X Factor USA Show Highlights & Videos from 9/19

The quest for the $5 million record contract continues tonight. The show opens with Britney, L.A. Reid and Demi in Britney’s dressing room. Britney tells Demi and L.A. that Simon is sick and won’t be attending the auditions in Kansas City because he is sick. The contestants are happy when they are told about Simon. Britney also announces to Demi that it is Reid’s birthday. Louis Walsh, the judge from the UK version of the X Factor fills in for Simon in KC.

Up first is Rizzloe Jones who is an 18 year old aspiring rapper. He does free style rapping so L.A. suggests he incorporate the X factor in his rap and Demi wants him to add something about marshmallows. That is a pretty tall order but Rizlo manages to pull it off and he did really well. All four judges send him through to the next round.

CeCe Frey is quite a strange character. She has a painted image of a cheetah paw above her eye. She sand Unchained Melody in which Demi stopped her dead in her tracks to ask about the idea behind the cheetah. Good thing because she was ruining Unchained Melody. But when she started with Christina Aguilera’s song Ain’t No Other Man, she nailed the song. The judges told her she had talent and passion. She leaves the stage in tears after the judges all agree she should stay on X Factor.

Britney walks in the judges’ room, birthday cake in hand and sings Happy Birthday to L.A.

Vino Alan is a father to a 15 year old son. His song choice was Trouble. Vino is a military performer and had tats all over his bald head. He wore a cap onstage to cover them up until L.A. asked him to take it off. Demi was in awe over the works of art. Vino has a very soulful voice and the judges liked him enough to give him four yeses.

Deangelo Wallace took on With You by Chris Brown. This guy is confident he will nail the song, confident the judges will love him and confident he will get four yeses. Unfortunately he was wrong on all levels. The minute he started singing he was off key from note one. During his performance, the judges were so disgusted with his performance, they all left the auditorium. Later, Wallace is arrested for trying to steal the show’s $3,000 microphone.

Diamond White is a 13 year old girl who lives in a tiny apartment with her mom. She dreams of just having her own bedroom one day. Her song choice was It’s a Man’s World which is a ‘big’ song for such a young girl. Even though she was a bit pitchy, she has a mature and very powerful voice. Even Simon highly praised her. She got a unanimous vote to go through to the nest round.

Another story of inspiration comes from 42 year old Panda Ross. She got the name Panda because when she was born, her mom was in prison and her cellmate came up with the name because she was white and Panda’s mom was black, so they named her Panda. Panda just recently got out of the hospital with pneumonia. She chose the song Bring It On Home. You could tell from the get go that she is a church singer with an alto voice full of soul. She had the audience on their feet. The judges loved her performance and all gave her yeses. But as she was coming off the stage, she had a tough time catching her breath and paramedics were called in and she was taken away by ambulance.

Tomorrow night bring more auditions, more drama and more surprises.