By Sam Phiri –

ONE would say the duo of Ivan and Vincent V was the luckiest of the entire Idols top11 team as it found itself there by a stroke of luck!
The two have a huge resemblance which confused voters such that some votes meant for Ivan were given to Vincent V and the other way; prompting the producers to automatically qualify both of them.
But the exact opposite happened during the Sunday live show when the two became the first to be shown the door out of the competition by the charismatic presenter Pro Verb leaving the top nine.
The Season 10 Top 9 contestants performed live just minutes after bidding farewell to their fellow competitors who had received the fewest votes.
The musical theme for the week’s performances was “How It Should Have Been Done”, with the contestants demonstrating how some of this season’s most memorable Wooden Mic audition numbers should have been performed.
Musa Mashiane was the first of the Top 9 to perform and he chose Mattafix’s “Big City Life”, which was Luchan Carolus audition song in Cape Town. Gareth Cliff thought it was very good. Unathi Msengana liked how different it was. “Keep it up – keep us guessing, keep the other contestants nervous!” she advised. Randall Abrahams was impressed that Musa accompanied himself on the ukelele.
Kyle Deutschmann, performed Rihanna’s “Diamonds” in a way that has nothing to do with Nkosinphile Mbambo’s now-famous braai-inspired version at the Durban auditions. Gareth thought it sounded a lot like the version by the song’s composer, Sia. “Unathi enjoyed the vocals.
Demi Lee Beyoncé ballad “Halo” somewhat differently to how Raheela Abdool did it at the Durban auditions. Gareth said he was happy that Demi was still here. Unathi thought it was the perfect song choice for Demi – “so confident, and different to how Bey does it,” she thought.
“It’s good to have you back with us!
Lize Mynhardt (21) from Stellenbosch tried to rescue the Queen classic “Bohemian Rhapsody” from Gabsile Mahlangu’s interpretation at the Pretoria audition. “That’s a curious choice of song,” Gareth noted. He pointed out that Freddie Mercury always really committed to that song and took it over the top, and that Liza didn’t.
But Unathi disagreed. “That was incredible to me,” she marvelled.
“There are certain songs you just want to stay form as far away as humanly possible and over the past two weeks you chose two of them,” Randall complained.
Vincent Bones (29) from Pietermaritzburg prepared R. Kelly’s “When a Woman Loves”, which was Siyanda Maphumulo’s audition song in Durban.
“Now we really have a competition!” Gareth raved.. “Absolutely incredible,” said Unathi,. “Votes for days!” Randall smiled.
This week’s Birthday Girl, Bongi Silinda performed the Rihanna classic “Umbrella”, which was the audition song of Idols contestant Valdinah Mutakusi at the Pretoria audition.
“Good song choice,” Gareth noted. But he didn’t think it was one of Bongi’s strongest performances. “High 5 from me!” said Unathi. Randall thought it lacked an edge
Adele’s “Someone Like You” was a popular audition song this year, and Cape Town music student Roxy McVean (19) showed how Collen Podile should have done it at the Cape Town auditions. “Oh, wow,” said Gareth.
“It was powerful and emotive,” Unathi though. Randall was not very satisfied.
Tumi Morobane employed the skills she learned in her Musical Theatre studies to do a better performance of Whitney Houston’s “Run To Me” than Godfrey Saul’s version at the Cape Town audition.
Randall thought it was possibly her best performance so far. “Tonight all the doubters are silenced,” he declared.
And Cape Town performer London Louw   showed Jozi contestant Tyson Baloyi how Madonna’s “Like A Virgin” should have been done. Gareth admitted it was magnificent. And Randall thought London did a really good job.
At the end of the evening Gareth said his choice for the performance of the night was split between Vincent and Dem. “London, London, London!” Unathi said simply. And for Randall it was Tumi’s performance of “Run To You”
The public voting results will be announced in next Sunday’s Spectacular [5 October], when one of the Top 9 contestants will be sent home.
Idols Season 10 is a co-production between pay-television channels M-Net (101) and Mzansi Magic (161) and airs every Sunday at 17:30 CAT.