Jeff Gutt Shines in XFactor Finals
Detroit, MI – Detroit’s own Jeff Gutt took his fate into his own hands last night during the finals of The XFactor, delivery 3 remarkable performances that left the studio audience chanting “GUTT! GUTT! GUTT! GUTT!” and a legion of JAGarmy devotees feverishly dialing, texting, Shazam-ing, and voting online for the self-declared “Rocker” who can sing like an angel.
From the opening group song We Will Rock You, it was obvious that this night was turning in Gutt’s favor as the media darlings and current frontrunners Alex & Sierra fell flat on their faces, stumbling through the huge rock anthem literally off key, struggling to find the melody as they dragged the song down before being picked up by Carlito Olivero, and crushed by Gutt as he nailed his verses to the point of embarrassing the duo.
The night only got better for Gutt and Olivero, both of whom had season long “moments”, while Alex & Sierra seemed to only fade from what has been a season of weekly “moments” for the Florida based duo. We’ll run down our take on each contestant’s performances round by round to determine who we thought actually won the night with their songs and not by who actually has more voting “followers” across all those social media sites, here we go!
1st Round-
Carlito Olivero- Impossible by Shontelle
Carilto has had his ups & downs all season long, but you cannot deny his ability, or appeal when he busts out his Spanish to highlight his Latino heritage. Surrounded by dancers in red, Olivero turned in a robust performance that was probably one of his best all season.
Alex & Sierra- Give Me Love by Ed Sheeran
The singing lovebirds from the sunshine state have brought some truly amazing performances during the marathon competition, but seriously how many times can we hear them sing different songs in exactly the same style? A solid performance vocally, but terribly boring as the two star into each others eyes perfecting their ability to turn different songs into the same one they sing week after week, good yes, but we’re over it.
Jeff Gutt – Dream On by Aerosmith
The resident rocker on the show, Gutt not only brought down the house with an utterly unbelievable stage show usually reserved for Awards shows, but his vocal delivery was a fresh take on the old classic that brought new life to the meaning of Rock & Roll, actually sent tingles down the spine when he nailed those ending high notes over & over again!
1st RD FINISH-
1-Jeff Gutt 2- Alex & Sierra 3- Carlito Olivero
2nd Round-
Carlito Olivero (with Prince Royce)- Stand By Me
Let’s just say Carlito got the short hand here with his pairing, heck they performed a cover song themselves! We can however say that Olivero held his own with this, actually singing as a duet, but it still fell flat.
Alex & Sierra (Leona Lewis) – Bleeding Love
Again, this duo was slightly shorted themselves, being paired with a previous singing competition winner and being stuck singing her not so hot hit song. Unfortunately the duo fumbled their opportunity to make this song their own, and actually ended up taking a back seat to Lewis who held down all her verses for herself, literally designating A&S to nothing more than a pair of awkward back-up singers.
Jeff Gutt (John Rzeznik) – Iris
Performing with the lead singer of the GooGoo Dolls was surely a dream for Gutt, and it showed as Gutt was visibly enjoying himself on stage and was the only one this round that took the opportunity to actually perform a duet that felt as comfortable as the original. Gutt definitely held his own with Rzeznik, pulling of another amazing vocal that had the original smiling at the end.
2nd RD FINISH-
1-Jeff Gutt 2- Carlito Olivero 3- Alex & Sierra
3rd Round-
Carlito Olivero – Maria, Maria by Santana
Another strong performance by the Latin crooner, who we can see giving it a go in the Latin Music sector, trouble is tonight, he revisited 2 songs he previously did on the show?
Alex & Sierra – Say Something by Great Big World
A show stopper & chart topper the first time they did this song a few weeks ago, this time the duo failed to reach the heights they achieved the first time around. A solid performance? Yes. A performance worthy of winning the Finale? No. Remember its not how you did the first time around, but how you do this time and to us there were no wow moments in the deliver, unless you’re into watching two love struck individuals make google eyes at each other for 3 ½ minutes.
Jeff Gutt – Creep by Radiohead
Gutt’s return to his audition song came as a surprise, but undoubtedly he knew what he was doing as the rocker not only delivered an amazing performance, but topped it off with one of the best sets of the year as he was engulfed by wind, flames, and smoke, he did it all while atop a moving stage that appeared to be driven by the rock & roll gods themselves. Hard to top a season opening rendition on this song, but Gutt pulled it off in spectacular fashion, all but guaranteeing this one to hit the iTunes charts tomorrow.
3rd RD Finish
1- Jeff Gutt 2- Alex & Sierra 3- Carlito Olivero
In all honestly here, we believe that there was absolutely no doubt as to who took home the crown with their actual performances last night as we’ve scored a decisive victory for Gutt, with a tie between Alex & Sierra and Carlito Olivero. I guess now we’ll have to see who actually has the more powerful voting audience behind them. To find out who will the XFactor Season 3 and the $1,000,000 Sony Music recording contract tune into FOX tonight at 8pm for the XFactor Final Results Show!
all photos courtesy of the XFactor