‘The X Factor Australia’ Elimination Recap: Hilary Duff and Ariana Grande Perform [VIDEOS]

Ariana Grande touches fans as she performs during the MuchMusic Video Awards (MMVA) in Toronto, June 15, 2014. REUTERS/Fred Thornhill REUTERS/Fred Thornhill

“The X Factor Australia” lost another contestant on Monday night’s elimination. But first, former Disney star Hilary Duff and ex-Nickelodeon actress Ariana Grande took the stage and performed their hits.

The show started with the Top 9’s group performance of “Jump (For My Love)” by The Pointers Sisters. They were asked what would they want to do on stage, and each had a weird, but awfully entertaining suggestion. Marlisa Punzalan wanted to surf on stage, Tee wanted fireworks, Dean Ray requested for showgirls, and Rochelle Pitt said she wanted to be a lizard.

Sydnee Carter got into a spaceman suit, while Shardyn of Brothers3 took the rare opportunity and requested for a million dollars. And yes, he did get that on stage as well. Caitlyn Shadbolt didn’t get to eat pizza on stage, but there were dancing pizza slices so there’s that.

The result was a smorgasbord of ideas that surprisingly worked really well all together.

Former “Lizzie Maguire” star Hilary Duff showed that her years of hiatus from the industry didn’t diminish her appeal to the audience as she performed her new single “All About You.” It’s unclear, though, if she sang live or just lip-synched. As online commenters noted, she might have sang live, but with backing track and auto tune.

Nevertheless, the screaming audiences loved her, even if Redfoo appeared to be confused by what he was seeing on stage.

Ariana Grande got Redfoo swaying to her music. The former “Sam & Cat” star sang three songs (“Problem,” “Bang Bang” and “Break Free”) on “The X Factor” stage, making the show seemed like a mini concert. And in spite of rumours that she acted like a diva during her photo shoot session with the Australian press earlier the day, the 21-year-old songstress proved that she’s quite the performer.

Read: Diva Ariana Grande Cancels Australian Press Photo Shoots After Insisting List of Demands – Reports

For this week only, the contestants had been called in the order of the number of public votes they received. The first one called had the most number of votes, while the two acts who weren’t called were automatically in the bottom two.

Here’s the order of the acts called:
Brothers3
Dean Ray
Reigan Derry
Rochelle Pitt
Marlisa Punzalan
Caitlyn Shadbolt
Tee

Jason Heerah and Sydnee Carter weren’t called, which meant that they were in the bottom two. It wasn’t revealed who had the lesser votes, though, as that would only be shown if the judges’ votes got into a deadlock.

It’s a first time in the bottom two for Jason, while it’s a second time for Sydnee. Unfortunately for the 16-year-old songstress, even a Twitter shout out from Ashton Kutcher wasn’t able to save her this time.

Only her mentor Ronan backed her up during voting time. Natalie Bassingthwaighte, Dannii Minogue and Jason’s mentor Redfoo all wanted the drummer to stay for at least a week more.

Perhaps she also knew that it was her time to go. Her performance during the sing-off was noticeably lacklustre compared to Jason’s. It could just be the song choice, though. After all, she could only bring as much energy to “Little Talks.” However, Jason’s rendition of “Let’s Get It On” was just the right combination of soul and energy.

Related:
‘The X Factor Australia’ Top 9 Latest and Greatest Theme Recap
‘The X Factor Australia’ 4th Elimination Recap: Dannii Minogue’s XOX Voted Out

Group performance