Let It Shine: Life lessons for wannabes

The pleasantries are over and the judges are settling in – Dannii being particularly honest.

I won’t say brutal, as there needs to be realism from the judges as to who genuinely has a chance of making it in a long running theatre show. But I did feel sorry for Scott.

We met him backstage with Mel and he came across as confident and personable, playing the crowd and making me smile. And when he started singing, I thought, yeah, he’s good. But as soon as I said so, he decided to try too hard, put some power in and it all went horribly wrong.

Sadly, he only made it to 14 stars, due to Dannii’s 2, and then got a bit lippy. Martin gave him 5, feeling, as I did, that there was enough potential there to warrant a shot. Gary was gutted, having given him a 4, as he also would have liked to see him again. Amber was the only one who judged him fairly as a 3, taking into account what was good and what was bad.

Scott queried his 2 with Mark and Howard backstage, coming across a little bit bratty – but this was disappointment talking, and it could have been edited more kindly – a strength of this show is the warm-hearted feel, and this part detracted from that. Stage experience or not, it does show how fragile a young ego can be, although rejection is a life experience everyone has to go through. Hopefully he’ll understand where it went wrong and keep trying.

The one outstanding performer for me this week was 23 year old Curtis from Leeds. In between working at a rugby club, he writes songs – some of which will be on Matt Cardle’s upcoming album – so already we know he’s someone with a vision of where he wants to be. Happy, smiley and relaxed on stage, he delivered Corinne Bailey Rae’s Put Your Records On beautifully, a brilliant song choice.

The standard overall was much higher this week, with some confident performers interspersed with those that needed a bit more guidance and got through on potential. The potentials included Dylan, who took on Katy Perry’s Roar and sold it, and Julius, from a gospel choir, who was so set on showing his dance moves, the vocal suffered a bit. I wasn’t sure about Huw at the beginning but he’d won me over by the end.

Ciaran and Keith, of whom we didn’t see enough, went through in a montage along with Craig, who I really didn’t think was that strong and was surprised when he ended up with 18 stars. Maybe they edited out the best bit, maybe they want to unleash him on us later – just seems strange not to show us his whole audition.

Jonnie had kicked things off, another cheeky, twinkly lad and an excitable performer with a good voice and some nifty dance moves. It was a crowd pleasing audition but he might start to wear us out after a while.

Also confidently taking the stage was rocker Damien who was extremely loud and not your typical boy band type. Whether he can tone it down or whether he’s a one trick pony we’ll have to see – but there’s no denying the power in his performance.

Jamie is another cheeky one with a decent voice – and decent dance moves too, probably. Unfortunately for us at home, the cameraman cut away from him just as he was going for the Big Move. I’m sure we’ll get an opportunity to see what he can do in due course.

Fortunately, the cameraman didn’t cut away from Harry, who duly removed his tee-shirt as promised if he made it through. A 6-times-a-week-to-the-gym man, and good looking to boot, they’ve definitely found The Fit One. Vocally, he was good – except when he tried to hit the falsetto and failed, miserably. So don’t do that again Harry, at least, not without a safety net.

Last week, I saw an article on a tabloid whereby the journalist decided Martin Kemp was serious when he pretended to flounce off, even though he and everyone else was laughing. I can’t help but wonder where her head was at. Frankly, I’d be embarrassed to have written that.

Anyway, I can’t wait to see what this journalist made of Gary’s threat to drop Lee, the Take That tribute singer, through the stage trap door (there isn’t one). I can see the “Gary Barlow threatens to murder contestant” headline now …