The Stage 3: Siddhant wins first power pin of the season, Das Vegas eliminated

In what can only be described as an incredible night for English music in our country, The Stage 3 — judged by Vishal Dadlani, Monica Dogra, Ehsaan Noorani and Debraj Sanyal, gave us some performances from the Top 12 contestants  that we will keep with us for a long time coming.

The 28-29 October episodes also saw the talented Siddhant receiving the first power pin of the season, along with the elimination of the sister-duo — Das Vegas.

To kick things off, Chochung was declared the weekly favourite as she had the highest overall ranking (a combination of the judges scores along with audience votes). Lekka, who had been benched previously, was saved by audience votes and sent back to the artist hangout, while Nisa was pulled from safety and benched due to the same.

Siddhant and Nisa were also saved by audience votes and the first Battle of the Bench was a showdown between Zoe and the Das Vegas sisters. The judges decided to save Zoe after her immaculate rendition of ‘Jealous’ by Labrinth which put her right back in the game.

After Das Vegas’ elimination, the artists began to take to the stage one by one and gave us a fresh batch of memorable performances. The (now) Top 11 competed against each other in a heated yet energetic show with popular ‘party anthems’ being the theme of the week.

With Urgen commencing the performances with ‘You Sexy Thing’ by Hot Chocolate, the artist (one of the competition’s clear favourites) received three green lights for his performance from Dadlani, Noorani and Sanyal while Dogra gave him a red light. Her explanation for the decision was her admission of Urgen being her ‘favourite’ this season and that she expected more wacky, whimsical and out-there performances from his talented self.

Urgen and Arish took to the stage as he sang Jason Derulo and 2 Chainz’s ‘Talk Dirty’. The entire act is something that audience members are sure to remember for a long time coming. Think Arish wearing a snapback and a sweatshirt’s hoodie on top of that, sitting on a massive royal-looking chair in the middle of the stage as he sang with all the swag in the world. The judges, however, had a mixed opinion about his performance with Noorani and Sanyal giving him two greens and Dadlani and Dogra’s red lights making him the first person to make his way to the bench.

Next up was Jalandar Massive (yes they took Dadlani and Dogra’s advice and got rid of their earlier name Rhythm Divine). With an energetic rendition of One Direction’s chart-topping ‘What Makes You Beautiful,’ this musical quartet went back to safety of the artist hangout with two Go for Golds and two green lights (Dogra and Sanyal). Lekka came on next with a sassy performance on Shakira’s ‘Objection.’ However, she failed to impress the judges once again, receiving two red lights from Dogra and Sanyal.

The four judges and host Shibani Dandekar then went on to play some lighthearted behind-the-scenes games. Chochung got extremely emotional during her performance on ‘Rockabye’ by Clean Bandit, even forgetting some lyrics in the heat of the moment for which she received three green lights and one red from Dadlani who called it his version of tough love.

Next up was Akshay who performed to ‘Feels’ by Calvin Harris, Pharrell Williams, Katy Perry and Big Sean. Akshay got three greens and one red light (Noorani) for his performance. Shaurya wowed the judges with his cover of Dean Martin’s ‘Mambo Italiano,’ receiving high praise and two Go for Golds from Noorani and Sanyal while Dogra and Dadlani gave him greens mid-performance.

Nisa was next as she sang ‘Worth It’ by Fifth Harmony. The artist received a red light from Dogra and greens from the rest of the panel. The last performance was by Zoe as she sang Zara Larson’s ‘Ain’t My Fault.’ Sanyal ‘welcomed’ her back into the competition with Zoe receiving three greens and one Go for Gold from Noorani.

The highlight of the night, however, was the giving away of the first Power Pin, the recipient of which was the previously benched Siddhant. Giving a kickass performance to DNCE’s ‘Kissing Strangers’ in a genre that was supposedly way out of his comfort zone, Siddhant left the judges open-mouthed at his ability to pick up any genre and make it his own, adding his individual style to it.

After a night of musical genius, we cannot wait to see what the artists have in store for us next week.