While standards should be higher at this stage of the competition, the logic of Amanda Pellman’s scores this week eludes me utterly. While Kate & Troy did a fine job of AC/DC, I didn’t see it as a 10-ranked performance. Even more confusing was giving Sarah’s enthusiastic, but ultimately off-pitch, rendition of ‘Your Song’, a nine. But then Amanda’s always been the biggest waste of space on the judging panel.
Simon & Paulini’s exit from the show was no great surprise, given their low score this week. What was more interesting was Erika & David joining them in the bottom two — obviously I’m not the only person who feels their general lack of personality and air of smugness cancels out their obvious technical abilities. Next week’s likely eviction candidates are hard to pick, especially given Kate & Troy’s swing back to form this week, which shows that anything’s possible.
Richard & Wendy, ‘The Power Of Love’ Huey Lewis is a good vocal match for Champs, and giving Wendy more to do also proved a successful choice. If they can stay away from ballads next week, they may stick around, although the pressure is definitely on.
Sarah & Guy, ‘Your Song’ Yet again, Sarah showed that her enthusiasm and charm continue to outstrip her vocal abilities. While Guy made endless excuses about being sick, I actually saw that as an advantage — he was less inclined to go over the top vocally, making it easier for Sarah to try and harmonise (although the key word remains ‘try’).
Mark & Rachel, ‘Total Eclipse Of The Heart’ Definitely my favourite performance of the week. I love the song of course, but what really made it work was that the pair eschewed the obvious option of giving Mark the recurring ‘turn around’ vocal and instead swapped the roles. At the moment, these guys would have to be my picks to win, and I thought this deserved a couple more points than it got. Amanda’s comments about cheesiness made no sense at all, but that’s hardly surprising.
Simon & Paulini, ‘Reminiscing’ Simon commented that he was determined to do this despite the consequences, and the consequences were all too obvious. It wasn’t a teeth-gratingly terrible performance, but it definitely was the worst of the week.
Erika & David, ‘Missing You’ Mr and Ms Antiseptic didn’t really deliver the goods with this number. David’s parody of how he’d sing the song operatically was quite telling — he simply doesn’t have the kind of soul or huskiness in his tones that this nunber requires. But Erika might be a logical choice to take over from the consistently awful Teresa as co-host next season, especially since she’s lost her Foxtel gig.
Kate & Troy, ‘It’s A Long Way To The Top’ This was a fun and raunchy performance, but giving it a 36 (and thereby the highest score of the series so far) implies a level of quality which wasn’t quite there — it’s not the most vocally challenging of numbers, and performance was probably the key. Nonetheless, it showed that Kate & Troy can’t be easily written off.
Random notes: