The talent competition reaches the most crucial part where everything an Idol does or doesn’t do may cost them dearly. A look at male performances…
It is clear at this stage of the competition, Sonke and Brenden are the front runners, at least according to the judges Unathi Msengana, Gareth Cliff and Randall Abrahams. I would like to add on the list Innocent and judging by the tweets yesterday, Musa is also in on the loot.
As Gareth said, Brenden has just become the guy to beat. The screams when he took to the stage to perform Rihanna’s Stay were a great indication of his popularity. Though this is a talent contest, it has somehow become a popularity contest. Brenden owned Stay and his exceptional performances is what his fans have come to expect from him. He is in the competition to Stay.
Makhosonke aka Sonke, he really upped his ante with his Rihanna’s Diamonds rendition. I never knew Sonke had it in him to pull the song the way he did. It was my performance of the night just as much as it was Unathis. Owning a song is critical in any given singing talent search and this year’s Idols get that. Sonke upped the stakes. He is a Diamond.
Then there was Benjamin and in my humble opinion was not a great performance. The beats, the guitar playing and how he moved on stage was totally awesome and the same cannot be said about his vocals on the song. There was definitely something wrong, it might have been the nerves but how can the nerves not translate to the dancing but just singing only. If he makes it through, he will need to review his game plan. Gareth is of the opinion that he will only make it through by charity. Ouch! That hurts. His rendition of Avicii’s Wake Me Up may just be an indication that he needs to be waken up and smell the coffee. He is in the top 16 and he needs wake up and give it his all.
Innocent’s rendition of Daft Punk’s Get Lucky was a great groove and I totally felt the groove in his entire performance. Innocent has always chosen difficult songs from his very first audition and he has tackled songs that many may not do well at all in and I think that is his strength. He really moved on stage and his performance most probably had the whole of Limpopo, especially the very hawt Phalaborwa, tapping their feet. The 35 degrees Celsius that was Phalaborwa yesterday had nothing on his performance. Hopefully he will Get Lucky with this one.
The lastborn from Durban, Jono’s interpretation of Millionaires by The Script was, in my humble opinion, a lukewarm performance. Sure his vocals on the songs were great. At this stage of the competition, we already know they can all sing, but his stage presence needs some serious work for him to clinch the title. The competition is very tight so he really needs to go back to the drawing board and redesign his game plan. He also needs to be careful with his song choices. Hopefully viewers and fans believe he is worth Millions of Idols winnings.
Phillip’s Believe in Me was an ok performance. But for Randall to say he and his voice were too immature for the song, hai, suka. What does that mean though? Definitely not the best performance I have seen, one can only hope viewers and fans Believe in him.
Lee-Ron tackled Harriet Jones by Eric Benet. Honestly, I have not heard the song up until last night. So the song is just nje for me or it needs to grow on me. He did his best and gave it almost his all, I suppose. Hopefully viewers will put their Joneses on him so he makes it through.
And then there was Musa who did Please don’t judge me by Chris Brown. Cough cough, Musa honestly needs to up his ante and brush up his game plan because viewers will judge him harshly if he doesn’t.
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