It’s a battle for survival on Vodafone Icons

With songs like ‘Survivor’ and ‘I Will Survive’ on Sunday evening’s edition of the Vodafone Icons: Mix Edition live performance show, it was clear that the battle is on for survival as all 8 groups performed to win public votes in order to survive another week in the contest. The R&B themed night saw some interesting performance which registered an improvement for most of the groups from the previous week’s performances. Black N Peach opened the night with their version of ‘Burn It Up’ by R Kelly and featuring Wysin and Yandell. They had an interesting arrangement and sounded very original with their performance. They were for a second week in a row, exciting to watch.  When host, Benny Blanco asked how it felt being the first group to perform, they said they felt the pressure going up first but they knew they had to rock the stage. Ms Naa said she wished that their vocal were louder, and Appietus liked their energy. Gena West also said they worked well together as a group. Sharps were next, and they performed Joe’s ‘I Wanna Know’.  They had cool vocals although I felt their performance was a bit stiff. I think again, the male members could have sung or performed to the only girl in the group to make it more interesting. Judge Appietus said they were wonderful with pretty smiles that caught his attention. Gena asked how they felt, and Nii replied that Ms Naa makes him nervous on stage. Ms Naa laughed out loud and said the group sounded sweet. She liked Reuben’s vocals but felt the rest needed to do more vocally. Gena said the guys looked too shy and uncomfortable on stage. Ginger performed ‘Umbrella’ by Rihanna. They had a good stage performance with interesting choreography although performing with an umbrella was too predictable for me. They kept the arrangements simple and they largely were in key. Gena said they did very well with the performance, they worked well as a group and she could hear them clearly. Appietus said their harmonies weren’t tight and some of the high notes were not that good but he loved the choreography. Ms Naa said they were awesome and she liked the umbrella routine because it opened at the perfect time. Ruff Road performed Destiny’s Child’s ‘Survivor’. They sounded original and handled the phrasing pretty well. But the females in the group seemed to be screaming too much. I also liked their dance routine.  Ms Naa liked their stage performance but wanted to see more of their capabilities as a group. Appietus said the performance was beautiful and Gena felt Nelson, the only guy in the group toned the loudness down and made her enjoy the song. 2JD put up a good performance with Mariah Carey’s ‘Always Be My Baby’. Their vocals and harmonies were good and they kept it simple. I felt Jayson, the only guy the group looked rather boring on stage.  Appietus said he liked the way they held their notes together. Gena didn’t understand why Dorinda didn’t sing much and said Jayson was not always in tune.  Ms Naa said she loved the warmth of Jasmine’s voice and hoped that Ghana would vote for them. Vybes was next to perform ‘My Girl’. They kept the arrangement simple and had a good retro feel to the song with good melodies, nice vocals and good stage presence as well.  Gena West said they were very comfortable on stage and described their dance moves as psychedelic.  She said that this week she was able to hear the fantastic voice of Chidinma unlike the previous week. Ms Naa said the group was weak in the previous week but stood out this week. “The harmonies were dope and on point,” she exclaimed. Waves also brought in some retro feel on their performance of ‘I Will Survive’. They kept the melodies simple and I particularly liked their up tempo bridge, it was original.  Appietus said he didn’t feel the ‘waves’ this week. He didn’t like the harmonies and felt they lacked the energy to make it exciting. “I am not happy with the way you sang it,” he commented. Ms Naa said they didn’t perform as a group.  Gena also commented that something was missing and the keys were too low but surprisingly, Joshua was the best in the group for a song that is classic for women. Bass then brought the night to a close with their performance of Alicia Key’s ‘No One’. I felt they rushed through the song and the pace was too fast. They should have kept it simple. Ms Naa said she loved the individual styles of the group members.  Appietus said they had awesome vocal power; he liked the harmonies but didn’t like the choreography because everyone was doing his or her own thing. Gena said that they had good vocals and energy, and concluded that the public loves them. Next Sunday, it would be clear which of the groups are loved the most as the group with the least amount of votes would be evicted from the competition. Voting is 100% public and the public can vote by texting the name of their favourite group to short code 1738 across all networks. The highest texter at the end of the season also gets to win a Kia Rio, courtesy Rana Motor, so get texting! If you missed the performance on Sunday across the various television networks, you can always watch the group performances on www.facebook.com/Vodafoneghana]]>