Malta: These are the four X-factor finalists; One of them will go to Tel Aviv
This year X Factor Malta is the successor of Malta Eurovision Song Contest (MESC) as the format for selecting the country’s Eurovision 2019 entry. This Sunday night the competition reached its 3rd live show during which 18remaining acts battled to qualify to next week’s grand final show.
THE ROAD TO THE LIVE SHOWS
After the bootcamp Each group was assigned to a judge as its mentor for the rest of the show . From each goup 6 acts secured a spot in the next round of Judge’s Houses . The previous Sunday evenings we watched the girls’ , boys’ , the Overs’ and the Groups’ teams going through the Chair Challenge round and a total of six acts from each group proceeding to the next stage of Judges’ Houses. In the Judges’ Houses round we saw 6 acts from each team visit their coach’s- judge’s house in order to perform before him and a special guest their last song, in order to win one of the three spots in each category that lead to the live shows.
THE 3rd LIVE SHOWS’ CONTESTANTS
12 acts had qualified imitally to the live shows. After last week 1st and 2nd show eliminations 8 acts competed in the 3rd live show in order to make to next week’s final round. Therefore in last evening’s 3rd live show we saw the following 4 teams and 8 acts battle for the 4 spots in the grand final of the show:
The Girls: Kelsey Bellante, Michela Pace, Nicole Frendo
The Boys: Luke Chappell, Norbert Bondin, Owen Leuellen
The Overs (25+): Ben Purplle, Petra
The Groups: –
THE 3rd SHOW’S LIVE PERFORMANCES
The 8 finalists had to choose a song that fit the theme: Great Movie songs . During this 3rd live show we saw the following 10 magnificent performances:
Owen Leuellen – Gangsta’s Paradise (Coolio)
Ben Purplle – Preety Woman (Roy Orbison)
Nicole Frendo – Skyfall (Adele)
Norbert – Never Enough (Loren Allred)
Michela Pace – I don’t wanna miss a thing (Aerosmith)
Luke Chappell – Heathens (Twenty One pilots)
Kelsey Bellante – Pray for me (Kendrick Lamar)
Petra – We Don’t Need Another Hero (Tina Turner)
THE RESULTS
The performance that seemed to impress most the four judges (Howard Keith Debono, Ray Mercieca, Alexandra Alden, Ira Losco) were those of Nicole Frendo , Petra, Owen Leuellen and Michela Pace. However the judges had no say in today’s outcome. Two rounds of voting determined the finalists of next week’s grand final show.
After the initial voting round the two acts with the less votes left directly the show. The results sent home Ben Purplle and Kelsey Bellante
Following the first round of votes, the lines opened again for a Superelimination round for the remaining six acts. Another two were to be sent home. The two acts that received less votes in this new round of voting were Luke Chappell and Norbert.
Therefore the 4 finalists who will battle for the golden ticket to Tel Aviv next week are : Owen Leuellen, Nicole Frendo, Michela Pace και Petra. The Grand final is to be held on January 26 and one of these four hopefuls will represent Malta in Tel Aviv next May.
