Comic Relief Does Fame Academy semi-final

By ShinyMedia on March 16th, 2007 Comments Off

Tutors The semi-final. Colin Murray, Shaun Williamson, Tara Palmer-Tomkinson and Tricia Penrose were the four remaining students.

Colin opened the show with The Boys Are Back in Town and it made me think that was the kind of song he should’ve been doing all the way through. His voice has definitely improved during the course of the series and his performance was energy-filled and fun. All three judges – Richard Park, Lesley Garrett and Craig Revel Horwood – loved it.

Singing Too Lost In You you could really see the difference from Tricia’s earlier performances – she was much more confident. Although having said that I felt in safe hands with her, she did miss a couple of notes and I found the performance a bit boring. Richard didn’t think it was convincing and Lesley praised the top notes, but Craig agreed with me – hurrah! – that she went a bit sharp.

Colinmurray
I was going to mention Tricia’s husband in his cashmere jumper tucked
into his white-belted jeans, but then he started going on about how
they’d had a lot of problems with their son and “he’s been in hospital,
actually … I’m not going for the sympathy vote.” I could not believe
it! What the hell was that all about? After Shaun’s performance,
Claudia Winkleman pointed out that Tricia’s son is fine and that Tricia
has spoken to her husband. And it wasn’t for the sympathy vote then,
Mark? So why bring it up? Very peculiar.

Bless Shaun – he admitted that he came in to the Academy thinking he
was the “bees knees” as a singer and then learned that he wasn’t. He
did Chasing Cars and, as usual, started and ended well, but had this
belting, over-the-top, pub singer bit in the middle. I’m not sure he
understands subtlety. I liked most of it though. Lesley’s comments were
completely demented, you’d think he’d cured cancer while rescuing
orphans. Craig liked it, but Richard didn’t.

Tara was out last and described her time in the Academy as an
“emotional workout”. It’s been an emotional workout just to watch her.
Where I feel safe with Tricia, I worry for Tara. She said the night she
did These Boots Are Made For Walking was the first night in her life
she was happy to be herself. It makes me cry just to type that. How
awful. Her parents were there, which may have been a mistake, given her
reaction to them last time. Singing Penny Lane, she started quite
poorly. I liked it more as it went on and she seemed much more
comfortable than she has before. Lesley liked it and Richard raved,
saying it would be a travesty if she didn’t make the final. Craig said
her unpredictability is what’s adorable about her.

On Wednesday night, Colin and Tara’s duet was my favourite thing in the
entire series and last night they were paired up again. And they were
singing Back for Good, which is one of my favourite songs. What could
go wrong? Well, practically everything. Neither of them sang very well.
Tara forgot some of the words and kept looking in the camera for some
reason and it just seemed to drag on quite painfully. Richard called it
“totally and utterly abysmal” and even Tara said, “I admit it, it was
really awful.”

Shaunwilliamson

Shaun and Tricia were next and you had to expect them to do better than
Tara and Colin. And they sang Islands in the Stream, which I
also love. Tricia sounded fabulous – it really suited her voice and she
gave possibly her best performance. And Shaun sang it without bellowing
and sounded great. I LOVED it. I really wanted to vote for Tricia, but
I’m slightly concerned for my phone bill. Craig and Lesley LOVED it
too, but Richard said it was “quite good”.

Comic Relief sent Gary Barlow to South Africa to speak to street kids
and he ended up singing Patience to them. God, it was fantastic. I
mean, I always knew Gary Barlow was an arse (that’s not conjecture,
I’ve met him), but that really wasn’t supposed to be a promo
opportunity. At the end he said, “You’re making projects like this
possible …” Yep, put your hand in your pocket and together we can
bring Take That to the world’s poor and homeless. Just £7.99 will buy a
copy of Beautiful World for a child in need. Dig deep!

Unlike many reality shows, the final is actually going to just be two
students. So, with little ceremony, Colin was out and Shaun, Tara and
Tricia got to sing their favourite song of the series. The student with
the most audience vote would have a guaranteed place and the other two
would go to the student vote, for which all the original students had
returned. The judges had no say.

Tricia chose What’s Love Got to Do With It, which was an odd choice
because it wasn’t her best song. Shaun did Walking In Memphis and Tara,
of course, did These Boots Are Made For Walking and it was even more
fabulous than last time.

Although the judges didn’t have a vote, Patrick Kielty asked them who
they’d like to see go through to the final and they unanimously chose
Tara.

The audience obviously agreed, because Tara was the first through to
the final. In case, you’re not keeping up, Shaun and Tricia then went
in front of the students. They were evenly split until it got to Tara
and she voted for Tricia.

Yep a Tricia-Tara final. Probably the best possible result. The best
singer and the most entertaining. But really, I’m still
laughing about Gary Barlow. Brilliant.