The double elimination on “The X Factor “Thursday was double that as the one female group, Sweet Suspense, had a sour moment right off the bat, with the trio eliminated as they started the show.
A couple of the young women who were joined by the show seemed so shaken they couldn’t speak. It suddenly made Simon Cowell the coach with the fewest remaining acts — two — after starting evenly.
That was in contrast to Fifth Harmony, the female group from last season who had only finished third place, but returned like some triumphant band with an annoying worldwide hit, “Me & the Girls.”
Not only did they sing the song in a fussy, double-costume-change production number, the Top 12 sang the same song in the long Herbal Essences commercial tie-in.
Instead of bad contemporary pop, the week’s theme was bad 80s music, and boy did they pick some of the worst songs.
Poor Sweet Suspense was stuck with “Mickey,” which is more of a chant than a song. And as Mario Lopez read off the names of people safe from Wednesday’s vote, it was the worst people first: Carlito Olivero who did a version of “Rhythm is Gonna Get You” nobody liked; and Josh Levi, who did a wrongheaded arrangement of Paula Abdul’s “Straight Up.”
Every bad song got votes from the audience: Pat Benatar’s “We Belong” by Rion Paige, Cutting Crew’s “(I Just) Died in Your Arms” by Jeff Gutt; Kenny Loggins’ perpetually dumb “Footloose” by Restless Road; and Phil Collins lite favorite “Against All Odds” by Donny Osmond lookalike Tim Olstad.
Maybe to add suspense, the better renditions were kept until the end, from Ellona Santiago sprightly version of Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (who Loves Me)” and Lillie McCloud’s take on Chaka Khan’s “Ain’t Nobody,” to Alex & Sierra’s rendition of Foreigner’s “Addicted.”
The latter version did so poorly even their coach, Cowell, thought they had blown it.
But it was surprising to see who was in the bottom two: Rachel Potter, the one workmanlike country singer of the finalists, who did a screechy non-country version of Heart’s “Alone” and especially Khaya Cohen who did the best version of the nights’ best song, Madonna’s “Borderline.”
Doing a cool soul take on the old hit helped define her effortless style and got her called a star and contender by judges in the studio (and TV recappers at home).
So when she came back to sing a terrific version of Solomon Burke’s “Don’t Give Up On Me” that further showed her unique style, she was almost showing off. Just as the soulful potboiler echoed her desperation with its title, it contrasted with her 16- year-old confidence.
Potter’s version of Shania Twain’s “From This Moment On” was a faultless copy, but she bring none of her own personality to the cloying country hit.
It seemed obvious, and yet judges stuck by their team members. Kelly Rowland chose Potter to stay, Demi Lovato chose Khaya; loopy Paulina Rubio went for Potter for no given reason, if only to give the decision to Cowell, who said Khaya had more potential going forward.
It was interesting to see Khaya’s reaction to all this: She just smiled, as if she never sweated going home in the first place.
Rounding out the show was Selena Gomez, doing a version of “Slow Down” taped a week ago, and one of the most questionable tributes to Lou Reed yet: A Top 12 version of “Perfect Day” to start the show.
It all begged a timely theme for an upcoming show: An all Lou Reed/Velvets night with songs like “Waiting for My Man,” “Walk on the Wild Side” and “Heroin.”
And Sweet Suspense could do “Sweet Jane”! No wait, they’re already gone.
So: final statistics show that both Rowland and Cowell are down one act each; counting group members, men outnumber women eight to five. And of Mario Lopez’ dimples: hanging tough at two.