It’s the fifth gala show of Spain’s talent contest/reality show/Eurovision national final. At almost the halfway point, the 2018 series of Operación Triunfo feels like it’s found its place and has established its own identity. And as always, there were performances, one contestant was sent home and two face elimination next week. Let’s take a look.
This week’s elimination was between Carlos Right and Dave. Carlos performed Jason Derulo’s booty anthem “Tip Toe” — his first English-language performance on the show — while Dave tackled Vicente Feliú’s “Créeme”. In the end, the vote went in favour of Carlos, who will survive another week. We bid farewell to the pear-loving Dave.
One of the stand-out performances of the evening came from Miki. He performed “El patio”, a recent single from OT 2008 runner-up Pablo López. Miki gave a performance loaded with emotion and he solidified his position as one of the series favourites. The public voted him their fave, a 180 from two weeks ago when he was in the bottom four.
Another big performance came from Alba Reche and Famous, who duetted on a Jonas Blue-inspired version of “Fast Car”. The pair brought great energy to their performance and indicated that OT 2018 has finally started to all fit in place. Alba was voted in the audience’s top three, her fourth week in a row for the honour.
María and Noelia slayed with their sassy, saucy performance of Elle King’s “Ex’s & Oh’s”. Last week the pair had faced different fates — most popular and bottom four, respectively — but this evening they both delivered a strong, confident and entertaining performance.
Also of note, there was a lot of hype ahead of Julia and Natalia‘s performance of “Pienso en tu mirá”, but at the gala it was surprisingly lacklustre. It wasn’t bad, but just not as good as fans were expecting the two favourites to deliver.
Then it came time for the bottom four to be announced. Carlos Right‘s performance of “Tip Toe” might have been enough to save him from elimination tonight, but the jury weren’t impressed and put him in their bottom four. A fan campaign to support Sabela saw her make the top three and the jury liked her performance. However duet partner Damion didn’t have the same luck and was in the bottom four. Marilia and Marta each performed solo songs and each made the bottom four.
The Academy chose to save Marilia for her hard work and potential, while the contestants voted to save Carlos Right — a mini dramatic moment for fans, as many had expected Marta to be the favourite. This leaves Damion and Marta up to face the public vote this week. If Damion leaves, there will be eight chicas and only three chicos left in the Academy.
Operación Triunfo 2018 – Gala 5 performances
- Group performance – “Me encanta” (Icona Pop’s “I Love It”)
- Carlos Right – “Tip Toe”
- Dave – “Créeme”
- Alba Reche & Famous – “Fast Car”
- Miki – “El patio”
- María & Noelia – “Ex’s & Oh’s”
- Marta – “Y nos dieron las diez”
- Damion & Sabela – “Volar”
- Julia & Natalia – “Pienso en tu mirá”
- Marilia – “Rather Be”
It’s been reported that Itziar Castro (Los Javis replacement) is no longer going to be a teacher and that she’s been fired. I think the problem is the contestants and their lack of charisma.
They need to stoo let them sing in english!
God!!!! Alba and sabele, my ears…
The girls are stronger than the boys.
They need to pivk good songs.
Is Famous his real name?
THAT SAID…Carlos doesnt deserve all those dislikes and criticism. I feel like people should watch some videos of Jason singing that song live, because his falsetto is way worse than Carlos and he’s out of breath.
Worst performance of the night: Mieiki
Best performance: Ex’s and Oh’s (Alba’s pronunciation ruined it for me)
You mean Alba’s pronunciation ruined Fast Car for you? ‘Cause Noelia and Maria sang Ex’s and Oh’s.
Yeah, the best performance was def ex’s and ohs
I agree 100%
We are in 2018, you dont need to have a great voice to be a successful artist. Spain has an obsession with divas and big voices, that’s why they have always been bottom 4. It’s not about HAVING A BEAUTIFUL VOICE anymore. Just look at selena gomez, taylor swift, britney and other mediocre singers, they cant sing live to save their lives!!! It’s just how it works in the music industry around the world nowadays. This is about being commercial, selling catchy music and being attractive, whether you like it or not.
Exactly. Norway won with Alexander Rybak in 2009.
And Lena (Germany) won just for being cute and having a catchy song, her voice is mediocre.
I was NOT talking about Eurovision, just the music market in general. And Carlos can definitely sing live, altho this was not his best performance, i concur.
But FAMOUS also failed a huge high note while singing Faith By stevie Wonder (just like ISAIAH, AUSTRALIA 2017 or SPAIN 2017) and i didnt see that many dislikes..
The problems with Julia & Natalia’s duet had nothing to do with the girls, they were pretty solid. The editing was a disaster though. I don’t understand why Marta is facing elimination, since she has done a great job. I can’t say I loved his performance, but it was nice to see Miki being challenged after some weeks stucked in the comfort zone. Alba’s enunciation keeps being a problem to me. Do the teachers talk about that? It bothers me how OT keeps wasting Noelia and Famous’ potential by giving songs that don’t suit them.
No, to them and the jury Alba is perfect in every way.
They have an english teacher in the academy, i dont get it. What the hell is he doing there if he’s useless to them?
This week’s Alba is singing in Spanish and it’s hard to understand what she’s saying. Her poor enunciation is a bigger issue here.
Miki was going to get nominated, but was saved by the public by being favorite. Marilia was the 5th nominee. With Miki nominated instead of Marilia, the Academy would’ve saved Marta. But he is a finalist.
How do you know Jury placed Miki in the bottom 4 and not Marilia?
Apparently they told him so after he was announced as the favorite.
He was off key
Looking at the songs for Gala 6, it’s clear they want Miki to be a finalist. He’s singing Shallow (Bradley Cooper & Lady Gaga) with the big favorite Natalia.
Holy hell, this show is SO ridiculous already! Watch me go on a rant about it…. First of all: The selection of the songs is so biased.. We all know that it’s gonna be Natalia, Julia, Alba and Miki in the end(Eventhough Famous and Noelia would deserve to be on top imo…). So no one even bothers to give the other contestants good songs. The only time Damion got a good song was when he sang together with Natalia. You see what I’m talking about? We see Damion, Sabela, Marilia and Marta getting these bad and boring songs every week.… Read more »
Julia, Noelia, Miki, Famous, are in the top 5.
They need to sing in spanish.
They give songs in english. Tell them to stop that.
Nope, they can’t all be in the Top 5 because Natalia and Alba are finalists. Natalia, Julia and Alba are a sure thing. They know Miki is popular too so they’ve given him really good songs for the last couple weeks, so you know they’re pushing for him to be a finalist. I think Famous is going to be the 5th because Noelia has lots of haters.
Trust me, Noelia or Martha, they gonna fight hard.
Why they hate Noelia? Is it because she is
over acting???
I really hope the audience saves Marta from elimination. I’m tired of Damion fans trying to make him the victim week after week. They were responsible for the hate campaign against Africa, this week they went after Maria (Africa’s bff in the Academy) when she said Damion didn’t smile much (which is true) and now they’re hating on Marta’s mom on social media. Noelia is loud and annoying, but she has a strong voice, and I think some fans of certain contestants (mainly the top 3) consider her a threat. So, there’s been a lot of hateful comments against Noelia… Read more »
Africa is a bit overated.
Damion is just o.k and nothing more.
Noelia … watchout.. here she comes.
Number of Instagram followers (as of October 27):
Natalia — 321k
Miki — 310k
Alba — 270k
Julia — 259k
Carlos — 258k
Noelia — 254k
Dave — 230k
María — 217k
Famous — 191k
África — 160k
Joan — 156k
Damion — 154k
Marta — 152k
Marilia — 149k
Sabela — 134k
Alfonso — 89.8k
And I agree with you. I am tired of selling us “romance”.
If julia was smart ad she is as good she needs to step back.
This whole thing is emberesing.
TRUE!
Yes, Natalia has a boyfriend and the delusional shippers have been cyberbullying him since week one. The daily hashtag and the youtube live channel chat read like an Albalia soap opera. Weeks ago they accused Joan of coming between them (lol) and this week they are attacking Miki because according to them he doesn’t leave her side (they have a duet) and it’s his fault Natalia is “ignoring” Alba.
Albalia shippers attacking Julright shippers because Julia has a boyfriend is one of the most laughable things when Natalia also has a boyfriend. And whilst people started shipping Julia & Carlos during the show’s first week when they spent lots of time together, Albalia was already a thing during the casting phase. They both had a fan base prior to the show and since they’re both bisexual, a small group who only cares about “relationships” between contestants decided Alba and Natalia were going to hook up in the Academy.
RTVE only cares about TV ratings when it comes to Eurovision and thanks to OT 2017 they were up this year, it was a no brainer to use the show again. I blame the production that only care about ships. But the live shows ratings keep dropping due to the noticeable bias towards certain contestants. That’s what happens when you let a loud minority on social media, that only cares about the contestants relationships and sexual orientation, dictate the direction of the show. Since the Albalia fans found out Maria is bisexual they have begun to ship her with Vicky… Read more »
Operación Triunfo is going to drown by itself. Maybe not this year, but with that work ethic they won’t go far. I’m tired of all the favouritsm. Last year there was a little bit, but this year is rather clear “they” want to favour some of the contestants. They have even admitted it by saying there are two groups: “the ones who come to win and the ones who try to not be nominated”. Maybe if the stopped giving sh**y songs and staging to the least favourites like Sabela and Damion it would be different. It’s very likely that Damion… Read more »
I think Damion has a lot of fans. I wouldn’t be surprised if Marta gets eliminated (hopefully not).
In my opinion Marta eclipsed Natalia and was better than Alba in their respective duets. But she’s not as popular as them and the production gave her a terrible solo song. Did you see Sabela and Damion’s staging? Then look at Natalia and Julia’s. It’s ridiculous their bias towards 3 contestants. Not only Alba’s pronunciation is not good, her enunciation is not clear either.
What was the elimination vote split?
But that’s not close at all, is it?
I remember last year Ana and Agoney had a 49.7 , 50.3 split or something
That’s the closest we’ve had in OT 2018 so far.
Is “Carlos Right” his whole first name?
Wrong
No. And that’s not his real last name.
I mean “whole first name”. Like a Luis Mario Cimarro or a Jaime Ruiz Alcala type of name where your first name is just Luis Mario and Jaime Ruiz.
Or is it just a stage name?
His first name is Carlos. Right would be his last name . In the examples you gave: Luis (first name) Mario (middle name) Cimarro (paternal last name). Jaime (first name) Ruíz (paternal last name) Alcalá (maternal last name).
Actually Right is not his last name. It is a stage name.
Yes, it’s not his real surname. It’s like James Roday, whose real (paternal surname) is Rodríguez. Right is not a first or middle name in any Spanish speaking countries.
Last year we had:
Amaia (first name)
Juan (first name) Antonio (middle name)
Ana (first name) Guerra (last name)
Cepeda (last name)
In my case, I have two first names, my mom’s maiden name is my middle name, and my dad’s surname is my last name.
In Spanish speaking countries there’s only one first name.
First name + Middle name + Paternal surname + Maternal surname
Nope. It’s a stage name.
His real name is Carlo Ruiz
The Right “last name” comes from when he was living in the UK and the classmates make laugh of him cos he use to say that word a lot
All these people complaining about Alba’s pronunciation need to listen to Dakota singing Fast car! I couldn’t make out any of the lyrics there !! Here I can understand more than half!
I don’t understand those complaining about it!!
Love the duet between Alba and Famous
His voice is silky smooth and there is a quirky quality in Alba’s but would she be a Melovin mk2?
Her enunciation of English is quite terrible!!
Famous’ voice doesn’t suit the song tbh
Damion should leave . He is by far the worst of the academy at this point, and even clearer against Marta.
Alba’s pronunciation is terrible omfg
thank god he was saved, the last thing we need is another ballad from spain
But Dave generally sings Spanish flamenco and rock… This was his first time singing a ballad.