! The song is perfect for them also! They can sing, they can dance and they have personality! Each member has her own thing to do plus they don't sing in unison as much as the other groups do! And they developed an amazing performance, probably one of the best will see tonight!!

(bong) 6/10 I love the song choice, just the right one for them. The really funny fact about this song is, Duffy wrote this and others together with Albert Hammond Senior, not junior (and the fact that I noticed that and find it funny just tells you a little bit about how old I am). Patience seems to be "the singer"; she is actually quite good as far as I could tell. Brilliant show altogehter, I really love them. And they can develop so much during this competition. They could win, and remember that I said it first. Blachman: "You are singing in unison again, you must develop at some point." He is right.


Sarah


"Raise Your Glass" (Pink) - 4/10 She can definitely sing but this song is all wrong for her. Her look and style don't work for this, she can't put her personality on that type of songs, it feels like a decent karaoke, cause, let's be honest, she didn't nailed that performance as I thought she would, her raspy voice kind of worked but girl! That was a trainwreck!

(bong) 4/10 To me the worst of tonight's performances. Weak voice. But as always during these first shows, the judges are very kind and very supportive of the contestants. Well, I was not impressed.


Ercan


"My Love" (Justin Timberlake) - 3/10 Oh, Lord! What's this? Is he actually singing in a horrible falsetto which made it sound like he was a crappy singer? The actual normal singing part was good but the whole performance was wrecky. And Justin Timberlake? Really Thomas?

(bong) 6/10 I liked it. I like that he sings in falsetto, but I wanted him to SING! SING! more. It's like he was holding back. Or maybe it's the natural limits of his voice. And Ercan seems to have a problem getting across the tv screen; I am not surprised by that. Cutfather was putting his falsetto down, saying it's hard to compete with Justin Timberlake. Of course it is. Pernille wanted Ercan to blow it all out, more power. Yeah, that's what I said. They should make me judge. Just kidding.


JR


"Grenade" (Bruno Mars) - 5/10 Love this song but they look bad and aren't sounding well. Their vocals are good but singing a whole song in unison doesn't work!! They bore me a little and remind me of boredom queens Rikke og Trine. Really, step up your game!

(bong) 5/10 They talked about motivation. "We cannot get the ladies, but we can sing." Unfortunately I found it a boring song and performance. In the end it's all a matter of taste. Blachman said, well, after this you will have a line of 400 woman everywhere you go. Pernille liked their dedication, they are nice, mommy's boys, they don't do drugs, they go home early to practice their singing. Lise Rønne asked them how they would like a line of 400 willing woman. "Oh, please, bring them on!"I place them as second to worst of tonight's performances, but of course, I am not one of the 400 women who are chasing them.


Patricia


"You're the One That I Want" (Olivia Newton John) - 10/10 OMG!!! Patricia is the most amazing singer ever! Her voice is so unique that it's hard to know if she has the control or her voice is messy and free, I think is the first tough! She's probably my favourite singer in any XF version, wierd, quircky and an amazing different singer! Support Patricia, she's the winner!!

(bong) 8/10 (Eight points out of ten, so that there is room for going higher in a later program) She's a star, she's a singer. And that's the only thing she wants to be. This is a cover of a cover (by Angus & Julia Stone, I believe). It is very different from what we are used to hearing (Olivia Newton-John), it has a completely different impact. Cutfather commented on her looks, saying it was like "style icon meets Pippi Longstocking". He also asked who had picked the song, and Blachman replied it was primarily Djuna Barnes. Pernille said: "Many of us have this love-hate relationship with that song because we have heard it so much with ONJ." (totally, ONJ is fine, but it's the only version you hear) "You made us listen to this fantastic text, for once. You will be in the finale, or else something has to go really, really wrong." (right on the money) Blachman loved it, saying this was an artist. Yes, for that I give her top placement. The song choice has a lot to say.


Rasmus


"Chasing Cars" (Snow Patrol) - 9/10 Oh! Rasmus was surprisingly strong tonight! He nailed that song and make it his own. I always liked his acoustic vibe but tonight he has just fallen in my radar! A stellar performance and the best from the Unders, cause the two others left a lot to be desired!

(bong) 7/10 A surprisingly strong performance! The audience started to clap midways, that was quite distracting. I liked the video running behind him. Pernille: "Great song choice. I liked to see your sensitive side." Blachman: (the following may seem like he is rambling, and sometimes he is, I am trying to hit his style; he makes it up very much as he goes, thinking and talking at the same time) "You have clothes, you put people in clothes, and then there is the music, but the key, you have to find the right key to sing in, and all that. You have to tell us how you made that trembling performance. This was very artistic." (artistic, same as he said about Patricia). Cutfather: "I got goose bumps."




Rikke og Trine


"You Are Not Alone" (Mads Langer/Olive) - 8/10 Any regular reader knows that I don't like the twins but they actually impressed me tonight! Well, it actually was the way it was filmed! They took the unison singing to a whole new level doing exactly the same movements throughout the performance! It actually looked like they were looking at a mirror! It was truly amazing! Vocally, it was pretty decent.

(bong) 6/10 Pernille introduced them with: "They have their voices, but then they are twins. That is my secret desire, to be cloned and sing with my other half." (What, in unison?) The twins said: "We are striving to get across to the audience. Make people feel that this song came from our hearts." Most of the time they were facing each other, or facing the front, but mirroring each other; an amusing scenic quote from "the twins" of the first episode three years back. I am 80% sure it was intentional. The last thing Blachman said, you will need to develop from the unison singing eventually, at least sometimes. (It worked well in this tune, though.) Cutfather: "I love the tune. There were some slight pitch problems, but it was good." Pernille: "Jamen, altså..." (I cannot translate that) Lise Rønne asked them how it felt to be on the stage? "Lækker!" (delicious) delivered with a good amount of irony. They scored some crucial points with me today.

Babou


"Just The Way You Are" (Bruno Mars) - 3/10 He looks akward. He doesn't sound good on this song and it's not because I don't like him, it's because he actually didn't sound that good. He sounded girlish, maybe he could swap voices with Sarah, that would work for both!

(bong) 6/10 Introduced by Cutfather as "A natural talent. Voice, perception (of the song)." He delivered well today, and he was smiling, like he was finally enjoying it. Maybe he is thinking, he can relax, and a lot of contestants will have to go before he has. Pernille also noticed Babou's joy and his smile (they should make me a judge! Not really). Blachman liked the performance; he said that Babou was into pop, which is not where Blachman would go, but still, good performance. Cutfather: "You delivered!" Lise Rønne asked: "So how does it feel when the whole audience is standing?" (I don't think we saw that on tv.)


Annelouise


"Igen og igen og" (Nephew) - 6/10 She looks amazing!!! That short hair looks incrediblly hot on her! I pretty liked that, would have prefer her singing something in english, so I could see how she connected with the song. The performance was decent, it was not as incredible as her previous performances but it was good. I see potential in her if given better songs!

(bong) 5/10 Nice hair. I like the make-over, except I can't help thinking of that blonde android in Blade Runner. Will she do saltos? I am still not impressed by her voice, and I don't think the tune was the right one for her voice. Cutfather: "I am having trouble seeing you in Nephew-land". Pernille: "I love the air, the harshness in your voice, but I saw you as a folk singer. Rock?" Blachman praised her for singing this song in a way that made us listen to the text; a little bit the same as when he praised Patricia. Lise Rønne asked how she felt; was she in a foreign place, singing rock? Annelouise denied that, she is a folksy girl, but she also sings in a rock band, so no, no. But maybe she felt in disguise. I don't know if that referred to her outfit or her singing.




Thomas Ring

I really liked Thomas last year, he was never my pick for the win, first it was Anna, then Jasper but when he advanced to the final with Tine, it was obviously he will win, and he did! Now, a year after that, Thomas is "breaking the silence" and releasing a new song! His voice sounds as incredible as it did in the show, even better if possible, cause he's now conecting with the song he's singing due to the fact he wrote it! Thomas will release his album in a few and I'm really excited about that now!

(bong) Thomas has spent a year finishing his first CD. He wrote every tune himself, and he has no regrets about that. It is just about to be released now, a year after he won, but it had to be this way. I like his integrity. I never really loved his singing. What can I say, taste.




Voting result

Oh no!! This is a horrible situation! Really? DeeVibez in the bottom 2?!!! Ercan is understandable cause his performance sucked but DeeVibez? They were simply the best group tonight!! Not good dudes! I'll let bong do the rest, can't stand seeing DeeVibez here!

 (bong) I am very disappointed to see DeeVibez and Ercan in this situation. It cannot be for their singing qualities. Or for their performance. I mean, in the light of how other contestants delivered. I could maybe understand why Ercan was in danger, but not DeeVibez. Pernille: "I have to stand by my black swans. You may not be the best singers, but you are so engaged." Blachman praised both contestants, saying Denmark felt a lot greater than it usually does (he is referring to the fact these contestants have a foreign background). Ultimately he chose Ercan, his guy. Naturally.

So it's all up to Cutfather. And he does not like that. I am hoping for DeeVibez, I professed that they would be the ultimate winners, remember? And Cutfather had some praise for DeeVibez, but he was not impressed by Ercan's falsetto. Yeah, forget it, Cutfather still chose Ercan, for his better singing skills. Damn. I would have liked to see DeeVibez continue. I think they could have made one hell of a show in the finale. Pernille told DeeVibez: I want to see you get on, get on, continue.

Next Friday will be Beatles night!

NOTE: I feel I was a little to hard on some of the contestants, so I have corrected the points I gave them.


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