Filipino girl group 4th Impact have made it through this week’s surprise double elimination on The X Factor UK.
On Saturday's live top 11 episode, the four sisters – Almira, Irene, Mylene and Celina Cercado – opened the show with a mash-up of the 1960s track The Clapping Song and Sound of the Underground by Girls Aloud, the former all-female pop group of their mentor Cheryl Fernandez-Versini.
“This week we wanted to sing a British song,” said Almira, the eldest of the four, in an interview before their performance. “Hopefully we can make Cheryl proud.”
"We love this song, but this is Reinvention Week, so we need to make it different," said Irene on their decision to blend Sound of the Underground with The Clapping Song.
“Congratulations, it was fantastic,” Simon Cowell commented after their performance. “Vocals, great. Harmonies, great. You are a band who I know rehearse like crazy and are ready for the real world.”
Nick Grimshaw told them, “Tonight it looked like you had fun. It felt really real and I loved it. Well done, girls.”
“What I love the most is that your own identities are coming out,” said Rita Ora. “Even if you’re sisters, I can see that you’re each individuals.”
Fernandez-Versini added: “You know what, this was a collaborative effort — I absolutely loved it. It was fantastic. It was fab.”
This week’s eliminated acts were soul singer Kiera Weathers and Filipino-British pop vocalist Sean Miley Moore. The elimination of Moore, who was raised in Australia but whose parents are based in the Philippines, shocked the panel and live audience since it was predicted that he would go deep in the competition.
4th Impact were considered front-runners after their first audition went viral online back in September. Lately, however, they have been overshadowed by fellow contestants including Che Chesterman, an 18-year-old supermarket worker, and Louisa Johnson, a 17-year-old pop wunderkind. On Saturday’s episode, both Chesterman and Johnson received standing ovations from the panel.
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