The X Factor

For those of you eagerly watching for Fredonia native Toni Dolce's audition on "The X Factor," your wait will be over this week. Just look for the Newark auditions. The remainder of the auditions will be shown on Wednesday and Thursday at 8 p.m. each night on Fox. If you watched last Wednesday and Thursday, some of the auditions were glossed over in the edits but Toni has high hopes that hers will make the cut.

As a preview, hear her sing Adele's "Someone Like You" here. My full story on Toni will be in the OBSERVER on Sunday, Oct. 2. Whatever they don't show on TV, I'll be covering in the story.

Now let's talk "The X Factor" for a moment. I watched last week, which covered the auditions in LA, Seattle, Miami and Dallas, and there were definitely some hits, some misses and some what-were-you-thinkings. Here are three of my stand-outs so far (only the good -- the bad have gotten enough of the attention they so desperately need):

- Melanie Amaro, singing Beyonce’s “Listen.” There is no denying that’s a $5 million voice. Check it out at the link at right. (It won't show up embedded here for some reason). I also loved her quiet confidence – when Simon asked if she was good, she simply said, “I’ll let you determine that,”– and her family bursting with pride backstage as she blew everyone away.

- Chris Rene, singing an original song – He had the guts to perform his own material and unlike others who tried (like that blond Justin Bieber-like nightmare), it was great. He overcame addiction and was 70 days clean at the time of his audition – he’s got a lot of people rooting for him now.

- Buffalo native Caitlyn Koch, singing The Supremes’ “Stop in the Name of Love” – Someone was taking notes during “American Idol” as they demanded originality week after week! She truly made the song her own and it suited her voice beautifully. Let’s go, Buffalo!

What will the Wednesday and Thursday auditions bring? Who the heck is that host and is he a robot? (Just watch him try to comfort someone after a bad audition – it’s like “Does not compute”). Why wasn’t that one guy who stripped down escorted off the premises immediately after he dropped his pants? Was giving Cheryl Cole the axe in favor of Nicole Scherzinger a really bad, flip decision? (I think so. She had malaria and survived, unlike many members of my wagon party on Oregon Trail).

Tune in and hopefully, the answers await us!