Motown Week | Favourites | X Factor USA 2013

My blog is officially overrun by X Factor posts and I can’t even point my finger and blame somebody for it. X factor contestants sang their asses off this week that I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a talented line up in any Idol/X Factor show in a while. I can’t even decide who I want to send home and who I want to win anymore.

When I saw it was Motown Week I went cray. I dig motown! I don’t even know how many motown songs I’ve ever yelled “yo, that’s my song!” to. 

Another thing that got me pumped up besides hearing amazing voices were the dance choreographies. Check it out dancers – Galen Hooks is working alongside creative director genius Jamie King as an X Factor choreographer. If not for the singers, my X Factor fangirlness could rightly be justified by the choreographies – which is honestly one other reason why I liked X Factor this week! Khaya’s dance set anyone? Love. Heart Melt.

If I could, I’d write about every one of the contestants this week but my fingers are way too lazy for that. So ama stick with my faves. Oh, and congratulations Josh Levi for making it back as a wildcard. This boy is so damn cute and talented. When he sang Who’s Loving You during the performance night and Stay during the survival night, he totally proved he deserved to be there.

Let me kick things off with Ellona Santiago. She was my absolute favourite this week. One of my initial concerns about her was that she was a performer not a singer. But this week she proved to be equally both. We learn she's been so busy with X Factor practising the lyrics for Baby Love by the Temptations and studying for her SATs that she had a little meltdown.

I was scared for her at first. I anticipated that because she was so busy, somewhere in her performance she was going to screw up. But she pulled it off, and effortlessly at that. I just wished she did a bit more booty shaking like I would have done if I had the opportunity to wear something like that. What I love about her is that she delivers a full package. She's so charismatic and totally hard to beat. When I heard her sing Titanium, it was over. Her vocals just totally came out - it was so tight. She completely won me this week. Ellona is definitely Fire. I just hope this is not the best we've seen her yet.

My next favourite has to be Alex and Sierra. Ok, they’ve actually been one of my favourites since the beginning but I just feel everyone loves them too much to the point that sometimes I feel like I’ve had enough talking about them. I also thought they were a very cute couple in the beginning, but the jumping in the pool bit for this week’s segment was just downright corny. I still love them and their talent to bits though! It would also be cool if Alex proposes to Sierra at some point during the show *hint hint*.

They performed Heard it Through the Grapevine by Marvin Gaye and it was smoking hot. The lighting, added to their already seductive voices, made for a pretty sexy performance. This version – not far from the original, is actually a pretty good version. Overall, I loved everything about that performance. During the survival night they sang Gimme Love, it was alright. Simon seemed to love it, but in my opinion it had nothing on their Motown performance.

The next performance I enjoyed was Khaya Cohen’s My Girl by the Temptations. Ok, I have to be honest. When Khaya talks it's slightly irritating added to the fact that she has the usual teenage-girl vocabulary. I cracked up when said "Thanks" in the end. I hope when she becomes a woman she talks with more grace in her voice. But then she sang and oh my goodness – her voice has got to be one of the most unique voices I have heard! I loved the dancing and the sexy undertone to her performance. The choreography was amazaang and watching a bit of barrel mills from that bboy on the side was pretty enjoyable.

Now let me just make a quick mention of Simon’s groups – Restless Road and Sweet Suspense. I’ve always loved the idea behind Restless Road – the country man band of X Factor. Their performance this week was incredible. As always, the blend of their voices was just so fricken smooth.  Oh and wtf – how did Colton get on the pool table?! Sweet Suspense has never really been in my book of favourites, nor their teen bop style ever appealed to me but their performance this week was stunning. I particularly liked their performance during the survival night mainly because I actually got to hear Millie (blonde chick) sing. Her voice is actually pretty nice. These kids, if they continue under the guidance of that genius Simon, will go pretty far in this competition.

Finally, Tim Olstad. I’m not listing him down as one of my favourites for this week but his voice is just so magnetic I wish he would listen more to his instincts than what people tell him. He needn't tell you he’s been singing his whole life – it’s pretty obvious. His voice is testament to that. With all respect to Simon and his successful life as a producer, I still feel like he needs to stop categorizing Tim with Donny Osmond and Josh Groban.

I listen to a lot of RnB so when Simon frowned at the idea of Tim idolizing after someone like John Legend I just didn't know what was so wrong? If only Simon would visit Tim Olstad's youtube channel or something he would come to realise that Tim's voice cannot be put in one category. It's just so versatile. I guess what Simon sees is that Tim's lacking a bit of "swag" or a little charisma to pull it off like an RnB star. But if he worked on it, he'll definitely go far - and I can actually hear him doing RnB. Just yeah, swag. Get some swag Tim :D (Woot!)

Anyway, that’s it from me this week :D

Peaces and Love