It was the push seen around the world. A brief, minor moment during the Sunday results show became a viral sensation, after Lauren Murray was seen rejecting a group hug by pushing away the arm of a member of 4th Impact. Soon there were parodies on YouTube, and Twitter vitriol had gone global – though seemingly focused on 4th Impact’s home country, The Philippines.
In realtime, Lauren is seen to take the arm away from her shoulder as her attention is focused on the names called safe for another week. Just before she does it, the group coming to join her, including Louisa, start to turn to hear the latest announcement. And as she removes the arm, she mouthed a few short words which were misconstrued by early lip readers.
A slowed down replay showed that the words coming out of Lauren’s mouth were “Come On Ché”, rather than anything aimed at 4th Impact. But that didn’t stop some of the group’s more militant supporters and others taking to social media to accuse her of racism amongst other ridiculous notions. The general charge seemed to be that she had “shown her true colours”.
It will be interesting to see if this week’s VTs mention it. Given the general assumption that producers will now be looking to lose Lauren before the final to clear the field for Louisa, it’s hard to imagine a sympathy-grabbing VT focusing on her horrified reaction to the appalling online hate she’s received. It’s possible to imagine 4th Impact’s VT featuring the girls reiterating the innocence of the gesture and how well they and Lauren get on, which they have been at pains to do in media interviews this week.
More broadly, the social media storm reminds us why girls have it much harder in these reality shows. No one was berating Ché for his own harmless shove on Almira earlier in the series.
Nor indeed was Mason called out for amusingly thanking all those who didn’t vote for him, the implication being that elimination suited him, and you may as well not have voted for him this week. But girls are held to a different standard. One innocuous moment and your card is marked.
The bell tolls for Anton
New commenter Simon Kent brought up the topic of varied sound quality for both the vocal and song arrangement, depending on whether an act was being helped or hindered. It has long been something on our radar, though we can’t claim expertise on the finer points or jargon of this technical subject.
On the Sofabet sofa, it’s more a case of knowing it when you hear it, and explaining it to oneself in layman’s terms. There’s a particular doom-laden percussive sound which I call the “death knell” that’s used in many a hatchet job. It got an outing at 0.39 of Anton’s ‘One Sweet Day’ performance. Compare with when JLS or John Adeleye sang the same song – the bell did not toll for them at that point.
There are many ways to deramp via the arrangement. The song can feel slowed down with the energy sucked from it, like Monica’s ‘Crazy In Love’; the sound mix or lack of backing track help can leave a vocalist exposed, as Mason was for the falsetto moments of ‘Jealous’. Last year, a distracting dubstep beat was completely at odds with Paul Akister trying to sing ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’.
A pimped arrangement can obviously involve the kind of backing track help that at times made One Direction sound like a harmonious large choir during their stint on the show. A reverb effect can also be made so that the vocal fills the studio more effectively, and that gave extra help to Louisa’s already powerhouse vocals with ‘Let It Go’.
If you want to know what’s being said on the Sofabet sofa during a Saturday show, it’s exclamations like these: “It’s the arrangement of doom!”, “There’s the death knell!”, or “It’s the reverb ramping!” Your thoughts and knowledge of this topic are welcomed below.
Hello Adele?
A recurring debate this season is whether Adele, who has a new album out, could be persuaded to duet with a finalist. The problem for the show is that the X Factor needs Adele a whole lot more than Adele needs the X Factor.
A few weeks ago, Adele was quoted as saying she might consider duetting with a finalist if they were “not rubbish”. Last week, while Adele was performing on the BBC, a Twitter account associated with Simon Cowell floated the thought of Adele duetting with Ché. One of Ché’s options for jukebox week – which voters duly went for – was an Adele song, ‘Hello’; last year, Ben Haenow sang ‘Thinking Out Loud’ in jukebox week, and reprised it with an Ed Sheeran duet in the final. Could history repeat itself? Who knows what – if anything – Adele might have told producers, but these certainly look like overtures.
The show has seemed keen to keep an air of credibility around Ché. His pre-pimp slot VT in week 3 went out of its way to associate him with musical instruments, and musicians were on stage with him this week. Cowell told him “you’re turning into an artist on this show, you’re learning how to control a song, how to deliver a record properly”.
Ché’s singoff appearance on Sunday is not ideal, but nor does history suggest it’s disastrous at this stage of the competition: since 2008, every act to survive their first singoff in the equivalent show has made the final weekend (JLS, Olly Murs, Cher Lloyd, Amelia Lily, Andrea Faustini), and one (James Arthur) has won.
Cowell’s careless whispers
Other than the Lauren brouhaha, this week’s big scandal has been microphones picking up Simon Cowell’s voice saying “Ché, Ché” just before the judges told Olly and Caroline who they’d be saving this week. It came just after the camera had cut away from a judging panel featuring a noticeably perplexed-looking Cheryl, and the assumption is that Cowell was confirming to the girls on his right whom they should vote to keep around. Here’s an audio enhanced clip:
We were certainly shocked by this. Shocked that they needed telling, that is. We’ve always assumed such scenarios are gameplanned before the Sunday show when producers have a reasonable idea of how the vote is looking. Perhaps Cheryl, who went out of her way to be nice to Anton when sending him home, had previously told Simon she’d like to be able to save him if circumstances allowed? Or perhaps, after the Olly fiasco last week, Cowell was simply making absolutely certain to avoid another misunderstanding.
Seann Miley Tour
Every year, when there are nine acts left, the same debate happens in the Sofabet comments. Some commenters say “to guess who they’ll target for elimination this week, we should think about who they’ll want on the tour”. Others say “it doesn’t matter. It’s their tour and they’ll take whoever they choose. Yes, they usually take the top eight – but if they think the act who finished 10th will sell more tickets than the one who finished 8th, they’ll just take the act who finished 10th. Why wouldn’t they?”
The decision to take 10th-placed Seann Miley Moore as a “wildcard” this year should finally put that debate to bed.
Tonight we should get the rest of the song choices, after the jukebox round picks were confirmed earlier in the week. We’ve already got notice of Labrinth’s ‘Jealous’ for Louisa and 4th Impact doing a mash-up of Iggy Azalea’s ‘Fancy’ and Gwen Stefani’s ‘Rich Girl’. Do let us know your continued thoughts on these topics and any other news below.
X Factor images and clips ©SYCO/THAMES TV/PA
I’m on for Lauren being booted off this weekend using the theory that TPTB will hope that people will pass their votes on to louisa. That leaves 2 groups which I assume would have some sort of vote split, and Che.
The producers will almost certainly be targeting Lauren this week, but they’d probably settle for a group going for balance. Che is likely safe because of being on a bounce, Nick’s last act and of little threat to Louisa’s vote in the final?
Also- I found this whole Lauren debacle really depressing this week. DS has whole threads on this still which have really let the classist (& sexist) genie out of the bottle.
Ugh this lauren thing is doing my head in, what a load of nonsense. I hope it’s duly ignored this weekend.
Wtf at Louisa doing Jealous? Was that not an option on the jukebox theme? Didn’t get picked so she’s doing it anyway?!
With the way bounces have been killed this year (and last year at times) I wouldn’t rule out Che being down there this week. There’s pros for them wanting him in the final – he’s a reliable performer, his vote is likely under control, and it would be useful to have Nick with an act in the final. However I think he’d be a risk to Louisa in the final, and he’s probably the least commercial act left. Personally I think it’d be better to try and get rid of him and Lauren before the final – they can easily kill the buzz of “Hello” by putting him on first and saying the song was too big for him. Not saying it’s likely or worth betting on, but I’m reluctant to use a bounce as a way of assuming Che is safe.
Except they still have next week to get rid of Che if they don’t want him in the final, which would be more diginified for Nick.
Great post Martin. I do think that Che will be safe though. He’s likeable, consistently good and I think a lot of viewers might think he didn’t deserve to be in the bottom two last weekend since his performance got great feedback and it was a good performance. That said, I’ve never believed that his vote was ever strong. ‘Hello’ is a song choice that could go either way for him. A lot of people are precious about Adele and she can do no wrong in a lot of people’s eyes so covering her new record-breaking track could make Che look amateur in comparison. But, on the flipside, a lot of people may already have a strong emotional connection with the song and anyone who delivers a solid performance of it may win viewers’ favour.
When Nicholas McDonald gave an outstanding performance of ‘Someone Like You’ he topped the vote by some way (one of only two weeks Sam Bailey didn’t top it), so a strong performance by Ché could be the ‘moment’ he’s been needing. A mediocre performance, though…
Another slight motivation for keeping Che in – rumours are they’re letting Grimshaw go next year. Loyalty to your own acts real or fake aside, if Che is knocked out this week, Nick runs the risk of going rogue to save Lauren the following week.
She’s his favourite girl in the competition of the two remaining, and with no act of his own to control how he votes, and no reason to keep in Cowell and co’s good books for next year, what’s to stop him?
Thanks Stu! I think there’s a risk with getting Lauren down there, in that they’ve let her paddle along so far. Whether her vote has been mediocre enough to not need a nuking is a possibility, she may fall into the bottom two naturally this week without needing it, giving them chance to off Che next week without a sing off and damaging the three finalists.
His pay cheque?
Nice retweet of this article from Che over on Twitter. Wonder if he bothered to read the article.
This is his Che’s tweet about the above article: “Someone shows passion and gets shot down for it… Let it go, its a minor thing.” Hmmm, is he trying to be helpful to Lauren or not? 🙂
I’m sure Cowell or his minions read the articles here, if they haven’t for a while. Kitty Brucknell, former contestant and Mirror XF columnist about Sofabet: “I have always said, that site kept me in the show!” When she told the XF class of 2011: “they thought it was tin foil hat but I don’t think so. I think it’s v accurate.” None of the 2015 crop would be so dismissive. There were a few articles about Anton being sabotaged some weeks ago and recently Cowell’s whispers about Che above was very widely reported. Awareness has grown. Will that awareness push ITV to stop Cowell destroying the show by sabotaging performances? Unlikely unfortunately.
I think Saturday’s B2 is just guesswork atm, except that presumably Louisa can escape it. Only 5 left so running order less critical than before. 1 hour 45 minute show Saturday with just the first 5 minutes in the SCD overlap. That may just clip the beginning of somebody’s VT at the worst.
Those Kitty quotes are interesting! Where/when did they come from?
A Twitter conversation with me last weekend! – http://www.twitter.com/jamesm0984 – I commented last weekend on her picking up on Reggie & Bollie’s “WINNER” subliminal that she was “oh so @sofabet” and it went from there.
I may have wittered on about the whole Adele scenario before, but if there really is a chance to get her, whoever she would be happy to sing with will survive to make that happen. Realistically, I can only see Che as someone she would pick, maybe Lauren at a push. My dream would be a Che/Louisa B2 as that would really leave them between a rock and a hard place, but I think this is sadly unrealistic. My uninformed prediction for Saturday would be a patronising hatchet job on Lauren, followed by a Lauren / R’n B singoff on Sunday, R’n B saved for one more week, with the Louisa/Che/4 I finale.
That would give Che to Adele, 4 I can do a cutesy little boys/girls duet with the inevitable 1D, and for Louisa they can give Rita some extra exposure, or maybe even Fleur. That would probably hand Che the win, but I think they have no issue with that, one lacklustre album a la Haenow and then concentrate of making Louisa into Leona V.2.0.
I think Louisa will get Leona. Louisa singing with her “idol” (her love for Leona has been mentioned twice already) will be reminiscent of Alexandra and Beyonce. Obviously I’m not saying Leona is a superstar on the same level as Beyonce but bagging Leona would (a) give Louisa an emotional moment of singing with her idol and (b) reinforce the idea that Louisa is Leona’s successor (however ludicrous that idea may be).
Also, I don’t think the producers want to settle for an undesirable winner – especially if that winner is someone whose vote has been under control. The reason Ben and Matt won with ease was because they ran away with the vote. Che isn’t running away with the vote so why would the producers want him winning when they can get Louisa over the line (presumably)? It’s damaging for the show if there aren’t any winners who go on to be huge stars. Only Little Mix and Leona are still household names out of all of the winners.
I tend to agree with the stance that if Adele is interested in singing with a contestant, they will make sure that contestant is in the final. Ratings come first.
Slap in the face for them though, if they’ve built the whole live shows around making sure Louisa will win and Adele will only sing with Che. Would the discussions not already have taken place though? Surely Adele would already have to be booked for the night anyway, and then if her named contestant(s) were in the final she’d do an extra performance. Either way, tptb would already know who she was interested in singing with, surely?
I think 1D are already confirmed for the final too, aren’t they? I’m hoping for a Reggie and Bollie duet, to their version of What Makes You Beautiful/Cheerleader.
What about if che/adelle was countered by louisa/bieber. That would be a scenario that wouldn’t harm louisas hopes of winning
Adele is on a different level to anyone else in the music industry. She’s on course for the fastest selling album ever in both the UK and the US at least. Nobody can match the power of Adele at the moment.
There’s no reason why Adele can’t perform on the final without performing with a finalist.
I’ve already said she is more likely to perform solo than with che. Although I do disagree with her being more famous than bieber
For a British audience I’d say she’s more popular than Bieber in general.
Ridiculous to compare the two – they’re both mega stars and would be lucrative for the show to get them to agree to a duet. Adele would be more favourable in my opinion – she’s a belter and would resonate better with an X factor audience.
Coldplay were confirmed today, as well as heavy rumours for Adele and 1D. Personally I don’t see Coldplay/Chris Martin duetting with anybody, and Adele seems like a purist. It will be a ‘wait and see’ moment until we know who’s in the final.
Hello has been outselling Sorry by 2:1 in the States (Bieber’s biggest market), I think it’s safe to say her fanbase is stronger than the tween fangirls
Since we are talking about XF UK, USA is irrelevant. Bieber is very popular in the UK right now, just check out the single’s chart.
Anyway, a duet with Adele would likely seal the win for the lucky contestant, so it would be only logical to have the chosen one to duet with Adele. The chosen one or no duet.
You are right, but Justin Bieber has gained in popularity recently. People keep asking if he wants some mash with his “bangers”.
Obviously this disagreement is irrelevant to this site but Adele sold 30 million copies of 21 worldwide in a poor album sales climate. Her new album is breaking records all over the world and is looking to sell nearly 5 million worldwide in one week. No one else even comes close to her selling power. Not to mention she had her own BBC1 special and probably an equivalent in America.
I’d agree Adele is more popular in general but her fans tend to be more casual whereas Bieber’s are more fanatical that’ll vote thirty times if they are told to.
I think Sagand summed it up well. Adele is more popular in general as she appeals to lots of different sorts of people, but that perhaps makes her fans more casual. Justin Bieber is still a little bit of a niche act really, but his fans are more obsessive.
If you look at UK chart performance, one difference between them is that Adele does better on sales, Justin Bieber does better on streaming.
This is why I made the point that if che duetted with Adelle that it could be trumped by Louisa and Justin. Twitter would go ballistic and the free app voting would benefit Louisa more. Anyway it’s obviously not going to happen but i just wanted to point out that its possible for Che to sing with Adelle and not win.
Thoughts on Xtra Factor skits:
1. First skit about Louisa and it made fun of Melvin rather than her
2. They just did a skit about getting to know FI individually and at the end mixed up the labelling of Celina & Mylene.
(the game they just played to get to know RnB better was much more fun than the FI skit).
Reggie and Bollie are sound-checking Dynamite on Xtra Factor. If that’s their second song that was on the Public Jukebox list as well…
Lazy song choices this week – if they were going to choose any other song for R&B this week it should have been “Locked Away”. Worried for them this week, neither song is in their reggae/dancehall style (not originally anyway) and with the competition being whittled down they need to play to their strengths.
The only other song choice we don’t know is Lauren’s isn’t it now?
I can see Dynamite being reggae’d up. It’ll work better for them than it did for District3!
Thoughts on the xtra factor. Reggie and Bollie are extremely lucky not to have hit the bottom 3 yet. Very average voices. Infact average would be a generous description
Just seen the advert for this weekends x factor. Funny how they show 4I, R&B and louisa. Then just literally the back of laurens head and the back of Che. It really is laughable
Did I miss something, or did they just talk about what everyone was singing with the panel on xtra factor except Lauren?
Yeah literally no sign of lauren apart from her interview this week where they didn’t even discuss her song choices.
It was like she’d already left the competition
I do wonder if she’s not at least considering doing so.
She had almost no social media activity this week, her sister had some live stream where she briefly mentioned that encouragement should be sent her way….
She also missed a gig yesterday…
Maybe the whole fiasco did get to her,
And I wouldn’t be surprised. There are no wrds to describe how especially filipinos have bullied her on twitter/IG. People having bible quotes in their description, grown up parents actually took time to call her bitch and wished her death and such. I can’t even….
It would be such a shame if her journey would end on such a bad taste…
Apparently she’s ill but her treatment this week still seems a bit extreme
I LOVE YOU LAUREN. YOU’RE STILL MY NUMBER ONE.
Just sing your song. Everything else will take care of itself.
To be honest the only place I have read about “Lauren-gate” is on here and when I mentioned it at work no-one knew what I was talking about. Out there in the real world no-one gives a fuck. I’d be amazed if the show refers to it at all.
I wouldnt be surprised if there was no major de-ramping from here on in. I reckon TPTB will be happy enough for any of the remaining acts to make the final and theres a good chance Louisa is already out in front. They will want her to win for sure but if she gets to the final they can launch a successful career from that result anyway.
It will be interesting though cos Lauren would be the one you would think they would have to go for. R n B they can just take their foot off the pimping and do the damage they need but Lauren you would think they would need to make a concerted effort to get. Im not sure they will as I think they would have made more effort to bring her down already.
well, social media is full of it. in a very disgraceful way.
twitter, some IG and even now, on X factor’s fcbk page it’s all over negative comments on poor Lauren.
Not sure how much of the actual voting segment that represents.
LAUREN, DONT LET IT GET TO YOU. SMILE, SING, BE BRAVE.
Are they doing the stupid sing-offs all the way through again? I still remember the time when they stopped at top 5. With the fix calls from Simon whispering they would be wise to let the public decide. Unfortunately wise they are not, or this year wouldn’t have been such a shambles.
What with Che’s tweets and Kitty’s comments Sofabet is going mainstream… Soon there will be a little niche site somewhere treating X Factor as a singing contest.
I wish I had more time to comment here like promised.
As we all know, I backed Lauren from the first show and topped up on her again at 33/1. The only need for a hatchet job is if her vote isn’t under control.
The xtra factor tonight didn’t focus on any aspect of her involvement of the competition, with the exception of a brief interview. The focus on her ‘shut up’ when viewed next to the the fourth impact girls being able to speak multiple languages made her out to be stupid… Which is an untrue observation.
Strange, how her second song choice wasn’t revealed.
The half moon was shown in the staging department (wasn’t this a finishing move on Diana vickers?) and deemed not appropriate for Louisa… Wonder if we’ll see Lauren floating in on it (with her self confessed fear of heights on xtra factor)
The clips on doggie box and other sections also place a focus on the 10 second piece of ‘shoutiness’ in Lauren’s Marian Carey number. (Doggie box this week and last, with the voice over suggesting the shoutiness).
I think a group will be gone this week, likely reggie and bollie, maybe with a surprise bottom of Louisa (to ensure the final, if the vote isn’t there) or che. Maybe there could be some value for che to go? Running order is key… Whoever gets wedged between r and b whip nae nae and Louisa could be toast (just thinking out loud)….what could Lauren’s second song be (dripping down on the moon in spandex for a dance number… I sincerely hope not!)?
Engineering a bottom 2 of Lauren and Louisa this week or next would also make he final easier to control.
If Lauren just does her thing, smiles and connects with the public in the warming way that she does (and ignores the try hard, sickeningly pleasiing others)…. She’ll win…
Louisa seems a bit cold and distanced while Lauren is the exact opposite. It would be too dangerous to have her in the final so she needs to go in the next 2 weeks.
The question is who else will leave? Simon has namecheked RnB already as finalists so I think he def wants them for the fun but their vote is in control.
4th Impact would bring the fun too and Louisa would stand out even more so she could easily win.
On the other hand if 4th Impact have a very high voting they would probably prefer Ché in the final as it seems they can easily have his votes in control.
The biggest question out of this is anyway if there will be a bottom two or will the one with the least votes leave? Since I guess they want Lauren out rather now they’ll do another bottom two just to make sure.
Don’t forget that last 2 years they had bottom 2 for the final 4 also, so I guess this week for sure and possibly also the next.
Reggie and Bollie to win!? A few weeks ago it seemed like a joke, but now its being discussed as a serious possibility.
http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-11-27/are-reggie-n-bollie-on-course-to-become-surprise-x-factor-champions
“But take a moment to imagine if this year’s winner’s single really is Bob Dylan’s Forever Young and it’s given a Reggie N Bollie twist. A Merry Christmas indeed.”
Reggie N Bollie to win!
I would say that by now the desired final 3 have probably been determined by TPTB in order to plan the duets etc for the final. So it will be interesting to see how confident they seem to be to get these acts over the line. If we continue to get major pimpings and de-ramps tomorrow then I would say they are worried still. Also, with the rather heavy handed approach this season I think sing offs will continue to prevent surprises.
@Jessica Hamby I watched all of Lauren’s performances back on youtube over the last couple of days (multiple times). You were right, she’s very entertaining and comes across as a nice normal woman… very Stacey Soloman
However… this week I expect her to be painted as a council estate racist, who’s not interested in anything other than chicken nuggets and chips, washed down with a bottle of Cherry Lambrini, before she punches a love rival…
Took some 4.00 oh her Next Elim the other day and will be taking some more 3.75 as it stands
I do want to get some 4th Impact cover though, but need them to hit 3.25+
Thanks Cherry. My hope is that there are enough people watching who agree. Trolls on twitter make a lot of noise but they are not the majority.
If they paint her like that, wouldn’t it be great if she said she modelled herself on Cheryl… 😀
So will they make Lauren rap now. just to be sure she is bottom ? 😀
Agree with you on this Jess.
It does make you wonder who fires all the trolling up in he first place and the reasons behind it.
I personally think Lauren (and poss reggae and bollie) are running away with the vote. As discussed, there wouldn’t be the need for heavy pimping and heavy handed hatchet jobs.
On fourth impact, there is a rapping section in the iggy azalea song…. Rapping, poor pronunciation and foreign/inability to clearly convey the words… This could come across really poorly….
Do we know what Lauren’s second song is yet?
Found Lauren’s second song ‘You Don’t Own Me’ by Grace ft. G-Eazy (judge choice).
yep, thats why I asked if she ll be made to rap, or what??
it looks to be a set up for a 4th Impact slam dunk to me. a classic song that we know they can perform very well with a fairly unique spin – not much rehearsing required on that one. and a mash up of two contemporary songs that the young people will recognise and are kind of instant – no growing on you required. so all demographics are covered. also even if their vocal is not always spot on they are pretty tight performers and will look professional. it seems to me it would take the most murderous assassination job ever to derail that package.
If Lauren’s version could be like this https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pi1zM-HVVEs it would be a good song for her.
Possibilities of creepy staging to coincide with the dirgy undertone.
The end part has a potentially over ‘shouty’ bit, which, if she doesn’t be careful with would play right into tptb hands.
She’ll be good if she avoids these 2 potential pitfalls.
My bottom 2 keep changing in my mind but I’m thinking 4th impact v che or maybe Louisa v Lauren… Running order and staging is key this week…
There’s no doubt that Lauren will sing the hell out of both of her songs – that version would be good for her, and there’s a ballad version of “Firestone” by Kygo on an advert somewhere too. Staging, VT’s, they’re out of her hands but as long as she performs well as she has done the past few weeks, she may be okay. I don’t think she’s being deramped by song choice – they’re both decent. Although “You Don’t Own Me” may seem unknown, there’s no mistaking it once it kicks in.
true.
all that depends on her has the potential to be great.
but I did catch one short comment on xtra factor… she said she was nervous last saturday because she is scared of heights and she didnt have the chance to rehearse on the plint. Easy peasy deramp. I think she has a good chance to end up in B2….. I hope shell smash the songs and the download dharts again. GO ON LAUREN!
I had a crazy thought when I was watching 3rd live show eliminations that they announced the safe acts in reverse order of their actual standing. They announced Mason first, then Lauren, then Che, R&B, Louisa and then 4i. Anton was in the bottom 3.
So far, it seems to be holding up.
Wouldn’t read too much into that. Having been in the sing off the previous week Mason was always going to be called safe first as it was the biggest shock.
Would fully expect Che to be called first this week if indeed he is safe.
You are probably right. That Mason was called safe first was what made me think it was done in reverse. But also the fact that 4i was called last as I expected a lot of sympathy votes for them.
It’s getting to the sharp end of the competition now. It looks like another week where we’ll need to see the show to see how things are panning out. Overall I think Louisa and 4I should be okay this weekend whatever happens – so I think it will be between the remaining three as to who goes.
I don’t see signs of much support for Che – so if they really want him to progress to the final I think it will take another week of massive pimping to keep him away from B2. If he does get producer support and the benefit of a bounce but still lands B2 – which I think is possible – what do they do in the sing off.
Lauren is probably the obvious target but I think she’s got more underlying support than Che. Despite the vitriol of some of this weeks comments this is clearly coming from people who were never voting for her anyway. If anything this may inspire more of a sympathy vote in her favor from anyone else. The song choices look fine so it will be interesting to see what producer support, or lack there of, that see gets this week.
I don’t see R&B running away with it. I’m agreeing with those who thought last week’s OTT pimping was there to keep them out of trouble. They can’t really repeat the trick this week – so this might be the week where the real support level gets tested.