Happy Girls Round of 4: Review

This was the final elimination round before the finals next week. The judging has been mostly fair and unbiased so far with results usually being the worst performer(s) for a particular week being eliminated. However, this week, there was an incredibly unfair act of judging that made no sense and brought personal issues into the judging.

First part was a round-robin with the main theme being dancing. Last place person sits on lonely seat way up high while the other three compete in some kind of "pass the torch" performance where the contestants each bring in an older, wiser singer with whom they have a duet on an old famous song from the singer. The top 2 move on while lonely seat gets to challenge #3 to switch places. Winner moves onto ELLE cover model round, loser up for elimination. ELLE cover model round was where everyone had to use their "Succession Technique" with the top performer becoming ELLE cover model and moving onto round of 3.

This next part is the unfair/personal vendetta-containing part: out of the remaining 2, the previously eliminated contestants (6) + ELLE cover model (7 votes total) each have a vote and get to vote another person into top 3. Lonely chair girl then competes against 3rd place in elimination round. Here are how things played out.

1. 江映蓉 Jiang Yingrong - She was the ELLE cover model for the second week straight and third time overall. The first round totally catered to her strong points as she was probably the only person out of the four that had dance ability. She chose some kinda Latin dance routine and it sucked like crazy. Totally lifeless, no finesse, looked like Tin-man doing Salsa with rusted joints. Luckily she was up against 李霄云 whose "dance" routine could only be described as monkey on crack. Okay, so I am being a little harsh since I can't dance either, but what better way to feel better about myself than criticizing others! Her second round duet was very good despite the older singer's creepy attempts to make her a groupie at the end. She saved the best for her succession technique which was arguably the best performance of the night. It had everything, a good beat, nice moves, and bench tossing. At this point, I think she is being groomed to be the next "Britney Spears" Archetype.

2. 李霄云 Li Xiaoyun - Even though I like her songs a lot and was rooting for her to go all the way, 李霄云 should not have advanced to the round of 3 given the quality of her performances this week. Her first "dance" routine was not really even a dance routine. She basically just sang and waved her arms and legs a little. That was it. Most of the spectacular break dance moves were done by the other dancers. She went back to her forte for her challenge round with 黄英 and totally dominated the performance. I think 李霄云 should just stick to love songs. She does such a good job with them to the point where I think some of her renditions are better than the original singer recordings. Her succession technique was pretty good, but really could not compete with the others. However, because the voting was done by the previous contestants, she was voted 4 to 3 (Deciding vote cast by 刘惜君 who was eliminated by 郁可唯 last week) to move on into the round of 3. I think she was probably the least deserving of the final three.

3. 黄英 Huang Ying - She keeps improving each week and definitely has the greatest potential out of the other remaining contestants. Her dance routine this week was a traditional Tibetan dance with lots of whipping hair and thunderous drumming. It was a pretty awesome performance. Her duet was sang pretty well but there were two main problems. First, the song choice was pretty horrible. Just imagine a kindergarten song...set to a modern pop track. Second, the older singer actually did a better job on the song than 黄英. Kinda bad that the new torchbearer is worst than the original torch passer. As a result, she was beaten by 李霄云 in the challenge round and didn't even get to use her succession technique. However, her raw potential and cuteness convinced the audience to vote her into the round of 3. Here's her 100 second elimination challenge song.

4. Eliminated-郁可唯 Yu Kewei - This result was totally unexpected. She was by far the best singer out of all the other 9 contestants. She should have been in the final three, except the voting was horribly biased this round. Her dance routine was like a Broadway show performance. Not much dancing, but the overall quality was great. She definitely has tremendous Broadway potential. Her duet song was pretty awesome too. It clearly shows how much better of a singer she is than even the original obviously aging singer (struggled with parts of the song). Her succession technique was chosen very well. It highlighted her superior vocal control and singing technique. The performance was awesome and imho on par with 江映蓉's bench tossing spectacle. Unfortunately for her, the previous contestants voted 李霄云 into the round of 3 and she was put into elimination against feel-good story/people's favorite 黄英. Her final song was great, but not enough to counterbalance the favoritism for 黄英. The final vote was also pretty heartbreaking (towards the end) as she was ahead 9 to 4 (13 to win) but then the last remaining voters either out of sympathy or carelessness voted 黄英 into the final three.

Well, at this point it's pretty obviously how the rankings will play out. I predict: 1. 江映蓉, 2. 黄英, 3.李霄云.