The tension melts into a huge smile: eroCaddeo, raised in Sinnai, 27 years old and winner of the 2021 Radiolina Contest, officially joins the cast of X Factor. Achille Lauro is mesmerized by his performance of "Per due che come noi" by Brunori Sas. He had very few doubts from the start: "I've heard your songs and you write beautiful lyrics," he encouraged him even before the performance. The switch, the change of chair, is inevitable.

By a hair's breadth, the cymbals of Mattia Pilloni, drummer from Arborea and son of Marco Pilloni, former singer of Barritas, were also securing Plastic Haze access to the live show . Everyone stood for their version of Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill." Lauro kept them in the game until the very end: "You're a solid band, the sound is cohesive, and what you hear here is convincing. Take this seat." Then, to avoid "overlapping," he let the band that had obtained their X Pass, Copper Jitters, pass through (despite a rather mediocre performance). Lauro Layana completes the trio.

No switch, however, for Sakina Sanogoh, the 26-year-old from the Ivory Coast, now living in Cagliari, who entered the competition with a reggae song, "It's a Pity" by Tanya Stephens. Judge Paola Iezzi, however, wasn't convinced: "A good choice, an interesting timbre, but I learned last year what awaits us here and I don't want to repeat my mistakes." Sakina was disappointed: "I'm sad and I think things would have gone differently with a different judge."

See you next Thursday: the show is about to begin.