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Time is running away from us and now we only have five X Factor contestants left. Five! Remember the days when there were 13 contestants? Remember the never-ending four weeks of Boot Camp? Remember the debacle that was 'Live Judges' Houses'? No, we can't either.
Tonight the contestants are singing songs picked by the British public, which you'd think would be a good thing. But cast your mind back to some of the previous X Factor winners - winners we all picked - and you realise you just can't trust people. On the plus side, the majority of the song choices are actually from the past five years - now that's got to be a first. If you fancy spoiling yourself, all the songs are available here.
Join us live from 8pm for all of the action and our cheerful commentary live as it happens. Just keep refreshing for updates!
21:43 So we're all done, and the episode is over! So who do we think's in danger, then? We think in terms of quality Che was probably the worst, but think he'll probably be okay as voters will worry for him. Much as neither 4th Impact nor Lauren deserve to go, we do worry they'll end up in the bottom two.
So it's a goodbye from us - thanks for joining us, it's been great fun as always! Stick with Digital Spy tomorrow for all the coverage you need of tomorrow's elimination, and we'll be back next Saturday at 8pm with another live blog!
21:40 So everyone's done and it's time for yet another recap, so we'll have a go at ranking the second performances...
What to Read Next
Next-Level, Deserves-Own-Category Amazing
Lauren (!!!)
Normal Levels of Amazing
4th Impact
Reggie n Bollie
Good, but not like, amazing
Louisa
Che
So overall, a much better round.
21:33 Next up we have Louisa, who opened the show and is now closing it. She is going to be singing 'Jealous' by Labrinth. Should have been 'Earthquake'. Louisa went to Sugar Hut for her 14th birthday, apparently, and she goes back in the week with her mum to perform. Lovely.
The performance is fine, and Louisa sounds great. She seems to have borrowed Jess Glynne's never ending supply of hair gel, but that's neither here or there. The performance is obviously very good, but it's not very exciting.
There's a standing ovation from Rita and Simon.
Cheryl feels it was better than her first performance and tells Louisa she smashed it. Simon felt that it was in a completely different league to the first performance. He thinks Louisa is really, really special. Nick thinks it is an honour to see Louisa perform every week. He also thinks Louisa is special. Rita thinks that Louisa is going to be a succesful musician.
Louisa feels very grateful to be there. Olly asks "who were you singing that song to?" VERY AWKWARD, Olly.
21:29 No words needed.
21:22 Reggie n Bollie are now going to sing 'Dynamite', which is one of our FAVOURITE SONGS EVER so we hope they do it justice. They go to Radio 1, because, did you know - NICK IS ON THE RADIO!!!! You'd never guess. They meet Fuse ODG, who seems lovely.
We mean, you see 'Reggie n Bollie singing Dynamite' on paper and you already know what it's going to be like, don't you? It is the aural equivalent of Having A Nice Time. There is an amazing bit where they rap verbatim "We're on X Factor so we don't complain". Brilliant.
The performance gets a standing ovation from Simon and Cheryl. Simon loves them. Nick calls them "national treasures". Rita says that the vocals aren't great, which gets boos, but she's totally right. She still appreciates their own sense of style though. Cheryl thanks Reggie n Bollie for bringing the atmosphere, and thanks the music team, naming three of them but noting she doesn't have time to name them all. We wonder how she picked those three?
21:16 Lauren's about to sing 'You Don't Own Me' which Rita thinks is the sort of song that she'd sing after the competition. Lauren catches up with her sister and says "it's so nice that I have sister that supports me and it's just us two". We know how she feels - our sister shares our live blogs on Facebook sometimes.
We aren't fans of the staging of Lauren's performance which is some kind of weird backstreet city set, or of her dress which is in an offensive baby pink satin. However - the vocals, and the performance, are just incredible. It's by FAR Lauren's best performance so far in our opinion. She's knocked it out of the park! SLAYYYY etc.
Cheryl thought the performance was amazing and she switched everything around.
Simon agrees that the performance was in a different league to earlier and the song has absolutely put her back in the game.
Nick loved the different tone of her voice.
Rita feels that Lauren is "EVERYTHING. Everything in life". Well, we wouldn't go that far, but we loved it.
21:05 Next up we've got Che singing 'Try a Little Tenderness'. We see Che meeting up with his dad (amazingly, called Che Chesterman Senior) for a fry up. He's nervous.
The song performance is fine. Che sounds really great, as always. And as far as we can tell hasn't forgotten any words this time. He is wearing one of the most vile jackets we've ever seen, but we can get over it. The performance isn't fantastic, but it will certainly do.
Rita says "WELL WELL WELL" a lot, and it's quite cringey. She thinks that Che did an amazing job.
Cheryl thinks it was great. She also does some sort of cringey "Che Che Che that was like night and day" thing. What is wrong with everyone?
Simon says that it was fantastic, and he's come back and proved that he is great.
Nick comments that the events of the evening are strange as all week Che had been fine with 'Hello' and nervous about this choice. But in the end, he thinks 'Try A Little Tenderness' was Che's best performance yet! (We feel this is a stretch, but yeah, it was good.)
20:59 We now have 4th Impact, doing a mash up of 'Rich Girl' and 'Fancy'. There's a lot made of their support from their fans in the Philippines.
The staging is amazing, with all four girls in boxes with their names on, dressed as dolls. The choreography is great and there's an amazing dance break. The Fancy at first is a bit dodgy vocally, but Rich Girl sounds great. Towards the end they sing "SIMON! Remember my name" which is a nice touch. But given that Simon has been working with these girls for three months, should not be necessary.
Simon thinks it was fun, cute and current. He proves that he finally knows their names. Nick loved the performance and can't wait to see them on the tour!! (DID YOU KNOW?? THERE'S AN X FACTOR TOUR!) Rita didn't like the boxes (WRONGGGG) and wasn't a fan of anything except their voices. Cheryl says it was an excellent performance. We loved it too. WELL DONE, 4th Impact.
20:53 Simon puts Reggie n Bollie at number 1 of his ranking, then Louisa, then 4th Impact, then Lauren, then Che, so basically couldn't disagree with us more. He's glad that they've got a second song. He thinks that everyone has been good, but they could have done better.
20:51 The votes are now open, so we have our first recap. So as usual, we'll do our ranking of the performances so far...
Amazing
4th Impact
Alright but needs work
Louisa
Not great, but could have been
Che
Sorry, didn't get it
Reggie n Bollie
Lauren
20:43 Now we have Che Chesterman singing 'Hello', which is according to Nick THE BIGGEST SONG ON EARTH.
Che watches himself back in the sing-off last week. He can't believe it, obviously. To stop himself being disheartened by the bottom 2 he has been out and about doing some gigs. It's all gone very nicely. Che feels under a lot of pressure to do 'Hello' justice. We'll be interested to see if he manages.
It starts nicely, but then Che forgets the words. Lots of words. Lines and lines and lines. He recovers quite well by singing "aaahhhh" in tune and then remembers the lines again, but then forgets so repeats "million miles". Oh no. Che comes in the chorus and sings very well. "At least I can say that I tried" has never sounded more appropriate. We feel very sorry for Che, but it clearly absolutely is not okay to be forgetting that many words at this point in the competition, is it....? We were rinsing people for this during BOOTCAMP.
Rita firstly tells Che that it is good that he took on the song and she personally wouldn't do it. She saw he lost his way but thought he recovered it well. Cheryl gives him props as mistakes happen to the best of us. Simon says that it should have been a fantastic performance but it wasn't because he lost his way. He tells Che he looks like he just came from work, turned up and sang a song. He needs to increase his star power, as it has decreased. He's glad he's got another song choice.
Nick throws some shade at Simon and says Che should just come in wearing high waisted trousers and a v-neck every week. He tells Che he has one of Nick's FAVOURITE VOICES IN THE WHOLE WORLD. Praise.
We felt sorry for Che too, but we did feel that the judges let him off a bit lightly for that.
20:38 Amazingly you can now win Simon Cowell's ACTUAL CAR. Peter Dickson the Voiceover Man emphasises several times this is his LITERAL CAR that he has ACTUALLY DRIVEN. Well, we don't know about you, but we're definitely entering. Imagine the quality of the seat fabric.
20:32 We've got Lauren next, who's going to be singing 'Firestone'. She's had a nice week at Winter Wonderland and singing at a gig in Essex.
Lauren's performance is...fine. She's the one singing at the top of the studio rather than on the stage this week. It starts quite nicely. We don't know much about what things like "in key" actually mean, but we do know that in parts it's quite difficult and unpleasant to listen to, especially towards the end.
Cheryl thinks it was a good song choice and it looked great. She thought the first part was iffy but it picked up towards the end. Simon thought it was totally the wrong song choice. Rita says "the PUBLIC CHOSE IT!!" - oh Rita, the public voted out Seann Miley Moore - and Simon correctly points out it was only one of three suggestions. Simon thinks Lauren is lucky that she has a second song. Nick liked it. Rita gets very defensive.
Lauren stands up for herself a bit, saying that she only worked with what she was given and not everyone will like it.
20:23 Next up we have Reggie n Bollie singing 'Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)'. Cheryl describes it as "literally a dance phenomenon". We hadn't heard of it. Are we out of touch? Luckily Reggie n Bollie don't know it either. Fleur East is recruited to teach Reggie n Bollie to do the dance. Fleur East. Again. We aren't making this up.
It is an odd performance. There are literally small children on stage (unclear whether or not these are Reggie/Bollie spawn). Reggie n Bollie aren't the greatest dancers and they're a little bit out of time with each other. Cheryl gets on stage to dance at the end, which is nice. We love how much Cheryl loves Reggie n Bollie, it's so sweet. We're not quite sure what we think of the performance to be honest.
Simon thought it was good but the dancing was dodgy. He asks Cheryl which group she prefers, and she just continues to sing 'Whip/Nae Nae'.
Nick liked it. Rita thinks that Reggie n Bollie might win, which we think MAY be a stretch. Cheryl just fangirls.
20:22 Kitty Brucknell KNOWS.
20:11 Now we have 4th Impact. They're going to sing 'I'll Be There' by the Jackson 5, and we're pleased to hear they're going to be singing a ballad for a change. We get to see 4th Impact get interviewed by Nick on the radio (did you know??? Nick works on the radio!!!) and meet Fleur East. This is at least the 15th time Fleur has appeared to give inspiring words to a contestant in a VT in the past three weeks, surely?
It's a bit strange and jarring to see 4th Impact singing a ballad, but it's just lovely. They're all dressed in pink and just look really pretty and nice. It opens with the vocals a little dodgy, but it really picks up and the harmonies at the end are just beautiful. There is one particular high note which is like nothing the X Factor has EVER HEARD. We are talking dolphin-style frequency. This has melted our cold heart a little bit.
Simon says that he was dreading the performance, but he changed his mind when he saw them perform. He mentions that "B" in particular was amazing. It turns out that he still thinks they are A, B, C, and D.We wish Simon would stop making a joke of not knowing their names. It's not funny Simon!!! It's just RUDE!!! Imagine if you were in a team at work and your boss did this? Not on.
Nick thought it was good etc. Rita proves that she too can sing a really, really high note for no apparent reason. Cheryl proudly shows that she DOES know 4th Impact's names.
20:04 Okay, so first up is Louisa, who we're surprised to see has been given the Strictly death slot. She's going to be singing 'Love Yourself' by Justin Bieber, a risky and innovative choice given that Justin Bieber currently has 3 songs in the UK Top 5. But the public gets what they want, we suppose. Louisa comments that she "went to see Justin Bieber when she was a little girl". Er, WHAT? We had Justin Bieber's debut single on the playlist at our 21st birthday party. Harrowing.
This is very different from anything Louisa has performed before. It's quite nice to see her doing something up-to-date, but we aren't sure it's the greatest song for her voice. At times she sounds a little forced and it makes our throat vicariously raspy.
Cheryl is pleased with the public who picked this song. Cheryl feels that this song is better than the older songs Louisa sings.
Simon feels the song wasn't paced very well and Louisa sounded tense. Louisa reveals that she isn't very well, which we think did come through on the song, actually.
Nick agrees with Cheryl and thinks that Louisa is so good that he can't sing along which is annoying. Listen to us, Nick - no one is EVER so good that you can't sing along.
Rita thought it was good etc etc. We can't believe this but NOBODY mentioned that Louisa was seventeen throughout all of the comments! Seriously! Not once!
20:04 Simon is apparently going to rank the contestants after their first performance, an idea we think he probably stole from our previous live blogs.
20:02 There's a really weird quite awkward intro bit, where the judges enter with their contestants rather than together as a four piece. This makes it harder to judge their outfits. Cheryl looks way more popular than everyone else. Simon enters to 'All By Myself'. Just hilarious, really. Hilarious.
20:01 Olly and Caroline enter to 'Holding Out For A Hero' by Bonnie Tyler, otherwise known as potentially the greatest song ever to be ruined by a takeaway advert.
20:00 We are reminded that Simon now has no acts left! Simon with nothing to lose is quite a dangerous yet exciting proposition. The acts are singing two songs and therefore TWICE THE PRESSURE. Rita Ora notes that "the public are smart". Rita's probably too young to remember some of the X Factor winners from earlier series, then.
19:58 The X Factor has started two minutes early! We just hope you all had time to get your drink. (Luckily it's all RECAPS RECAPS RECAPS).
19:55 Five minute warning. Get a drink in. Get on the sofa. It's almost Time! To Face! The Music! And Presenter Chat! And "Judge Banter"! And Adverts! And Emotional VTs! And Recaps! And More Adverts!
19:48 As well as five songs picked by the Great British Public, the contestants have had five songs picked for them by their mentors this evening. As far as we can tell, the judges' choices don't have a theme - which we feel is quite refreshing. The argument given for having song themes has always been that it pushes contestants out of their comfort zone. But we wonder whether it would make more sense in this day and age to have contestants singing the kind of music they'd sing after the show. More recent music, to show that they would actually be Relevant Artists in the year 2015. Well, we'll see how the no-theme theme goes down this week, but we hope that it goes quite well and proves our point. Although there is a lot to be said for themes, mainly that it gave us Jedward doing Ghostbusters.
19:31 Good evening everyone and welcome to tonight's X Factor live blog! We've finally reached the Two Songs Each stage of the competition, so things are getting SERIOUS.
So the final five standing are 4th Impact, Che, Lauren, Louisa and Reggie N Bollie. What's everyone's pre-episode predictions for this weekend's casualty? Could the fun finally be over for Reggie N Bollie? We've been wondering for a while how Lauren has been sailing through so easily, too. And lest we forget the major shock of Che being in the bottom two last week - he was our prediction to win!
