Carly Rose Sonenclar on 'The X Factor:' 3 ways to advance

Monday November 5, 2012 11:10 AM By Chris Serico

Photo credit: Fox | "The X Factor" contestant Carly Rose Sonenclar hails from Mamaroneck. She started singing at age 2 and began her entertainment career in 2006.

Carly Rose Sonenclar might not have delivered her best performance on "The X Factor" last week, but her rendition of "Something's Got a Hold On Me" was enough to propel her into the top 12.

This week, fans will get to vote for the first time this season. This seems to be an advantage for Carly, who has a massive fan base both on stage (fans screamed her name while waiting for last week's results) and online (about 88,000 followers on Twitter).

On Wednesday night, Sonenclar will perform as one of the remaining 12 acts, and on Thursday night, one of those acts will be eliminated. To avoid this fate, Newsday Westchester strongly recommends the following three pieces of advice.

1. Look like she's having fun: To be fair to Sonenclar, she never should have been pressured by mentor Britney Spears into singing in a school uniform while backup dancers flailed on the stage. The judges and audience all saw how awkward the whole thing was, and she got a pass for the week, but she won't have that excuse any more. Going forward, Sonenclar has to make it look like she's loving every second of what she's doing, no matter how uncomfortable the format. (And if this means saying "no" to Spears in advance if Spears suggests something else inappropriate, so be it.)

2. Just ignore judge Demi Lovato: Lovato oddly seemed to have her mind made up about Sonenclar just as the live shows got under way, saying, "I'm worried that it's not your time right now, but there's no doubt that you will have a future in the music industry." Because the voting power has shifted to the viewers, Sonenclar should just take whatever Lovato says with a grain of salt, focus on constructive criticism and play to fans who can power her all the way to the top.

3. Play to her strengths: Sonenclar doesn't need outfits or stage gimmicks to distract from her impressive soul vocals. On stage, she should stick to songs with which she's most comfortable, at least for one more week. (Beyond that, judges might start pulling the "too safe" complaint, which I've always found unfair, but Sonenclar can worry about that later.) Off stage, she should keep shouting out her devout fans (known on Twitter as #CarlysAngels), whose young-girl demographic often propels reality-TV singers to victory.

What do you think? Should Carly Rose Sonenclar change her approach from last week, or was her first live performance just perfect? Vote in Newsday Westchester's poll and let us know in the comments section below.

Tags: Mamaroneck , Carly Rose Sonenclar , The X Factor , reality TV , TV , music