Alisah Bonaobra
When Alisah Bonaobra flew to London to audition for the “X Factor” singing tilt, little did she know that the global stellar bid would turn out to be such a whoop-de-loopy roller-coaster ride!
Her first audition was a smash hit, so she was primed for more sequential successes on the show. Ditto for the “family friends” who had invested in her talent and stellar prospects by footing the bill for her trip to the UK.
Alas, her follow-up performance was less triumphant, and she failed to make the cut to the next level. The downbeat denouement was more than her knees could take. She sagged to the floor—and pleaded for another chance to help turn her family’s dire situation around.
And, what do you know? Even the famously “nasty” and unfeeling judge-producer, Simon Cowell, was moved—and Alisah went to live and sing another day!
Then came the time the tilt had to cut its field of female finalists down to six.
Once again, Alisah sang at the top of her heart and voice, and got a seat. But, later in the female semifinals, more standout singers emerged—so Alisah lost her prized seat!
Now, that was a bummer, the lowest possible blow for the petite belter from the Philippines. But, Alisah’s roller-coaster again went from zag to zig, and she got in once more!
By this time, Alisah was so spent from all that zigging and zagging that all she could do was to take a deep breath to prepare herself for the next singing test to come.
It turned out to be a three-way sing-off for the last two seats left onstage—which she again managed to survive by the skin of her teeth.
So, the final tally as of this writing (Oct. 15), is that Alisah is officially one of the top six female semifinalists on “The X-Factor UK.”
How much longer she can stay “alive” is still a nerve-wrackingly iffy question—so, keep those fingers empathetically crossed!
In our view, however, some “signs” point to the possibility that the singing tilt has “plans” for Alisah.
We may be “over-reading,” but the fact that she’s lost and recovered and lost and recovered again could mean that she could survive all the way to the “final-finals.”
After all, each time she fails to make the cut and then dramatically and emotionally recovers gives viewers another opportunity to “feel” her pain and hope—so her popularity and “empathy quotient” should continue to rise.
If and when she gets to the finals, therefore, more people will be rooting and voting for her—and that perfervid, melodramatic and climactic intensity is what the tilt needs to make its outcome a big hit! What do you think?
The singing tilt has other standout semifinalists, but one unique plus point Alisah has going in her favor is her emotional and “deprived” backstory, boosted by her being so petite, coming from so far away and thus coming across as an underdog.
We all know how viewers love to root for underdogs and contestants who need to succeed to turn their lives around.
So, could Alisah just possibly be primed to go—all the way?