The X Factor Boot Camp Begins with Triumph, Tears, and a Whitney Houston Sing-Off

X Factor's Paige Thomas and CeCe Frey had a Whitney Houston sing-off

By GLAMOROSI

Now that The X Factor season 2 auditions are over, it’s time for the contestants to attend boot camp in Miami, FL. Ultimately the vocalists will be separated into four categories and mentored by the judges, but for episode 7 Simon Cowell, L.A. Reid, Britney Spears and Demi Lovato had the job of whittling 120 contestants down by half. It was a night of triumph, tears, and a Whitney Houston sing-off.

We saw the contestants arriving at the tony Mondrian Hotel, but as Simon pointed out, “this is not going to be a holiday, this will be the most intense week of their lives.”

Jennel Garcia

For their initial task the singers had to perform in front of each other – it was the first time all of the hopefuls got to size each other up. We watched some familiar contestants continue to impress: Diamond White slayed it on Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing”, Dinah Jane Hansen was fantastic on Mariah Carey’s “Hero”, David Correy did an awesome take on Duffy’s “Mercy”, trio Emblem3 displayed killer harmonies on the Goo Goo Dolls “Iris”, and Jennel Garcia wowed with her smoking hot vocals on Gavin DeGraw’s “Sweeter.” She was, as L.A. Reid put it, “very spicy”. We also saw Jason Brock doing his soulful thing, and he sounded great.

Some others who traveled to Miami didn’t fare so well: Jessica Espinoza had a rough night, Jordyn Foley was woefully off key, and Jake Garza completely lost his place and was in tears (“I want my Mom”). I wish the producers hadn’t shown so much of his melt-down; kids can be cruel, and school is going to stink for him this year.

There was a bit of diva drama when two very pretty, very capable singers - Paige Thomas and CeCe Frye - did back-to-back auditions with Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You”, but they both made it through the first cut.

Lyric Da Queen

In the end, the contestants were divided into three groups, two were brought back for another round of X Factor boot camp, one was sent home. We didn’t see much of them, but it appears that Sophie Tweed-Simmons (Gene’s daughter) and Jillian Jensen (the girl who was bullied) will be back. A female rapper Lyric Da Queen was shown briefly during the show and was quite good – it seems she made the cut too, which is cool – we’d like to see more of her.

The X Factor airs Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8/7c on FOX.

Photos ©Talkback Thames, FremantleMedia, SYCOtv

To read more of our X Factor coverage click here.

Posted on Thursday, October 4, 2012 11:35 AM