Last night X Factor judge Simon Cowell described Saara Aalto‘s voice as dynamite, saying that he absolutely loves her.
And on Sunday night it became clear that the British public agree with him as they voted the Finnish singer through to the next round, helping her avoid the Bottom Three for the second week in a row.
Ahead of the announcement host Dermot O’Leary asked the judges to name their favourite and both Louis Walsh and Sharon Osbourne immediately said Saara (with Nicole Sherzinger and Simon Cowell going for Emily Middlemas).
Saara’s relief was obvious and she once again reacted by shrieking louder and longer than a cat in prolonged heat.
We can’t blame her. Winning over the UK audience hasn’t been easy, but she’s managed to do it through sheer grit and talent. Saara slays!
SHE’S THROUGH! Congratulations @saaraaalto! ?????? And well done UK! #xfactor #XFactorFrightNight ???????????????????????? pic.twitter.com/B0pooTHuOD
— wiwibloggs (@wiwibloggs) October 30, 2016
With Saara having made it through to the Top 8, she has seemingly confirmed her spot on next year’s X Factor live tour, which will see the top finalists touring all over the country. Yassss!
Speaking on Instagram after the show, Saara said:
“Thank you guys. Another week coming! I am just so grateful. I was so surprised when I heard my name on stage. It means I have you people. You behind me supporting me, sending me love, voting and everything. Now I feel like this is all unreal. I moved to London to do this show. I didn’t know anybody here. And now I have you people there behind me and I feel everything can come true….let’s work so hard for the next weekend. Let’s smash it then. Thank you!”
We react to Saara at Fright Night
On Saturday evening Saara was all about ghouls, goblins and Lady Gaga. Covering the star’s hit “Bad Romance”, she turned the stage into a cryptic church sanctuary, where she played a coffin-shaped organ while dancing and thrusting and still hitting the high notes.
Ditching the bubble-gum personality and bright pink everything from last week, she served mystery and darkness on a stage looking like a Corpse Bride.
From the macabre make-up that included painted stitches across her face to the Dominatrix-inspired bustier, this was totally over-the-top.
Following Saturday’s show — and some very positive remarks from the judges — a clearly ecstatic Saara took to Instagram to ask for your support.
“Ah, thank you so much! Oh my god, I loved my performance tonight because Brian and the music team and everybody worked so hard to put this show together. And I worked so hard with the dance routines and everything.”
“It was so much work. But I loved it and the judges loved it and I hope the audience loved it was well. And I hope you will hep me because I’m not safe. I’m not safe in this competition. I need your help and your support.”
Our readers react to Saara’s “Bad Romance”
As ever we shared news of Saara’s performance on our social media channels and overnight our readers had plenty of opinions to share.
Writing on our Facebook page Karl said: “Awful. Was like some really bad drag act.” But Klaus rushed to Saara’s defence: “It was fright night. It was supposed to be weird and she killed it, she slayed the vocals. The staging, the dance — it was amazing.”
Aaron gave his explanation as to why UK audiences have struggled to warm to her: “Us Brits aren’t used to people being that nice, sincere and humble, so to us she comes across as fake. Personally, I wish her nothing but luck and success.”
Saara continues to win over new fans. Writing on our web site, Chicken Kyiv said: “She was fantastic. Consider me a convert, didn’t like her the first 2 weeks but the most recent 2 weeks she’s done amazing. Although I did laugh when she said in her VT that in Finland they don’t really have scary things or go over the top. I was like, ‘Hello. What about Lordi?'”
Daisy suggested that Saara should perhaps mix things up by stepping away from all the crazy and over-the-top staging: “She did so great and her voice is the best one in the competition. Love how she is a talented performer as well and yet so humble. I wouldn’t be watching without her there, to me she is far ahead of the others. But I do fear she gets stuck in the kooky category and will not be taken so seriously. The outfits may not go down well with the voters either. Will doing big shows make her less relatable? She needs to connect to get the votes…Maybe a stripped down version next time and less of the show and not 30 dancers?”
And writing on our Instagram page, tonipastor1 compared her to Iceland’s outlandish Eurovision star Silvia Night, while Lilyk45 summed up a lot of your feelings: “Slaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, Queen Saara!”
The sing-off came down to girl group Four of Diamonds and fierce soul diva Gifty Louise.
Simon elected to send home Four of Diamonds, while Louis and Nicole opted to send home Gifty. It then came down to Sharon, who could kill off Gifty in one fell swoop. And she did. As Gifty hugged the girls on stage the audience booed Sharon’s controversial decision.
Gifty looked stone-faced during her recap montage. What happened? “I don’t know,” she said.
Simon then stepped in and took the blame: “It was my mistake, Gifty. I should never have given you that song. You shouldn’t be out of the competition at this point. It’s not you, it’s me.”
Teary eyed and struggling to speak, Gifty added: “I’ve enjoyed like every single moment of the experience.”
Adamo023 could you explain why this lifeline thing works in Ryan’s favour?
Kiss of death, winning the X Factor.
I hope she is runner up. They always do better long term.
She looked like Sharon’s daughter Kelly here lolz
The X Factor became a joke. I watched many versions of the show – UK’s, USA, New Zeleand, Australia, Poland, Italy, Greece, Germany, Ukraine, Romania, and UK from great version came like not funny joke. Love the show but life line vote is stupid and Ryan will put through from bottom 3 until they cancel this method. In American Idol one act came from TOP11 to TOP4 been in bottom 2 every week. Glad that Saara advanced cause she is probably the best there now.
She said on last night’s show that you can’t dress up in Finland, and she had to go to the UK to be “different”…hasn’t she heard of Lordi?
Anyway, glad to see her through, though I still question whether anything is ever going to come of it career-wise.
Thanks for the quote guys, really nice touch 🙂 It’s not just about Brits getting Saara, it feels like she finally gets us! We love quirky and weird. Unlike Bratavio she has the voice to back it up as well! It’s what we call “the full package” fun performance and vocally talented. Also we don’t like people who take themselves too seriously, at first she had this air of confidence some would say arrogance, which doesn’t go down well, but now, you can see how much fun she’s having and it makes it fun for us as well. When we… Read more »
I find so many of this year’s contestants so dull and samey.
Feel like Saara, for the past two weeks, had treaded a great line between good vocals and memorable staging.
Just hope that she isn’t thrown on to the scrapheap when some acts seem to be undeservedly going through (Ryan, 4 of Diamonds, Honey G etc)
When Karl said it was “like a bad drag act”. In a way he’s right, the Roxxxy Andrews wig change just didn’t live up to her standards.
But well done Saara anyway, hope you win.
YES! I genuinly was so scared for her today but I had a feeling she’ll make it (My new prediction is 5th now) and am so ecstatic for her. Oh and she will be on the X Factor Tour now so I hope she’s thrilled and will continue to win the hearts of the british public. I’m such a proud eurofan right now
I feel as though she can do both rather easily. We know Saara can sing an work a stage so if she goes a bit toned down I think she will be fine. But honestly this is pretty great staging. Like it gets peoples attention really. So i think Saara can definetly win!
I knew she would do it #SaveSaara 🙂
i know that the extremely kooky performances will prevent Saara from the bottom 3, but that doesn’t tend to gel in the music industry itself, which is the reason Saara reached out to X Factor UK. I’ve always loved Saara, but am scared that she is going to become the crazy character in X Factor, and have that reflect on her music career.
Nice one!
She’s avoided the bottom 3 for the second week!!!!
Loving her performances. Love the crazy. The voice is amazing and she can put on a show…
I agree with Daisy that she’s needs to toe the line carefully between being a wee bit kooky and unique and too OTT.
She was great! Deserved qualification