WATCH | Alisah Bonaobra staves off elimination again, advances in ‘X Factor UK’

October 10, 2017 - 2:13 PM
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Alisah Bonaobra performs on 'The X Factor UK.'

Alisah Bonaobra is not going anywhere.

Even as the 22-year-old Filipina singer continues to bring her A game in each episode of “The X Factor UK,” her journey in the popular singing competition has been a roller-coaster ride.

And this week’s Six Chair Challenge proved to be her toughest challenge yet. In this round of the competition, each contestant were required to perform live in front of an audience. It was then up to the mentoring judge to decide right away if the contestant can take one of the six seats on stage.

Winning a seat is not a guarantee of advancing to the Judges’ House phase of “The X Factor UK” as early qualifiers will have to wait until the last competitor in each category has finished performing.

Impressing hard-to-please judge Simon Cowell is, of course, a daunting task. But this time, Alisah has to contend with Girls mentor Sharon Osbourne who had some reservations about her show-stopping performance of Celine Dion’s “All By Myself” that had the two other judges, Nicole Scherzinger and Louis Walsh, on their feet.

“Your style is very dated, it’s very cabaret for me, but you have this amazing gift, this voice, it’s huge,” Sharon told Alisah after her performance.

All the seats were taken when she performed but judge Sharon made sure she got one by making Taliah Dorto give up hers.

Sharon, wife of heavy metal legend Ozzy Osbourne, did not look like she was totally sold on Alisah and it showed when she asked Alisah to give up her seat later for Grace Davies.

Thankfully, Alisah did not need to be in a position to again ask for a second chance. The studio audience and the other judges did that for her.

Simon Cowell could not believe what happened and walked out. Judge Louis Walsh also expressed his disbelief with the decision. “Oh no, no you can’t do that!”

The audience chanted loudly asking Sharon to bring her back, to which Sharon responded, “Please guys, would you please give me time to receive the last two girls and then I can think about it?”

While Alisah had to endure an agonizing wait to know if she would still be in contention or would be buying a return ticket to the Philippines, Filipino-Australian hopeful Elysa V managed to briefly secure a seat following her performance of Meghan Trainor’s “Me Too.” But even Elysa had to go after Sharon made her give up her seat for the last girl to perform, Georgina Panton.

But the crowd, clearly not satisfied, chanted loudly for the second time to ask Sharon to bring Alisah back until the judge finally relented.

“Okay you guys! Oh, you are so hard to please!” Sharon responded. “Alright, I’m going to bring Alisah back but I want to hear a sing-off with her and Scarlett and Rai Elle.”

“Girls, I am so sorry to make you all do this, but what do I do when there’s so much talent here and the audience? I have to listen to the audience. But no matter what, I have two chairs and three girls,” Sharon told the girls before they started their second performance for the last chance to get a seat.

“I want you to all do a sing off for me because you’re all so talented, don’t forget that!” she told the three girls when they walked onto the stage.

Alisah then showed how badly she wanted that seat and surprised everyone with her soaring rendition of “Bang Bang” by Jessie J, Ariana Grande, and Nicki Minaj. Making sure she hit all the high notes, the singer even displayed her versatility by acing Minaj’s rap part of the song as Nicole and Louis were once again on their feet.

“Well Alisah, you showed me, didn’t you?” Sharon exclaimed after the girl’s performance as she decided to keep her and Rai Elle Williams in the competition and sent Scarlett Lee home.

“Where were you hiding that? Oh my Lord!” Sharon later told Alisah.

Up next for Alisah, who previously finished first runner-up in “The Voice of the Philippines” and recently competed in “Tawag ng Tanghalan” of “It’s Showtime,” is the Judges’ House round of the competition as she now faces a tougher Girls field that includes Deanna Mussington, Rai Elle Williams, Grace Davies, Georgina Panton and Holly Tandy.

“The X Factor UK” airs first and exclusive on RTL CBS Entertainment same day as the UK on Sundays and Mondays at 10:30AM with primetime encores Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays at 9:00PM.

RTL CBS Entertainment is available on SKYcable channels 53(SD) and 196(HD), SKYdirect channel 35, Destiny Cable channel 53, and Cablelink channels 37(SD) and 313(HD).