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In the first shocker of the season, the remaining Over 25, Anna Wilson, was eliminated last week, leaving former Australian Idol winner Stan Walker with no act left in the race. Mel's girl band, Gap5, found themselves in the B2 one more time, yet the girls were saved by majority vote. We'll be listening to songs from the movies tonight, so will it be a blockbuster or a major flop? ... It's time to face the music!

Recap and videos after the jump ...

Tom Batchelor

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"All Day and All of the Night" from The Boat That Rocked - 7/10 - Ruby thinks Tom wasn't there with his performance last week. "I don't know what went wrong with that, he just needs to focus" she says. He used to play this song during gigs. "This week I'm gonna bring the Batchelor and give them way more than they can even handle" he says. He's certainly more present than he was with "Ho Hey" in this performance but he still doesn't look fully committed. I think it's got more to do with the way he performs than with his attitude. He's got this very laid back style and it just looks lazy. Tom's a great singer though, he's got one of the best voices in this bunch of finalists as evidenced by this tune. He just need to work on his attitude. "I think that you are a great singer, you are doing way better but I maintain that this is about selling records and I can't see it at the moment" (Daniel) - VIDEO

Cassie Henderson

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"A Thousand Years" from The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 - 8,5/10 - Her dad visited her last week. She hadn't seen him since her first audition. Maybe that was the reason she performed so good last week. Is Cassie having great performances two weeks in a row? Daniel's picked some perfect songs for her this past weeks and the fact that she didn't have to move much on stage also helped her. Her voice sounded lovely for most of her performance and even the little issues I spotted sounded really pretty.  It may seem that I'm grading Cassie on a curve, and that's because I'm actually doing so. I just can't judge her as I judge the rest of the contestants, she's only 14 after all, and her potential is so massive. She also performs better than most of the others. "We've compared a lot of people to their first auditions, people's first auditions were always the best, but you just blew your first audition out of the water. I think that this is your best performance. The best song choice and this are the type of songs you should be singing" (Stan) "For the first time I can easily say that was perfect" (Mel) - VIDEO

Whenua Patuwai

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"I Wish" from Happy Feet - 8,5/10 - Ruby tells him he'll be getting the biggest production yet. "I want to start surprising people with Whenua's song choices from now on" she says. His goal for this week is to get everyone in the house up and moving. I doubted this pick but it's actually really fitting. He sings it as if he was meant to be. His moves weren't the coolest but I never expected him to dance in the first place. Whenua's voice was phenomenal on this, that gritty, raspy tone was just perfect and the song choice couldn't be any more perfect. As Stan said, Whenua has the best voice in this competition. "You do have the best voice but personally I think you've the least XF. I enjoyed that, it felt a bit Vegas style. You know what, I'm gonna put my thinking cap on because you haven't done the right song for me yet so I'm gonna see if I can think of something" (Mel) - VIDEO


Benny Tipene

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"Can't Take My Eyes Off You" from 10 Things I Hate About You - 6,5/10 - He watched last week's performance back and was really disappointed and embarrassed by it. I don't see why, I really liked that. His sister came to visit Benny this week. They grew up as best friends. If he was disappointed and embarrassed after last week's much superior performance, I don't want to know what he'll do after this one. Dig a big hole and bury himself? It wasn't that bad sincerely, but the song choice was cheesy and Benny's interpretation was as well, his moves specially. Not sure what Ruby tried to accomplish with this choice, it didn't work if you ask me. "Nice to see you a bit more awake than you were last week. It didn't do it for me, I think it was the wrong song choice. If you are gonna walk up and down bleachers like that you need to feel confident that you can do it and you were wobbling all over the place and I was frightened for you. It just felt again put on fake, it didn't feel like you" (Mel) "I've such a high of for you and I think that the song choice was a little bit off. It's such a crucial time in this competition, it's either hit or miss, and today, the song choice in this was a bit of a miss" (Stan)  - VIDEO

Gap5

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"Paper Planes" from Slumdog Millionaire - 8/10 - From left to right: Nica, Taiva, Alexandra, Hannah-Jane and Nicole - Mel tells them that the reason that they keep getting saved is because the judges see the potential in them. They were expecting to be in the B2 because their vocals let them down. "My life will be so much more boring without this girls" Mel says. Hannah apparently used to be a dance teacher. As usual, I do think Mel could've found a better song for them. That said, they were actually impressive with this. Their vocals were perfect, spot on harmonies and just an overall gorgeous sound. It's definitely the best I've heard from them. Very good, hopefully they avoid the B2.  "At this level you need to deliver a much higher caliber of performance than that, you need to spend six months on your harmonies and your vocals" (Daniel) "I feel like you could do a lot better, even the arrangement of the song, those harmonies, I just don't feel it suited this song. I know you can do better" (Ruby) - VIDEO

Jackie Thomas

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"Lovefool" from Romeo + Juliet  - 7/10 - She says last week was the first time she was able to just let go. Daniel wanted Jackie to go really 80s with her look. She's gonna try dancing as well. "I believe in myself now, I'm feeling good" she says. Her 80s style is actually really pretty. The song is very outdated but she did a cute interpretation of it. Her tone sounded gorgeous on this tune yet I wasn't fully convinced by it. The arrangement could've been better, at least more current, and overall it was quite boring. Jackie is better than this, this was pretty but she can do better. "I think it wasn't the right song choice for you. To be honest, I think it lacked personality in that. You wouldn't catch Barbra Streisand doing dub step, it's for a reason she sings those songs, you are good at singing those slow songs or if you are gonna chose a more uptempo song, something that is more you. I felt awkward watching you" (Mel) "I didn't like the song at all, I thought that this was a bad song choice. It was just boring and it just didn't keep me captivated. You need to be picking songs that have, that enhance you as a performer. The thing with me for you, you are safe every week because you are good, but you are better than good, don't be safe" (Stan) - VIDEO

Moorhouse

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"Take It Easy" from Mt. Zion - 6,5/10 - From left to right: Rory, Jason, Marley and Brock - The guys think it'd be interesting to see Stan's reaction to their performance (since he sings this song). Rory tells us that Stan was one of the reasons he started singing. "He always says that anything is possible and it's true" Marley says. Wow, cheesiness overload! The song itself is already pretty cheesy, but add to add the unnecessary giant choir, and it's just too much. Their vocals were good, even better than last week, but I just couldn't get into that performance. It all felt like a manipulation from them to get more votes. Not like they need them. I keep waiting for Mel to bring their edge back, I'm not so sure it'll happen anymore. "I'm really proud of you, I love your rendition. The one thing that blows me away is that you've chosen my song, that means a lot. I never thought that one day someone would be singing my song. I don't know why I'm crying. I loved it" (Stan) "That was such a great song choice, I think it really suited you guys. Vocally, you all guys sounded good when you did your individual parts. My only comment would be, I don't even know if you needed the choir cause you guys were strong enough by yourselves" (Ruby) - VIDEO


Rankings
  1. Cassie Henderson
  2. Whenua Patuwai
  3. Gap5
  4. Jackie Thomas
  5. Tom Batchelor
  6. Benny Tipene
  7. Moorhouse
Who should go home?

Tom Batchelor

Results

Bottom 2: 

Benny Tipene
Tom Batchelor

Tom Batchelor - "Whole Lotta Love" - Very, very cool. This is his best, raw, gritty, emotional. He's very present. The problem with Tom is that he hasn't committed a 100% to his performances before. This is the first time that I see him doing his all but at this point, I feel it's to late, specially when he's facing Benny. His vocals were phenomenal though, it'd be really sad to see him go after this. - VIDEO

Benny Tipene - "Can't Help Falling In Love" - He's been saying he wanted to do an original for a while, so why not do one tonight? He missed a great opportunity. That said, this was such a wonderful performance. This is the Benny we love, with the quirky emotional song choices. This is probably his best performance to date, anyone who says they weren't emotional after that is lying. - VIDEO

"I'm just so shocked. I can't believe that both of you are in the B2. You are both so talented. I'm just devastated and I just can't vote. I'm no voting" (Ruby)
"I love both of you, a lot. Tom, you just sang your heart out just then. I've struggled to sort of place you at the end of the competition but you've been pretty consistent with your vocals and stuff. Benny, I had you in the final, but I don't know, your song choices haven't been so great in the last couple of weeks so I'm a bit worried that your heart isn't in it as much  as it was in the beginning, so the act that I'm gonna send home is Benny" (Mel)
"Tom, your guitar playing is really excellent. Benny, speechless, I was held spell-bound by your performance, I was crying for the whole thing. The name of the act I'm sending home is Tom Batchelor" (Daniel)
"I think that this is probably the hardest B2. Benny, this is why we fell in love with you, this is why you've made it this far. That was incredible bro. My thing that I worry about you, not being able to take criticism, the one thing that I've noticed slightly is you getting defensive, you don't have to have excuses. Tom, brother, your audition was one of my favourite and you have just burn so much Soul week. Your voice is out of this world bro and your performance, you woo us and that's one thing I'm always look at in an artist and you always do that. For this particular competition, the act that I'm sending home, with more regret than I've ever had on this show, is Tom" (Stan)

Eliminated:

Tom Batchelor

It was about time he went home. What he just did here was really impressive but it was too late for him. He needed to do something like this during the actual live shows and he didn't. He has one of the best voices in the competition and he certainly gave us some great performances but overall, he gave us more disappointments than surprises. Benny deserved to stay and I'm glad he did.

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