A much, much better week. In fact, it’s probably my favourite night of performances over the two seasons. If there’s one thing in particular that came out was song choice really can make a world of difference.

Credit where it’s due as well: Supernova were constructive with their comments and I found myself agreeing with most of it.

The top three, all on a level par:

Dilana – Bad Company “Can’t Get Enough”
You almost feel that the gig is hers already and only she could snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Intense, energetic, brazen, stomptastic (is that a word?) and a vocal treat. You go girl!

Josh Logan – Sublime “Santeria” Never mind that Josh doesn’t have the style to click with Supernova, his voice deserves an audience. The song suited him to a ‘T’ and he did a great job. I’d happily listen to him singing this many times over.

Ryan Star – R.E.M. “Losing my Religion”
So Ryan does have the chops after all. I’m surprised that people haven’t cottoned on to the fact that doing a piano solo guarantees you pimp credit. Mesmerising stuff. My one nitpick is that there was a brief period where Ryan changed the melody to an extent that you might have been listening to a completely different song, but still, fantastic.

4) Storm Large – David Bowie “Changes” It started a bit Broadway to me and far too conservative but then she just wrapped herself in the music. It was understated but all the more emotive for it. Storm *ahem* (double-entendre alert!) stripped down - I like it.

5) Magni – Coldplay “Clocks”
Catchy but then I make no apologies for being a Coldplay fan. (As an aside, I love the intro to this song). The vocal wasn’t stellar by any stretch of the imagination – a bit on the soft side, IMO – although it was perfectly serviceable.

6) Toby Rand – Nirvana “Pennyroyal Tea”
Better than last time but they seriously need to stop with the Nirvana love-fest. Now. I’m also becoming increasingly disconnected with Toby for some reason. He had all sorts of promise in Week 1 and yet while his performances are never the worst of the bunch he’s missing something. That thing I’d imagine - and God help me for quoting Simon Cowell – is the ‘X’ factor.

7) Lukas Rossi – Hole “Celebrity Skin”
What happened to Lukas this week? He seemed low key, flippant, almost depressed even. That confident-bordering-on-cocky-‘screw you’ attitude was gone. Glow, I think you need to relight his fire, baby Easily his worst performance.

8) Patrice Pike – Stevie Wonder “Higher Ground”
Dave said it was “pretty good.” That’s what it boils down to for me, too. I finished liking it less than I should have, though, especially after hearing the others who followed on the set.

9) Zayra Alvarez – Tommy Tutone “867-5309”
Either Zayra is totally oblivious to the reality that she is a figure of other people’s fun or she’s determined to rise above it. If it’s the latter, well, good on her. I was actually quite entertained by all that gyrating (what can I say, I like limber ) and it didn’t really sound all that bad to my ears. No doubt, she does channel Bjork at times. Sticking to more melodic and slower tempo material would be beneficial (as demonstrated by her two best performances to date: ‘Everybody Hurts’ and last week’s bottom three tune).

10) Dana Andrews – The Who “Baba O’ Riley”
The annoying thing is that Dana’s rendition flirted with potential only to fail in shifting into overdrive. It was alright in the end.

11) Jill Gioia – Simple Minds “Don’t You Forget About Me”
Plain awful. If you ever wanted to know how to ruin an 80s pop classic, you know now. Gilby was spot on: Jill oversang it. Not only that, it was soooooo…….forced. The screaming/shouting at the start was noise pollution. We have, it would seem, discovered a fake.

VH