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The musical theme for last week’s episode of the Nigeria Idol was ‘Abba’. Like someone once said, everyone knows an Abba song – most times, without knowing it.

Based on the overall performance, it was obvious this theme was one that the contestants were more comfortable with compared to the previous week’s ‘Songs from Movies’. They gave upbeat performances similar in energy and entertainment factor to those of the Disco week. My favourite of the night was Alex, who like Jeffrey Daniels noted, has transformed over the course of the show. He first started out seemingly as shy and reserved but has since come out of his shell, becoming one of the most entertaining acts of the show. His rendition of ‘Mamma Mia’ was interspersed with dance moves that were well timed and delivered without too much or unnecessary exertion on him physically and vocally. His routine earned him a salute from guest judge, Jesses Jagz who also referred to him as having a heart of steel.

Compared to Alex’s, dancer Zoe’s choreography can often only be termed as over the top. It also tends to take a lot from her singing. Personally, I see it as a distraction that does nothing to enhance whatever vocal prowess she has. However this last week, she toned down the dancing enough to give a sweet eighties disco-eque rendition of Dancing Queen which totally bowled over Jags who called her an all-round performer.

Still it was Naomi that was the star of the show as usual. She was once again given a standing ovation by the studio audience. This made Yinka Davies thank the audience for making the show what it is. She could as well have been thanking them for loving Naomi so much which would not have been necessary seeing as the petite singer deserved every single sound form the ovation. Jessie Jagz who was mighty impressed, compared her singing to the way Jay Jay Okacha plays football-, calling it effortless.

As Naomi continued to deliver, George once, one of the bright stars of the show like her on the other hand, continued to display a complete loss of form. His performance in the ‘Abba’ week was even more of a disappointment than in the ‘Songs from Movie’ week. Even worse was the Disco week. So it of course came as no surprise when he finally got evicted off the show on Thursday.

What was however surprising (at least to me) was who got to accompany him off the Idol stage. In spite of her soulful song interpretations, Tonii had somehow failed to connect with the audience in a Zoe or Naomi-like way. Sure she has the talent but seems she did not have the proverbial wow-factor.

Sadly, this could turn out to be Emmanuel’s fate. He is another of the contestant like Tonii who unfortunately often only manages to connect with the judges. His rendition of ‘Honey Honey’ although commended by the judges with Yinka Davies declaring her love for him and Jesse Jagz calling it his best performance of the night, was met with a lukewarm applause from the studio-audience. Jesse Jagz seemed to think that this did not matter as in his own professional opinion, Emmanuel performed the song well by spicing it up with appropriate dance moves that went with it (twist?).

In my own personal/humble opinion having the right dance moves to a song is not good enough if you fail to entertain your “general” audience. Entertaining a general audience is what stars like the kind Nigerian Idol intends to churn out does.

And this why realistically speaking, smoke and mirrors performers like Zoe on the Nigerian Idol and pop icons D’banj, Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga (with or despite any real talent they might have) tend to make it over more conventional entertainers.