Kavelle Anglin-Christie, Staff Reporter

Left: Brushy One String.   Right: Natel in performance during the eliminations show held last Friday at theTVJ studios. - Nathaniel Stewart photos

The remaining five contestants in the Rising Stars competition stepped up their game on Sunday night, much to the delight of the audience.

The contestants got the opportunity to perform twice: they performed their favourite oldies song and the song from their favourite performance during the series.

One Third came dressed to impress in their colourful gabardine suits and sang the Chilites' Hold Me Girl. The harmony and choreography were perfect. The songs they performed in the second segment were from the Chapter a Day medley. Again, they had the audience clapping and cheering.

Suzanne Perkins came dressed in retro-gear: she wore an afro wig with '70s-styled clothing. The first song she sang was Frankie and the Teenagers' Why do Fools Fall in Love and her second song was Diana Ross' Stop in the name of Love. Perkins had the audience rocking and singing, and it seemed she too was having a good time onstage. It was obvious that Perkins was beginning to break out of her shell.

Nickiesha Barnes was undoubtedly one of the top performers of the night, singing Roberta Flack's First Time Ever I saw Your Face and Mary J. Blige's I'm Going Down. Barnes' emotional performances left some speechless, while others commented that she was the Jamaican Blige.

Natel, for his first performance, pulled out all the stops and came dressed in a black suit and sure enough, he managed to woo the ladies in the crowd. He sang Aaron Neville's Tell It Like It Is and in the second round, Lionel Richie's Hello. The song was done in reggae style and was enjoyable, but some of the judges still were not completely impressed, saying that he 'over slurred' and Anthony Miller said he was not impressed with Natel's voice.

Brushy One String, however, was the man of the night. He emerged in an afro wig and purple retro-suit. The audience enjoyed his performance but Miller warned Brushy about being categorised as a comedy act. For his second performance, he left the wig behind and sang his original song Boom Bang Beng which the audience already knew word for word. Imagine that - a Rising Star with a hit song already?

Nickiesha Barnes has garnered some crowd support in recent weeks in the competition.