Drama on Icons: Eboni bites the dust, Stephanie Benson says she has performed while in labour and argues with Gena West

The drama heightened on the ‘Icons: Divas Edition’ reality TV series last weekend when the show opened with the girls talking about their chances with eviction for the week. There was a lot of backstabbing and badmouthing as the girls spoke on who they thought would be competition and those that needed to pull their weight. But after all said and done, it was time for the voice of the public, the people who really matter in deciding who stays or leaves, to be heard.

5 groups were saved while host, Benny Blanco asked Chilli, Eboni and Diamond to stay on stage because two of them had the least number of votes, and one would be eliminated on the night. Benny asked each of the three groups if they thought they would be in the bottom two and surprisingly the leader of Chilli answered in the affirmative while the other two were surer of their capabilities, and answered no! However as fate would have it, Chilli was rather the group that wasn’t in the bottom two, leaving an expression of shock on the faces of the judges.

The judges couldn’t believe that the Eboni and Diamonds were up for eviction because they didn’t put them in their bottom two based on the performances from the previous week. However when they were pushed to save one of the groups from elimination, Stephanie saved Diamonds. Gena saved Eboni and commented that Diamonds was a cute group but they can’t sing. The comment got a reaction from Stephanie who said it was not true that Diamonds couldn’t sing adding that the comment was ‘condescending’. Gena then came back to tell Stephanie that she (Stephanie) had already had her chance to speak. This is the second week running that the two judges have gone at each other publicly. Could it be a battle for ‘Divadom’? Quantos then was put on the spot to make the decision on who leaves and he saved Diamonds in agreement with Stephanie.

After their elimination was announced, Lucy said Ghana hasn’t seen the last of her, while Valentina wanted to leave everything in the hands of God. Betty said she is very surprised; she didn’t know what went wrong but said she would take the decision just like it was! Oh, by the way, can someone please tell Benny Blanco to stop saying ‘final two’ instead of ‘bottom two’?

The theme for the weekend’s show was ‘Billboard Hits’ and the remaining 7 groups chose songs that had topped the charts at various periods. Kolors opened the show with Leona Lewis’ ‘Bleeding Love’. I felt that they started a bit out of tune but the harmonies came together in the middle of the song, and the girls owned the song. The bridge towards the end of the song was well done although the group sounded out of breath in the end. Stephanie called the group her ‘African Queens’ and said their harmonies were on point. Quantos remarked that they performed well as a group though there were some flats here and there. Gena said she was captivated by their stunning looks.

Next was Diamonds, who performed Whitney Houston’s ‘I’m your Baby Tonight’. The girls had the right attitude for the song and looked good together as a group. I didn’t like the idea of them bringing up a guy on stage to play with; it was a little tacky particularly since he was out of shape and ordinary (laugh out loud). I particularly liked the fact that the lead singer did well with the phrasing and pace of the song, she had a good breath control. Gena said it was ambitious to do a ‘Whitney’ and thought they did well to leave all the singing to their strongest vocalist, a remark to buttress her point that they can’t sing. Stephanie told Alberta to work on her diction.

Keshi 3 took on ‘End of the Road’ by Boyz to Men and had some good moments and not so good moment. Their harmonies were off at times and I didn’t fully enjoy the performance. Stephanie commented that the lead singer needs to learn how to manage her voice while Quantos thought the song was too much for the lead to carry. He added that the group had set a standard for themselves so far in the competition but couldn’t meet up with that standard on the night.

R&M took on Rihanna’s ‘Don’t Stop the Music’ and got their first great remarks from the judges. They had a good intro to their song, nice dance moves and looked the part! They kept the vocals pretty simple and showed the right attitude. I also think it was a great decision to leave the lead vocals to one person, Denise. Stephanie commented that she was pleased that Denise did the song, and called them ‘the group to beat’. Quantos also said that the girls turned it up a notch and they really came out to compete.

There was more Rihanna as Kyses performed ‘Umbrella’. They had a good choreography but I felt that their vocals were drowned in the instrumentations at some points, although they owned the song and looked great on stage. Quantos said they lost focus half way while Gena said their personalised outro was unnecessary

Chilli took on Alicia Keys’ “Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart’ and left the stage with a broken heart. Their vocals were all over the place, there was something wrong with their harmonies, and the song was too big for them. Gena said they looked dejected and their performance was off. Quantos said it wasn’t good and Stephanie said that Sussana shouldn’t be allowed sing in the lead apart from backings. She sternly told the girls that she has even performed better while in labour, than what the girls did on stage.

Breeze closed the show with their version of Bruno Mars’s ‘Grenade’. An unusual song choice but they did it very well. They rocked the rock elements in the song and the lead singer, Zephora was the star of the night. Stephanie said that their moody diva worked for the first time. Quantos said that the quiet girls of Breeze are not quiet any more, while Gena said she loved the Breeze.

Another group will be kicked out of the competition next weekend. To vote for your favourite group, text their names to 1737 on all networks.