IT was the end of the road for the musical group ‘Safe’ along with singers Kellon Rover and Shamar Ramsammy, after they were the first of the 15 acts to be eliminated in Wednesday’s episode of the E-Networks/RED Entertainment ‘The Spotlight’ talent show.The fate of singers Ronald Chan Yen, Lutchman Singh and band ‘Behold the Jury’ now hangs in the balance. This makes it the second consecutive week that ‘Behold the Jury’ and Ronald are in the bottom acts. They were on the chopping block with Safe, Rover and Ramsammy at the end of the first episode, but made it into the final 12 after battling against the other three acts.

As the competition got heated, there were those who really stepped up their game like Wayne Errol Frank, known as ‘Errol T, who did a bit of free styling that included the popular opening lines of ‘Rapper’s Delight’.

There were some who believed that Errol was a bit “mature” for this competition, but he put doubts to rest about his ability to compete and in the process earned a thumbs up from the judges, Alana Seebarran, Russell Lancaster and Christian Sobers.

Speed painter, Winston Alexander was another act that kept the night lively. Painting with his brushes and even his feet in less than three minutes, Winston put together an abstract portrait of famed martial arts actor, Bruce Lee, while performing to the music of ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ and even adding a few martial arts dance moves into the mix. Alana called him the ‘Usain Bolt’ of the competition, since he is leading the race in the competition.

Opera singer Kimberly Samuels did a moving performance of the “Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet”, and spent a moment sharing the stage with Lancaster in an impromptu duet of “Ave Maria”.

Of the two dance groups in the show, ‘Euphoria’ continued to out shine the ‘Now U C Me’ quartet. ‘Euphoria’ – a group consisting of three boys, did a well-coordinated Afro-centric piece, continuing in their stride of matching outfits, face paintings and props. Both groups made it into the next round along with singers Trevaun Selman, Delisha Wright, break dancer Asraf Mohammed and contortionist Robert Wall.

The elimination round
The night commenced with the first televised elimination round, where the bottom five contestants from last week’s premier episode competed and only two would remain in the show.

‘Safe’ was the first act to be eliminated after performing Jesse J and B.o.B’s ‘Price Tag’. It was quite obvious that the band was anything but safe. The best description of their performance was given by Seebarran, who told the group that “you aren’t showing that you really want this, and that you really want to be here”.

Judge Russell thought Kellon was still “failing to connect with his audience” after he sang his heart out to Heatwave’s ‘Always and Forever’ while Judge Alana thought it was an improved performance.

And just when you thought the night could only get better, Shamar Ramsammy took it to new lows. Shamar struggled – painfully – through a cover of Drake’s ‘Hold on We’re Going Home.’ Russell thought the performance was ‘all over the place’ and rendered almost speechless, Alana found “nothing truly positive to say” about Shamar’s performance. Nonetheless a resilient Shamar said he was not giving up and hopes for better luck next year when he tries again.

By the time Ronald and ‘Behold the Jury’ rounded out the five performances, you could tell the first three acts were headed home. Yen serenaded the audience in a lovey rendition of Shawn Mendes ‘Treat You Better’. Russell called it a “neat performance”, and all three of the judges commended him for having improved.

However when he returned later in the final 12, the judges were not impressed by his performance of Rihanna’s ‘We Found Love,’ which resulted in him returning to the chopping block. The same went for ‘Behold the Jury’ which fared well in the face-off where they performed The Neighbourhood’s song ‘Sweater Weather’, and gained applause for using the judges’ advice and showing improvement.
The $2.5 million competition continues this Wednesday on E-Networks channel E1 at 20:00h and is also streamed live on Facebook