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The pressure is on for the contestants to impress the audience after they impressed the judges last night in the rooms. Will returnees Melanie, Jade and Amy manage to come up trumps? Will Abi prove Louis wrong as she takes a risk with an original song and will Relley C live up to the hype that I have given her after her superb first audition? Find out the answer to all the questions and more in the rant/article/collection of vaguely strung together words below!

Recap and videos after the JUMP...

Shelley Smith is up first tonight after impressing the judges last night with her rendition of 'Natural Woman'. Thankfully, the arena auditions seem to be of benefit to the 34-year-old white van woman as her bubbly and vibrant personality really comes across well when she introduces herself to the audience. She was good last night but rather generic diva and I'm scared that she'll become a pub singer in the live shows if she gets through, this is slightly better, this rendition of 'Feeling Good' but I'm not mad on the song choice. That song has been performed so many times before that I feel that any rendition that I hear of it just sounds the same as all the others. That said, her stage presence is actually a lot better than I thought it would be and her personality really makes the audience root for her. I have a feeling her appeal could be similar to that of Brenda Edwards in Series 2, she has that same warm personality. Shelley gets through to bootcamp with 4 yeses and her daughter is delighted.


The first of our returning auditionees now, Jade Richards may have auditioned twice before but last night's rendition of 'When I Was Your Man' was by far my favourite vocal performance by her in the competition. That said, there's still a long way to go in the competition and her performance of 'Back To Black' doesn't impress me quite as much. It's hard to take on an Amy Winehouse song, especially this one as nobody can quite live up to the deceased vocalist's flawless voice but even with that taken into account, I'm not quite so bowled over by her tonight. She seems very nervous, the judges stop her and tell her that they think that she sort of disconnects with the audience. Sharon tells her that her performances lack passion. 'I feel that this year, there's so much pressure on me', Jade tells them. Jade gets four yeses, 'the four hardest yeses of the day' Dermot tells her. Hopefully she can pick herself up and impress even more at bootcamp.


We briefly see The Dolly Rockers being rejected after a rather disappointing take on Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' 'Can't Hold Us' with only the girl on the far right showing any sort of vocal ability. It's a shame as they had a lot of potential but the trio are sent home as Sharon and Gary both give them a No.


Up next and feeling the nerves is Melanie McCabe who reduced Louis to tears last night with her rendition of 'Diamonds' by Rihanna. The sceptic in me is a little underwhelmed when she tells the camera how her family are about to lose their home. I feel sorry for them, the recession has affected everyone but it does seem a little in poor taste for the producers to focus in so much on another sob story for her, in addition to her 'rejected three times' tale from last night. Anyway, she's singing 'Titanium' by Sia tonight, another fairly overpicked song choice but she sings it well. There's no denying that Melanie has a great voice but I'm not sure that this show is the right venue for her, three previous failed attempts point to that and unfortunately I'm still not fully convinced. To me, her voice is a bit too theatrical, she strikes me as the type of singer who would be perfect for a Broadway or West-End musical. I don't know that she would stand much chance of selling records, there's not an awful lot of emotion present in her performance of the song but the judges love her, as expected. Louis gets emotional again, Nicole says she's powerful yet controlled and Sharon tells her that this is her time. Melanie sails through to bootcamp, she's a great singer, I'm still not fully convinced that she has star quality.


It's battle of the boys now as three male vocalists take on the arena, first up is 17-year-old (I know I still can't believe it myself, he looks 10 years older) Barclay Beales who caused Nicole to go a little bit loopy in the auditions with his yodelling. Before he emerges on stage he yodels into the mic prompting Nicole to go crazy, not sure if that's a counter-effect of the yodelling or whether she's just semi-mental. He's doing a yodelling remix of 'What Makes You Beautiful' by One Direction, when I say remix I mean he sings a few lines of the song then begins yodelling aimlessly, it's not well suited to the song at all, in fact it seems tacked on and his singing voice is nothing special. Nicole loves it as do most of the girls in the audience but Gary says that his singing voice needs a lot of work with Sharon agreeing.  It doesn't stop them from all giving him a yes though, he's just not cut out for the live shows in my opinion.


Hairy indie-rocker Luke Friend is up next, he is the auditionee who revealed that he hasn't washed his hair in months at his first audition and reveals that he still hasn't got around to doing it. He's singing a Queen song called 'Too Much Love Will Kill You' which I'll admit to not being familiar with but it sounds decent. I think the edit wasn't favorable because they seemed to pick the shoutiest parts of the song to show but he's still easily one of the most interesting acts so far and the postitive audience and judge reaction suggests that he's not so bad.


Football coach Tom Mann takes on Little Mix's 'How Ya Doing' in front of the arena, he seems likeable and I imagine that he would be popular with the girls if he got through but I don't really see him making live shows. His high-pitched vocals are slightly annoying at times and I'm not convinced that he's anything more than your standard WGWG (White Guy With Guitar). However, he also makes it through to bootcamp.


Hoping to prove the judges wrong after the almost didn't get through in the initial auditions are Euphoria Girls who promise to deliver more sass this round with their rendition of 'I Love It' by Icona Pop feat. Charli XCX. Well the lyrics do say 'I don't care' and they clearly don't care about singing in tune as this is vocally a shambles. From the first note, it just goes downhill and their posh voices sound weird singing 'I DON'T CARE'. It's a big mess, their harmonies and their dancing are equally baffling and unfortunately for them, the audience end up laughing at their expense whilst the judges stare open-mouthed. 


 One of my favourites is up now, it's 23-year-old Relley Clark, the housekeeper who impressed the judges with her soulful take on 'Don't You Worry Child' by Swedish House Mafia. She's taking on another left-field song choice as she aims to make bootcamp, it's 'Blind Faith' by Chase & Status, I love this song and it's nice to see her taking on something different to the normal song choices. That said, she isn't anywhere near as strong in this performance, nerves overtake her voice and she sings out of tune for a large proportion of the song though she nails the 'Sweet Sensation' part of it in my opinion. That said, there's no escaping the fact that she didn't step up this week and the judges tell her how disappointed they are. Thankfully though, they feel that she's far too good to let go with all four mentioning the p word...potential. People might argue that Relley doesn't deserve to get through on the basis of that vocal but she was excellent in the room audition so I'm glad to see her getting through. Let's hope that she makes up for it at bootcamp!


Last auditionee of the day is 18-year-old Abi Alton who impressed most of the judges last night with her emotional cover of 'Travelling Soldier' by The Dixie Chicks but is taking a big risk this week with an original song called 'Jigsaw'. The song is about having her heart broken by a guy apparently, as soon as she says the words 'original song' the dollar signs light up in the judges' eyes. It's an emotional song and she has a lovely tone but I'll be really honest, I wasn't that overly impressed by the song, I'm not blown away. The song is rather forgettable but the judges love it and tell her that she has massive potential. She has a lot of potential but she's not so outstading.

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