Alisah Bonaobra once again delivered a sterling performance in the Judges House round of “The X Factor UK.”
Unfortunately, that was not enough for judge and Girls mentor Sharon Osbourne to take her to the next round of the popular talent search competition series. When it came down to choosing between Alisah and contestant Grace Davies, Sharon went with the latter and sent home the last remaining Filipino contestant.
Despite riveting performances that kept her in contention, it has been rough sailing for the 22-year-old “The Voice of the Philippines” runner-up throughout her journey, and this week was no exception.
During her turn at the Judges House episode Sunday, Alisah soared high with a rendition of Sam Smith’s “Lay Me Down” that impressed Sharon’s children Jack and Kelly Osbourne.
“She can sing!” Kelly exclaimed. Jack, who agreed added, “That’s the cleanest performance we’ve seen.”
When it was Grace’s turn to perform, the 19-year-old British singer-songwriter considered as a frontrunner in the contest, opted to perform another one of her original songs, “More Than You.”
Her underwhelming performance, however, was stopped mid-song by Sharon who told her, “You’re clipping your words, it’s as if you’re stopping your vocals to come out.”
“I love that little quirky sound that you have in your voice but you’re doing it too much… We’ve got to hear that you’ve got power in your voice. Just relax and sing,” Sharon added before letting Grace, an internet sensation who has been compared with Adele, start over again.
For a while, it seemed like Grace’s emotions got the better of her as her performance felt flat and her voice crackled when it looked like she was breaking down. Sharon, however, assured her that “it was great” even as her son Jack remarked, “She’s a fantastic songwriter but I don’t think she’s a great singer, I don’t think she has that power.”
When it was time for Sharon to choose between Alisah and Grace, it looked like the Filipina had the upper hand. But her initial words to Alisah did not sound very encouraging.
“You have the most amazing voice, I know that you really need this and you really want it. But I feel that you are kind of very one-dimensional, your power ballads, and even though that’s fantastic, I want to see other sides of you.”
Her earlier comment about Alisah’s performance also had an ominous ring to it.
“Every time we’ll hear her sing, she’s been consistent, the only reason I didn’t put her through at six chairs—because she was out, [then] she was in, was because every song she sang was like Whitney Houston, or a Disney song which you can’t do week after week because [then] it becomes [a] cheese fest.”
In the end, Sharon opted for Grace who she said had “too much talent.”
But even though Alisah Bonaobra is officially eliminated in “The X Factor UK,” we may not have seen the last of her in the competition.
The U.K.-based entertainment news site Radio Times reported that this year’s edition of the show will have one or more wild card returnees among the eliminated contestants.
Alisah was voted by the site’s readers as the top contestant they want to return as a wild card while the site also predicted that she is one of those likely to return to the show.
“Essentially, no has never actually meant no when it comes to ditching Alisah from the competition. We really wouldn’t be surprised to see her return. Again,” Radio Times noted.
“The X Factor UK” airs first and exclusive on RTL CBS Entertainment same day as the UK on Sundays and Mondays at 10:30AM with primetime encores Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays at 9PM.
RTL CBS Entertainment is available on SKYcable channels 53(SD) and 196(HD), SKYdirect channel 35, Destiny Cable channel 53, and Cablelink channels 37(SD) and 313(HD).