Don't get me wrong Danielle has turned in some great performances. Personally I love 'Red' and 'Mambo Italiano' but with 'On My Own' and in both sing offs she has been below par at best, and she was the poorer one in both sing offs.

Usually on these shows you'll see a lot of contestants deliver decent performances with pop songs, then the get a musical theatre song and it's like 'Wow, where did that come from.'

Why is this not the case with Danielle? And will it stop her winning?

I'm not sure, 'On My Own' is a hard song to sing and I think any of the girls would have struggled. She's needs a simpler MT song next week I think.

I personally think she can and she proved it in "If My Friends Could See Me Now."

I also think "On My Own" was very good apart from the machine gun-like deliverance of the word "pretending."

Ah yes! I forgot about this performance! She was very good in it so she probably can do MT and let's face it Over the Rainbow isn't exactly the hardest song to sing is it?...

You might be on to something.

I didn't think she was that great in 'If My Friends Could See Me Now' she looked too serious. I have to say I didn't notice her the first time I watched it, I was so blown away by Amy, Emilie acted it better too.

You have to add the Wizard of Oz medley as well. She didn't do well on that either. That's even more important because that's the actual songs they'll be singing.

I have said this before this week, she lacks range. She shouts the high notes and this is evident on Could it Be Magic and Cry Me A River. A lot of MT songs are "showy" a bit like opera. They are there to tell the story as well as to showcase the singer. So when a limited singer sings it, it's underwhelming but give the same songs to a great singer and it brings the house down.

Also, I have to add. A lot of the people have said she's a subtle actress. Mind you, this phrase was popularised by Shiela Hancock but I don't understand why it's inconsistent. They said Sophie's interpretation was a "bit small" but I'm sure if Danielle did the same song it will be "subtle and intelligent". It's either OTT or not. Sublte or not. There is really a lot of double standards going on.

Well this was what made me notice her so I guess it's down to personal taste. I didn't like Amy in it. Emilie was very good.

Diorelli I agree on the why is Sophie too small but Dannielle is subtle double standard. Its annoying, but it might be that in person they are drawn in to danielles stage pressence but Sophie dosent have enough to hold them.

I didnt get drawn in to danielle live(week 2), but those that were with me were impressed.

I think On My Own is probably a harder song to sing than SOTR. I'd have liked to hear Jenny, Lauren or Sophie try it ... I think their voices are better than Danielles and they might have been able to do the song justice.

OMO is a hard song, but such a "standard" now for young girls I am suprised she did not do better. She does not have a high belt (chest) voice, so why didn't they take it down for her? I am really not impressed with the production team on this show, the costumes, song choices and direction have all been dodgy.

Really agree with you there. Jessie's outfit this week was horendous but certainly not the only bad outfit. Song choices and production have been very disappoiting.

I thought she was excellent in her second sing-off. She got the acting of the song just right. And "On My Own" was very good except for that one part that they kept replaying.

I think Danielle has excelled in both sing offs she's been in.

Granted her solo number this weekend was a bit weak, but I genuinely think it was a one-off drop in form. Maybe the song didn't suit her or she wasn't comfortable with the arrangement. It just didn't click this one time.

In the first sing off the thing that was so obviously wrong for me was the acting. It was like she didn't understand the song. I was better in the second sing off but still not as good as Jessica who had it spot on.

The thing I find strange is she is the only contestant in any of these shows who hasn't stepped up a gear when given an MT song.

I agree. I also suspect loads of people all over the UK were thinking I know someone who can sing that song better. It was a real surprise as I thought any of them would have outshone the others with that gift of a song.

I thought she was much better than Jessica in that sing-off. Jessica's 'acting' was over-the-top, Danielle's was spot-on in my opinion.

i didn't enjoy her 'on my own', which is a shame because it's one of my absolute favourite songs and i've done it myself many times so it's disappointing to see her fluff the top notes! i think she can do musical theatre - her sing-offs have been good in my opinion. also, in her first audition (which we didn't see all of, granted) she did 'astonishing' from little women. if you don't know it, look it up. it is a BIG song, and i think at such an early stage of the competition, if she'd done it badly they'd have given her a polite "no thanks" and moved on.

i just wish the girls had been singing musical theatre all along.

I agree with you, its been the most disappointing thing about all of the ALW audition shows for me; not enough musical theatre numbers. They're auditioning a performer for the West End musical stage not a new pop-star.

OK, I went back and watched "On My Own" again, and tried to be objective. That's hard for me, because Danielle is my favorite,but I really watched her and listened closely. I love this song and have fond memories of listening to Les Mis and singing all the parts with my brother as a teenager in the late 80s. I have heard many versions of the song, and many different interpretations. I've also heard numerous teenage girls sing it at school choral concerts (it was a very popular selection my last two years of high school).

OK, now to Danielle's performance. I was watching it again, and I could not for the life of me figure out how anyone would think it was bad. Not her best, definitely, but certainly not bad. In fact, most of it was excellent. Not just very good, but excellent. The arrangement was stupid, but that wasn't her fault and she made the most of it. I really liked her acting, and the building of the song despite the fact that the arrangement made the build more abrupt than it should have been. I also closed my eyes and listened to her voice, and it was on par with quite a few of the professionals I've heard sing the song. This was not a high school choral concert amateur performance. I've heard many of those (good ones, too) and this was much better than that. The arrangement did her no favors, because the song made less sense the way it was chopped up, but she did a great job with it, except for one part.

Now, to that one part. It irritates me to no end when people write off a whole performance based on one flawed line or note. That "pretending" part did sound awkward, but Danielle isn't alone in that. That part sounds awkward when a lot of people sing it, even some of the professional Eponines I've heard. That part sounds great when the singer really nails it, but mess up just a tiny bit and it sounds jarring. I admit that part was not great, but I am not going to write off the rest of the performance (which I think was very, very good) based on that one part.

Also, we need to keep in mind that Danielle is only 18 and her voice is still developing. She can develop the belt/chest voice more as she works with a vocal coach, and also as her voice matures. Still, she is not trying out to be Eponine. She is trying out to be Dorothy, and Dorothy does not have any songs like that.

I do think, and fully admit, that there is a subjective element here. The thing is, I think that if you were already biased against Danielle, you weren't going to like that performance if it had any flaws in it. It can be 95% great (as I think "On My Own" was), but because it was 5% flawed, the flaws were pounced on and the strengths were ignored. I've heard people defend their favorites on this and other shows to the rafters for other flawed performances, because they saw the worth in the performance despite the flaws. I'm thinking particularly of Abi on Maria here. She missed notes all over the place, but she presented her songs well and her fans still loved her. I think that if you already like a contestant, you will give her the benefit of the doubt and see the good in her performances despite the flaws. If you already don't like her or just don't "get" her, you probably won't be so forgiving.

I also think that Danielle suffered this week in some viewers' estimation because she had such a "wow" performance last week, that anything short of sheer perfection on this song would seem like a letdown. I stand by my statement that this performance was not as bad as some people are making it out to be--in fact, I don't think it was bad at all. I think it was very good overall, but it just wasn't a showstopper like "Mambo Italiano" was. That does not by any means make it a bad performance, though.

I was just going to post a more concise summary of your excellent points Snoop: i.e. if you don't really like Danielle you're going to say she can't sing MT songs, if you do like her you'll disagree. Some of the responses I've read make it sound like On My Own was a car crash of a performance, which it definitely wasn't.

To be fair, I think the nerves got the better of all girls last week. Danielle was on first and looked so petrified it looked as if her heart was going to beat out of her chest.
I do think she can sing musical theatre as I usually notice her most during group performances, her voice is distinctive and she has that Westend twang to her voice.
'On my own' was one bad performance Danielle had and I'm not suprised, it is one of the biggest MT songs around, but to write her off after one bad song is something I wouldn't do.

It wasn't but it should have been her best by a mile given it's the only MT song she's had and it wasn't.

I just find it surprising her best performances haven't been MT songs.

I'm inclined to agree with you and I'm fond of both girls.

Danielle is a bit more natural than Jessica and that was apparent in the sing-off this week.

Jessica had the edge for me, 60-40, in the sing-off as she didn't let the nerves get to her so much nervous despite all of the pressure on both of them. xx