16th and 17th November 2011
Rock week signalled the chance for Lakoda Rayne to buck the trend and avoid elimination, as the final act in Paula's category remaining in the show, following the double blow of The Stereo Hogga and InTENsity leaving in the past two weeks
Leroy opened with a fairly forgettable Bob Seger number, We've Got Tonight (is that really rock?) and Rachel followed with a good version of (I Can't Get Know) Satisfaction, a Rolling Stones classic, showing she could hang with the best of them on this show. Chris Rene and his mentor L.A. Reid slightly bent the rules to allow him to perform Bob Marley's reggae classic No Woman, No Cry. Using the loophole that Marley himself had been inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame, to take the plaudits away from him would be cruel, considering how fantastic the performance was. For the first time since the live shows, this was the week where Rene emerged as a contender here, and he really got the crowd into his fantastic performance. Sensational.
Meat Loaf's version of It's All Coming Back To Me Now (originally made famous by Celine Dion) was a solid choice for Stacy Francis with that awesome vocal range, and she did a good job, in spite of Cowell's poor comments. I thought it worked well though, and was a good pick for her. I doubt that she will stick around for much longer, as some of the other contestants are starting to break away from her.
Melanie Amaro did yet another stunning performance, this time to REM's Everybody Hurts (they're a rock band, but this isn't really a rock song to be fair) and Josh blew everyone away with a riotous run through of the Foo Fighters's The Pretender. Powerful, evocative and enough to get Nicole up and near head banging the night away, it was yet another storming performance from him, who continues to go from strength to strength.
Astro went hard on Puff Daddy's version of The Police's Every Breath You Take (I'll Be Missing You) with more original lyrics inspired by the lost heroes in the hip hop world, which was an ingenious concept. Yet another fantastic showing for the youngstar.
Lakoda Rayne came out swinging after last week's sing-off, and blew it up to Fleetwood Mac's You Can Go Your Own Way, once again showing their credentials, and taking a fantastic song choice and making it wholly their own. That could easily have been their debut single, and the routine worked so well, with the styling, the chemistry, and the vocals all hitting perfection. I'm not sure the judges agreed, but it was an epic performance, as they fought to stay another week.
Drew stunned everyone yet again with another moving vocal to U2's With Or Without You, proving that her voice is ready to record, even at such a young age, before Marcus took the Joplin classic Piece of my Heart and smashed it straight out of the park to close proceedings.
Another stunning week of performances, and yet again a wealth of class talent.
On the results show Lakoda Rayne rightfully avoided the bottom two (surely even surprising themselves after the way the last two weeks went), leaving Stacy Francis and Astro to battle it out for survival. It was clearly Stacy's time to leave the show, but Astro did try and throw it all away by initially refusing to perform in the sing-off and being booed out of the building as a result. His attitude nearly cost him dear, with even his mentor reprimanded him for his "quitter's attitude".
He nearly threw all his hard work away, but because of the assuredness of his performances and his previous confidence, a lot of people perhaps forgot how young he is. He reacted totally wrong, but eventually sang Never Can Say Goodbye, up against Stacy's gospel classic Amazing Grace. Stacy eventually was voted off, but Astro could really have thrown away any chance he had of going much further. The public are not going to tolerate his attitude, and he will have to turn it around next week to try and win them over.
Elsewhere, Rihanna turned up to peddle THAT song once again, as We Found Love continues to sell by the truckload, and the group performance was We Will Rock You (predictably). But, yet another solid week as the show goes from strength to strength.
Still leagues ahead of the UK version right now, and the talent on show is unbelievably strong.
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