The X Factor 2011 Top 5 Review: My Power Rankings Of The Top 5 Contestants

Reviews, Top Story

1. Melanie Amaro – Another strong week from Melanie Amaro. It’s really her dance song that I preferred more to her ‘save me’ ballad, but she came through again. I didn’t really care for how she wanted to give that speech about how she believed in herself. I thought it was slightly over-the-top. That being said, if you can sing Adele’s “Someone Like You” that well, you are clearly talented beyond belief.

2. Marcus Canty – Marcus is so inconsistent! I waver from loving him to hating him and I thought he was absolutely brilliant this week. The only reason he isn’t in the top spot is because his second song choice wasn’t as good as Melanie’s, but he absolutely rocked the uptempo “Ain’t Nobody.” It was unquestionably his best performance of the season and is in contention (with a plethora of Astro songs) for the best performance of the season. It’s too bad his second ballad was forgettable, but I don’t believe its his time to go.

3. TIE – Chris Rene – I really couldn’t decide who was better between Chris Rene and Josh Krajcik. I loved Chris’ first song, “Live Your Life.” The moving trackpad (despite Simon Cowell’s objections) was a nice idea from LA Reid and you could tell that the crowd was absolutely loving every second . Rene has done a nice job of finding his comfort zone and this was evident in his choice to sing an original song for his second. Simon Cowell referred to it as a ‘stroke of genius,’ but I thought it was average at best and certainly not at the level of “Young Homie.” That being said, because the Pepsi Challenge song choices were nixed at the last minute, Rene did a nice job.

3. TIE – Josh Krajcik –I never thought I would see Josh singing my favorite song right now, but him belting out Rihanna’s “We Found Love” was awesome. He did a spectacular job and the margin between his performances versus those of Melanie’s, Marcus’ and Chris’ isn’t great. I just thought they were fractionally better. Josh did a solid job as he usually does and deserves to go to the semifinals.

4. Rachel Crow – I have nothing to say because it would be like playing a broken record. America, I implore you. Let’s stop losing talented performers like Astro & Drew and finally vote with our ears and not with our hearts. Rachel must go.

Murtz Jaffer is the world's foremost reality television expert and was the host of Reality Obsessed which aired on the TVTropolis and Global Reality Channels in Canada. He has professional writing experience at the Toronto Sun, National Post, TV Guide Canada, TOROMagazine.com and was a former producer at Entertainment Tonight Canada. He was also the editor at Weekendtrips.com.