A jump into Barbieland, rating: 7
A sparkling and energetic Barbieland-style performance: Francesca Michielin opened the X Factor 2023 live shows with the tunes “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus and “Dance The Night” by Dua Lipa. Of course we want to celebrate, but without losing sight of current events, with the message of the video walls: “Make art not war”.
Ambra risks the downfall of Matteo Alieno, rating: 5
The assignment of Annalisa’s “Bellissima” to Matteo Alieno was somewhat unfortunate. Fedez didn’t like that and the already shy Matteo had to defend himself: “I didn’t want to rewrite the melody, I just lived it.” It wasn’t my intention to rewrite the song, I would never dare. With Morgan, on the other hand, the dissent was triggered directly against the original song (score 4): “This situation is foreign to me.” You could sing anything, you sang a piece that I don’t even know, which seems incredibly banal to me. It seems to me nothing special, from a harmonic point of view it doesn’t exist. He could play “La donna cannone” by De Gregori, what kind of piece is that? I live outside the world, I am old, I am already dead, I have been dead for centuries. You are so good that you gave an incredible nobility to a piece that I absolutely would not have considered without you and Ambra, that’s why I thank you. It seemed like a noble piece. The reaction confided to a tweet from Davide Simonetta (one of the two authors of Annalisa’s song along with Paolo Antonacci): “Never a success and it explains things.” What a great world.
Morgan and Musicsplaining, rating: 4
The Lives have just begun and – no surprise – Morgan is already irrepressible. He was annoyed by Francesca Michielin’s attempts at containment, and the debate about the Animaux Formidables added even more fuel to the fire. “The piece was ambitious,” Ambra said to the former Bluvertigo, “you are ambitious and you gave it to him out of ambition.” I hear the drums going out of sync, I say it at the auditions, but I’m not credible , so I’ll mind my own business, in my opinion the assignment has punished you enough.” Even for Fedez, the drums were still out of time, which distracted him during the performance. “This whole controversy about the passage of time is an opportunity to point out that we are in a world of perfectionism,” Morgan replied, “where everything has to be square and if there is something that goes beyond the boundaries, let it be scandalize us.” “But I’m sorry, Matteo’s melody outraged you,” Ambra replied, piqued. “I wasn’t outraged, I said it was bad, it was something else.” Ambra, let me explain: the song you chose was banal and harmonically non-existent. Do you know what C major is? Yes? Can you explain it to me?”
Sarafine, Fedez’ bet (won for now), rating: 7
“Not only is she a producer, she is also very good and has an enchanting voice. His creativity is the most stimulating thing for me.” With Sarafine, Fedez doesn’t have to do much: just let his creativity flow. The participant managed to make Bizet’s masterpiece, the habanera aria from Carmen, contemporary by crossing it with dubstep. Dargen: “This decision was not immediate, we have a champion who brought with her a doubt during the auditions: Will she have the necessary cunning to enter the world of recording?” What you have staged gives us hope, heartfelt Congratulations.”
Dargen was struck down by the other judges, vote: 5
The other three jurors were so “expanded” with their arguments that Dargen practically fell off the table in this first live. Given his debut (and considering he has a personality at his side that makes three alone), he’ll have to work hard to carve out some space for himself in the next few episodes.
Maria Tomba indiavolata, rating: 8
From life with the nuns to Zucchero’s “Diavolo in me” without going beyond the beginning. “Even the devil is happy, he has taken a tour of the audience. His performances attack the lives of those who don’t have it. This is how Ambra described Maria Tomba’s fireworks appearance. Dargen is also enthusiastic: “Compared to everyone else, this girl has the gift of being somewhere else, she is already at her concerts, this is the opening of her live show.” This happens at the very first appearance. And he gets unbalanced (even though she’s not on the team): “I won’t deny that she might be my favorite this year.”
Morgan invokes the TILT (too late), vote: 3
At the end of the episode, the judges had to decide who should be eliminated between Asia and the Animaux Formidables, and the duo’s elimination by Dargen and Ambra infuriated Morgan: “It was unfair.” “I asked you if you were today evening want to vote for the TILT (the mechanism that entrusts the final verdict to the public at home in the event of a tie between the judges, editor’s note), and you told me: “No, let’s vote.” “And “Now that we’ve voted, you don’t agree,” Dargen replied. “I thought you were an adult!” At least they took responsibility for elimination rather than sneaking behind the scenes of public judgment.