Barry bombs as Dami dominates with Disco The X Factor Top Ten recap Barry Southgate sings in the top ten of The X Factor Welcome to the X Factor's top ten live show with the inspired theme of top ten chart hits. Phew. And you were worried they wouldn't be singing popular music this week weren't you? Joelle sings in the top ten of The X Factor Luke Jacobz comes on stage like a man who is comfortable wearing a z in his name and introduces the judges for those who thought tonight was a good night to watch their first episode of The X Factor ever. Dannii is reminded that Barry was in the bottom two in week one and Cat Vas eliminated last week and generally has it lauded over her because she is a bad mentor (BAD mentor!) before we go in for a little tempting of fate / false drama creation with Luke saying Ronan hasn't been in the bottom two yet. A statement that would be all the more powerful had there been more than two of them so far. Dami Im sings in the top ten of The X Factor They talk some more to no result then the singing begins. Crucially we learn in the video that plays prior to the song that Jacinta has a thing for ears, while there is a brief mention that the trio have failed to learn the harmonies this week so we may hope we have a thing for our ears soon, a thing like ear plugs. "Where you at?" more like "what you doing?" ... Barry Southgate on The X Factor In a miscalculated current affairs referece, the trio begin in a faux Presidential-style press conference set up behind a podium - presumably designed to remind us of that election that we just haven't had enough of. The trio are a bit stilted to start with, relying entirely on rapping for energy. Once they come out from behind the podium it improves extensively and the sketchy harmonies we had been warned of disappear for the most part. It's hard to reason why these guys keep opening the show, as they are being asked to do a lot of heavy lifting. Give them a week in the middle somewhere and let them sing a bit more. Rating: 7/10 - Still not a show stopper but improving. Ronan picks them up on their harmonies, Dannii and Foo are positive while Nat shouts out "Third degree buuuuuuuuuuuuuuurn" which is a line one suspects she's been dying to use. Jai Waetford - The Way You Make Me Feel, Michael Jackson The video tells us that Jai thought he was safe before he was actually safe last week (oh the poor dear!) and also that he likes to play pranks on people, though it is Jai that tells us this without any evidence or demonstration. Oh you. The song begins with Jai singing acapella and it's possibly the cleanest that he has sung so far. Without any backing he actually has a strong similarity to a young MJ's voice from the Jackson Five. Jai is surrounded by young (Jai young) male dancers, then young male and female dancers in a neon coloured set that has a whole Young Talent Time vibe going on. Jai is moving about and has more energy than we've seen so far, the soulful fourteen year old has, thankfully, taken a break. Rating: 8/10 - Age appropriate, poppy, boppy and fun. The crowd love it and both Ronan and Foo are standing at the end. Foo's reaction a more useful measure given his Motown roots. Nat admires Jai's moves and borders on inappropriate with her admiration. She then raises the spectre of Bevan from YTT which has Dannii in stitches and "who's Bevan?" asks Jai. Nuff said. Dannii says the performance didn't measure up to his "Jai-normous" fans and he should "bring it on." Foo politely disagrees. Dannii mentions Bieber and no one asks who that B-boy is. Foo and Dannii bicker. Jai likes it when the grownups fight. Barry Southgate - California Girls, Katy Perry Barry tells us in the video that singing Freedom broke him last week. Broke him like a stallion. We then learn he says "Where you at?" a lot, and Barry just become Joey 2.0. He is worried about the song choice because everyone knows it - as opposed to his normal unknown mystery numbers - and that he has to do a rap. As B-dizzle (self-christened) starts his number, he tries to get the crowd going with him but might wish they drowned him out instead as his pitch is out. He warms up though ... until it gets to the chorus and then it goes consistently flat. He is actually saved by the rap, as it is tuneless and slow enough that he gets through it fine. Oddly, Barry's energy and enthusiasm, which used to be the problem, is fine here. It's the singing which is anything but fine, and that has to be a problem. Rating: 5/10 - Seriously, there are California dogs that are howling right now. Foo and I disagree as he gives Barry a big "where you at?" and big cheers after a standing ovation. He calls it the best performance of his (Barry's) life. Ronan on the other hand was listening and says vocally it was pitchy all the way through. Nat tries to be nice and comment on Barry's outfit but also thought it was out vocally. Dannii oddly liked her own performers performance. Barry is back to buying his own hype it seems, he's giving a bit of attitude in response to the judges comments, turning to the crowd to back his self-belief then replying Luke with near-to-snide comments. Ellie Lovegrove - Like A Bird, Nelly Furtado From the video we learn Ellie plays balloons with Dami and hugs Jai. Ed-u-cational. Ellie has been given a very stationary staging again this week, standing on a box with a stand mic, backed by a string section in silhouette. Her cover of Nelly Furtado is closer to a duplicate, with no real essence of Ellie in this. That said, it is a very good duplication. Oh dear, she's gone rogue at the end, with a falsetto riff that isn't up to scratch. Rating 7/10 - Ellie Furtado is very easy to listen to, Screechy Furtado less so. Nat says she's finally got a sense of who Ellie is: Nelly. Dannii liked the staging and agrees "more of this." Foo says he's happy and highlights how hard this song is to sing. Omar Dean - Cry Me A River, Justin Timberlake The video intro essentially establishes that this is the ultimate litmus test for Omar as a singer. He opens in tune, but not in character. It's a bit weak and in trying to sound like JT fails to quite live up to that very high standard. It is, again, a direct replica, or rather an attempted replica of the original not a cover. That replica extends to a very strong backing singer track that verges on duet. It's unflattering when the backing singers drown you out. Once Omar goes to falsetto we get "#FalsettoFactor offered up as a hashtag suggestion and while that is cringeworthy, the song improves no end. Omar's head voice is killing it, his proper voice that needs to take note. Rating 7/10 - Great Mickey Mouse save on the former Disney boy's song Huge response from the crowd and the judges who all give him a standing ovation. Nat has loved seeing Omar grow. Foo is upset because he feels all the girls will like Omar now. Ronan tells us that Omar is a nice guy, with a heart of gold and the voice of an angel. Yet, one could argue, still some stage presence lacking. JTR - Everybody Talks, Neon Trees We learn the brothers were disappointed by the criticism they received last week ... and then we learn they like to bark like dogs. Seriously, it gets crazy backstage on X Factor, no seriously. The boys begin with a harmony and a false cough, which is a good idea as this is a dischordant song so we know they're in key before they go out, with intent. They are in tune and they're also on fire. Once they jump off the box they found themselves on at the start, they are bouncing among the crowd and the relaxed energy improves rather than diminishes the singing. They serenade one woman in the audience, who looks happy with the attention, while the woman in front of her looks like she's going to kill whoever dragged her to this live televised event. It's a really good performance that was out of the box once they were off of it. Rating 8/10 - Great song with spectacular performance and crowd work All four judges stand and they all rave and say this is the JTR they've been waiting for. Foo gets a plug in for his song Let's Get Ridiculous while Ronan is all about the energy. Nat is giddy once Ronan suggests it was a great song choice because no one ever says that about her song choices. She revs the crowd up again and is ecstatic with what they've delivered. Joelle - Locked Out of Heaven, Bruno Mars Foo reminds us that Joelle was in the bottom two. The video reminds us of it. Then Joelle admits she deserved it but is determined to learn from it. Foo and Joelle try to find meaning in the lyrics by saying it's kind of about being in the bottom two and ... no, no it isn't. Joelle starts the song in an outfit that is trying to look like a cross between P!nk and Fergie while swaying back and forth in front of a giant tattoo of a heart. The set is bigger than the performance. This can at least be described as Joelle singing her version of this song. She has a very distinct voice which makes any song choice a legitimate cover. It's nice to listen too, but unfortunately it's still not a 100% performance, it feels a bit phoned in. Rating 6/10 - It's good without being great ... again. The crowd applauds for a short while, as do the judges. Ronan asks Joelle if she thought it was 100% and she doesn't have an answer, which really is the answer. Ronan suggests the song choices and her on-stage look are forcing her somewhere that isn't genuine and suggests a simple Adele performance next week. Dannii has no idea who she was singing about, apparently also unconvinced the song was about being in the bottom two. It gets hard to watch after a while as the judges are essentially kicking a puppy. Foo then utterly fails to come to Joelle's rescue and basically says "I told you so," as he hangs her out to dry and takes no responsibility for her overly-styled look. This has to be a turning point for Joelle if she is here next week. If. Taylor Henderson - I Will Wait, Mumford and Sons The video reminds us that Ronan sold Taylor down the river last week with the Bryan Addams song that just wasn't him ... or a song. Then it gets weird as Ronan tells him he's singing Don't Look Back in Anger by Oasis, contrary to what we were just told, before one rehearsal is enough to show Taylor can't sing it. Taylor then chooses a song he can sing, and oddly it seems he can sing it. Ronan tells the camera he hopes it won't hurt him. It can't hurt anymore than another bad song choice if that rehearsal - or last week - was anything to go by. As the number begins, Taylor is singing from within a giant mosquito net with eyes being projected onto it. And if that sounds weird I've pretty much captured the effect. He sings the first, subdued, verse and chorus from back there with the three piece folk band, then he comes out to centre stage on his own and genuinely gets into it and owns the room. Once he goes to 100% he never pulls back so it's a bit mono-intensity but it works for him. It's more impression than cover, but a very good impression at that. Rating: 8/10 - Taylor can choose a great song for himself Nat says Taylor was "insane" tonight and commends the song choice. Dannii loved the indie edge and highlights the contrast between when he's on and when he's doubting. Foo wants Taylor to relax and be even more free, which seems reasonable as Taylor looks intensely focused on each and every word Foo is saying. "Team Ro" lends out waistcoats it seems as Ronan highlights that Taylor is wearing his waistcoat before saying he'll get him to the final. I'm just hoping no one ever uses the term "Team Ro" again. Dami Im - Don't Leave Me This Way, Thelma Houston Dami can't sing last again this week as she's closed the show two weeks running, so she's second last. This week she's doing disco for the first time and has had to learn the lyrics, which would be a novelty were it not always the case. In the video, the other teams playfully mock Dami's hands-to-cheeks gesture lovingly as clearly they have all decided to outwardly love her because she's around for the long haul while inwardly hoping to choke her with those very hands. Ronan's biggest concern is that "Dami does disco" is hard for an Irishman to say. The song begins with a hummed intro and from that moment on it's clear she's got this. Dami's hum is better than anything else we've heard tonight. Dami's outfit is brought to you by the casting announcement for Fifty Shades of Grey as she's wearing a black top and skirt of a variety of latex and pleathers. Her performance is stunning. She has three backup singers on stage and Nat at the desk singing along at the top of her voice. They can all sing along as loud as they like though because Dami is able to rise above them all. She gets the crowd on their feet not through gestures but because her voice lifts them. Rating: 9/10 - Can you believe this girl almost missed out? Come on! Where did you come from?" asks Foo. "You do the Dami thing" with any song. He points out that her outfit looks like a bumblebee - a bumblee with a particular bent one might suggest - but she ignored that. Good point really, a good performer should be bigger than any outfit. He then says she did disco "better than I've seen it done before." Ronan wants a separate show for Dami so the others can compete for second. Nat wants to go to the Dami disco which was a "crazy trip of Dami and Andy Warhol." Dannii says she looked like a runway model and insists it's real leather (I stand corrected). Luke lets Foo know that his song Let's Get Ridiculous has just gone number one on iTunes. Not bad for an hour's work really as he performed it for the first time live earlier in the show. Jiordan Tolli - With or Without You, U2 The song choice gets a murmur of shock from the crowd which mirrors the shock Jiordan tells us, in her video, that she felt when she got her standing ovation last week. We then learn that she is cat crazy, as she explains how her cat is different to other cats and I'm thinking it's more crazy than cat. The rehearsal on the other hand is more cat than song. Awkward. The staging is different for Jiordan as she starts out sat upon the stage facing away from the audience before rising to stare, somewhat angrily, down the barrel of the camera. The slow burn start of this song is good as Jiordan shows her voice is up to taking this away from Bono's memory. As she gets to the chorus she takes it in a different direction, slowly giving it her own flavour. This is strong, and then it starts to snow as she reaches the final sustained notes which are a bit pitchy but still good. Rating: 7/10 - Nothing cat-like here, but it wasn't purrrr-fect Foo stands alone at the end. Ronan compliments Jiordan on the fact that the stage she was sat on was meant to be turning but wasn't. That genuinely wasn't noticeable. He also picked up on a few bum notes but enjoyed it. Nat thought the lack of spin affected Jiordan's performance but not her singing. "Who cares, that was fantastic," is Dannii's simple summary. A bottom two comprised of the two survivors from the first two eliminations. Barry had a Barry, while Joelle didn't rise to the occasion compared to the others who have been struggling until now. Wildcard: Jai, if the fans don't remember or like Young Talent Time. Oh and someone book Dami for one of the football Grand Finals for the pre-show, she's better than most of the stuff we usually get. It also might give one of the other contestants a chance to be top that week. The X Factor Top Ten Dannii is reminded that Barry was in the bottom two in week one and Cat Vas eliminated last week before tempting fate and saying Ronan hasn't been in the bottom two yet. Crucially we learn in the video that plays prior to the song that Jacinta has a thing for ears, while the trio have failed to learn the harmonies this week so we may have a thing in our ears soon. In a miscalculated current affairs referece, the trio begin in a Presidential style press conference set up behind a podium - presumably to remind us of that election that we just haven't had enough of. The video tells us that Jai thought he was safe before he was safe last week (oh the poor dear!) and likes to play pranks on people, though it is Jai that tells us this without any evidence. Jai is surrounded by young male dancers, then young male and female dancers in a neon coloured set that has a whole Young Talent Time vibe going on. Foo a more useful measure given his Motown roots. He is worried about the song choice because everyone knows it - as opposed to his normal unknown mystery numbers - and a rap. As B-dizzle starts his number he tries to get the crowd going with him but might wish they drowned him out instead as his pitch it out. He warms up though ... until it gets to the chorus and just goes consistently flat. It's the singing, which is anything but fine. Foo and I disagree as he gives Barry a big "where you at?" and cheers after a standing ovation. He calls it the best performance of his life. Ronan on the other hand was listening as says vocally it was pitchy all the way through. Nat tries to be nice and comment on his outfit but also thought it was out vocally. Barry is back to buying his own hype, giving a bit of attitude in response to the judges by turning to the crowd then Luke with snide comments. Ellie has been given a very stationary staging again this week, on a box with a stand mic, backed by a string section in silhouette. Nat says she's finally got a sense of who Ellie is. Nelly. It's a bit weak and in trying to sound like JT fails that measure. It is again a direct replica, or rather an attempted replica. Once Omar goes to falsetto we get #FalsettoFactor as a hashtag offering and it improves no end. His head voice is killing his proper voice. Rating 7/10 - Great Mickey Mouse voice save on the former Disney boys song The boys begin with a harmony and a false cough, which is a good idea as this is a dischordant song so we know they're in key. They are, and they're also on fire. Once they jump off the box they find themselves on at the start they are bouncing among the crowd and the relaxed energy improves rather than diminishing the singing. They serenade one woman in the audience, who looks happy, while the woman in front of her looks like she's going to kill whoever dragged her to this live televised event. It's a really good performance that was out of the box once they were off it. Rating 8/10 - Great song and spectacular performance and crowd work Foo gets a plug in for Let's Get Ridiculous while Ronan is all about the energy. Then Joelle admits she deserved it. Joelle starts the song trying to look like a cross between P!nk and Fergie while swaying back and forth in front of a giant tattoo of a heart. This can only be described as Joelle singing her version of this song. She has a very distinct voice which is pretty much the same regardless of the song choice. Ronan suggests the song choice and look is forcing her somewhere that isn't her and suggests a simple Adele performance next week. Dannii has no idea who she was singing about, apparently not convinced the song was about being in the bottom two. Foo then utterly fails to come to her rescue and basically says "I told you so," as he hangs her out to dry and takes no responsibility for her overly-styled look. The video reminds us that Ronan sold Taylor down the river last week with the Bryan Addams song that just wasn't him. Then it gets weird as Ronan tells him he's singing Don't Look Back in Anger by Oasis and one rehearsal is enough to show he can't sing it. He then chooses a song he can sing, and it seems he can sing it. It can't if that rehearsal - or last week - was anything to go by. Taylor is singing from within a giant mosquito net with eyes being projected onto it, and if that sounds weird I've pretty much captured the effect. He sings the first, subdued, verse and chorus from back there with the three piece folk band then comes out on his own and genuinely gets into it and owns the stage. Team Ro lends out waistcoats it seems as Ronan highlights that Taylor is wearing his waistcoat before saying he'll get him to the final. The other teams mock Dami's hands-to-cheeks gesture lovingly and clearly they have all decided to love her because she's around for the long haul. They can all sing along as loud as they like because Dami is able to rise above them all. He points out that her outfit looks like a bumblebee but ignored that. Ronan wants a separate show for Dami so they can compete for second. Not bad for an hour's work really. We then learn that she is cat crazy, then she explains how her cat is different to other cats and I'm thinking it's more crazy than cat. The staging is different for Jiordan as she starts out sat upon the stage facing away before rising to stare, somewhat angrily, down the barrel of the camera. Barry had a Barry, Joelle didn't rise to the occasion compared to the others who have been struggling until now. Oh and someone book Dami for one of the Grand Finals for the pre-show, she's better than most of the stuff we usually get.