Extend your index finger and pinky, stick your tongue out as far as it will go, and saturate your hair with lacquer… you are now set to rock-out… welcome to Rock Week!
First up to impress the judges and the millions watching at home was Joe McElderry, who’d shown us in previous weeks he was happy to sing big ballads, the question we wanted to know tonight was, how would he deal with a rock song? Singing Don’t Stop Believing by Journey, the young South-Shielder proved he isn’t just a one trick pony by getting the show off to a rocking start.
“You’re an absolute star,” said Dannii: “You looked so comfortable up there.”
Louis was equally as impressed: “You absolutely won me over – I believe you’ll be in the final.”
Simon praised Joe’s consistency but questioned the point of the dancers, who swished and swayed in the background.
After a slight wardrobe-malfunction Cheryl composed herself in time to tell her north-east compatriot that he was going all the way to the final.
We then joined Lucie Jones as her dream of becoming a rock star turned into reality, as her onstage character morphed from a teenage daydreamer to bona fide rock queen. Singing the Guns N Roses smash Sweet Child O’ Mine, the Welsh lass was desperate to put in a good performance, and hopefully squeeze some good comments out of Simon after last week’s criticism.
After a barnstorming performance all four judges were tripping over themselves to praise the 18-year-old
Louis was bowled over by Lucie’s transformation and confirmed she could “sing anything”, sentiments echoed by Cheryl who thought Lucie could become a “little Avril Lavigne”.
Simon reminded Lucie that he thought she was “boring” last week, but added: “Tonight I take that back – you gave it 100%.”
Dannii swelled with pride and told her charge: “I’m so proud and happy for you.”
Eager to put the events of last week to bed, we all thought Danyl Johnson would attack his song like a man intent on staying out of the bottom two. However he chose to cull his usual showmanship and razzmatazz in favour of a stripped back rendition of the Aerosmith hit I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing.
His performance received mixed comments from judges, who weren’t particularly sold on the ‘less-is-more’ approach.
Dannii complained the 27-year-old was out of tune and had lost his “mojo”, Louis stated that there was no way Danyl should have been in the bottom two last week but told him: “You need to pick yourself up and get back in the race.”
Cheryl said: “You just don’t do it for me,” whilst Simon defended his finalist claiming Danyl was in a no-win situation. “You are still the best singer in the competition,” he told him.
Next up was the competition’s ‘babe-magnet’ Lloyd Daniels, who took a risk by singing a rocked-up version of Katy Perry’s I Kissed A Girl. With a harem of female dancers grabbing and pulling him every which way, he seemed to having the time of his life.
“That was the most comfortable I have seen you on stage,” Dannii told him.
A stickler for the rules, Louis claimed that Lloyd had “slightly cheated” because he’d picked a pop song instead of a rock one.
After telling Louis to stop being such a pedant, Simon told the 16-year-old it was: “A million times better this week than it was last week.”
Stacey Solomon completed the first half’s performances with a surprisingly beautiful cover of the Keane song, Somewhere Only We Know.
Whilst Louis “wasn’t crazy” about the song choice, Cheryl loved it and urged the Essex girl to put more of her personality into her performances.
“I was more impressed with you walking, than I was with the singing!” Simon exclaimed, before adding: “I thought that was terrific.”
Read Rock around the clock to find out how the remaining acts fared.