Pretoria - Tshwane's 2021 Idols hopeful Karabo Mathe will be crossing her fingers that the positive reviews from the judges this past weekend will see her making it into the Top 10 of South Africa's biggest talent search competition.
This as Mathe, 22, received a positive response from all the judges, although judge Randall Abrahams had to also offer some guidance on where to improve her performance.
Abrahams said, “It was overall a good performance, but we need a good performance from start to finish."
He said although Mathe's chorus was fine, he advised that perhaps she would have performed better if she had taken more time to practise the verses over and over again.
Despite his critique of the performance, singer and judge Unathi Nkayi, however, said that Mathe had her from the first words.
“You are music personified,” she exclaimed, the guest judge for the evening lead singer for the musical group The Soil's Buhle Mda called her a powerhouse.
“You make me feel like I want to be saved from something. If you continue like this, you will win,” she said.
The battle for a spot on Idols SA’s season 17 top 10 continued this week as group two of the top 16 took to the stage, keeping to last week’s theme of tackling the biggest hits of today.
Tsakane born talent Sia Mzizi tried to impress the judges with an upbeat rendition of ‘In your Eyes’ by The Weeknd, however, the judges were not quite taken by his effort.
Abrahams said while the performance had its moments, his performance seemed like it was repeatedly trying to take off, but not quite getting there.
Nkayi, who said although she did not think he would be eliminated, he needed to be dynamic and keep the viewers guessing going forward, while Mda advised him to rather pick songs that were withing his range.
Meanwhile Zukisa Mashiqa's, 21, rendition of Yebba’s ‘Distance’ divided the judges.
As even though Nkayi and Mda could not contain their excitement after his performance, Abrahams was underwhelmed.
Nkayi said the youngster from Pietermaritzburg had proven her wrong, as she had not been convinced he was emotionally mature enough to handle the song initially, as she said “You surpassed all my expectations of you.”
However, the judges were united in their response to Patience Makhene aka Misty’s performance of Snoh Aalegra’s ‘Dying for your Love’, with the guest judge stating she was not moved by the performance.
“It didn’t feel like you were singing for a competition. It felt like you just singing your favourite song,” she said.
“There are other performers who have less experience than you, but have the edge over you because they are hungry,” added Abrahams as he urged her to take all her past musical experience and channel it into winning.
S’thuthukile Langa, 21, another hopeful from Pietermaritzburg tackled Bebe Rexha’s ‘Meant to Be’, something which all judges agreed was a great choice and performed exceptionally.
“In terms of the full package, you certainly have everything that ticks the box,” while adding for her not to relax.
Cape Town's Monique Erens had Mda gushing over her performance of Lady Gaga's "I'll never love again," while Nkayi said Eren's singing was genuine and understood who she was.
Her performance was also given the thumbs up by Abrahams who however added that she may be a “one-trick pony”.
Chloe x Halle's forgive me song was taken on by the Eastern Cape's Anathi Conjwa better known as Ithana, gave a good performance even though the judges commented that it felt as though she was a bit too self-conscious and could have let go a bit more.
Last to wow the judges was Kevin Maduna who took to the stage with Justin Bieber's Peaches.
While both Mda and Nkayi said they felt that he had done a good job in adding some street credibility to the song and elevating it to the standards of groups like early 2000s R&B group Jagged Edge.
Abrahams commented that this was precisely his issue with the performance.
With all the top 16 performances having taken the stage, it is now up to the viewers to decide who will return to the Idols stage as part of the top 10.
Pretoria News