'The Four: Battle for Stardom' recap: Saeed Renaud, Lex Lu and Ash Minor lose their seats to challengers

The Four: Battle for Stardom featured three of "The Four" artists -- Saeed Renaud, Lex Lu and Ash Minor -- getting dethroned by musically-talented challengers during Thursday night's broadcast on Fox.


The episode kicked off with "The Four" being comprised of Saeed, a 37-year-old from Brooklyn, NY; Ash, an R&B singer, writer and musician from Australia who currently resides in Los Angeles; Lex, a female rapper from Los Angeles, CA; and Zhavia, a 16-year-old from Los Angeles, CA.

The panelists are music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs, Republic Records president Charlie Walk, music producer DJ Khaled, and Grammy-winning singer and songwriter Meghan Trainor.

The goal for artists on The Four: Battle for Stardom is to hold onto their seats over the next five weeks as incredible artists attempt to replace them. The winner of the show will have his or her career guided by the panel of hitmakers.

During the two-hour episode, Lex lost her seat to the granddaughter of Dionne Warwick and the cousin of the late Whitney Houston, Cheyenne Elliott, a 23-year-old from New York, NY.


Ash lost a battle for his seat onstage to Candice Boyd, a 28-year-old professional recording artist from San Bernardino, CA, who previously worked with Nicki Minaj and Ne-Yo.

And powerhouse vocalist Saeed Renaud, a 37-year-old from Brooklyn, NY, was dethroned from his chair by newcomer Jason Warrior, a 22-year-old acting and poetry coach for high school students from Chicago, IL, who had an extremely energetic stage presence.

As for Zhavia, she held onto her seat following a night of excellent performances; however, she wasn't even picked for a challenge. She was therefore declared safe by default.

Before any battle commences, contestants must first convince the panel they are worthy of the opportunity to potentially challenge one of "The Four" through an initial performance.

If Diddy, Charlie, DJ Khaled, and Meghan all vote "yes" for the challenger, that person will get to select one of "The Four" to battle for a seat onstage.


But if just one panelist votes "no" following the initial performance, the challenger will be sent packing and "The Four" will remain untouched. The winner of each battle is determined by the audience, or live crowd.

The show kicked off with Candice singing "I'm Going Down" by Mary J. Blige for the panelists.

Meghan said she had never been so affected by a performance on this show before, and so Candice earned a challenge, and she chose to take on Ash.

Ash therefore sang "Adorn" by Miguel, and Candice belted out "Dangerous Woman" by Ariana Grande.

Ash gave Meghan her favorite performance of the season, and DJ Khaled believed that Ash had "protected the bag," which means his performance should have been enough to keep his seat. However, 55 percent of the crowd voted for Candice to take a seat, and so Ash was eliminated.


Stevie Brock, a 27-year-old from North Hollywood, CA, was up next. The former child pop star performed "Sugar" by Maroon 5, and Diddy called it "a fairly decent performance." But it clearly wasn't enough, as all four panelists voted "no" to a challenge.

Cheyenne then made her presence known by singing "Wings" by Little Mix.

Although her vocals were great, Diddy said he didn't believe every word she was singing and her favorite parts of the song were obvious.

Cheyenne, however, got to challenge one of "The Four," and she picked Lex.

Lex rapped "Bad and Boujee by Migos (The Four version)," but she unfortunately stumbled over her words halfway through the song. That gave Cheyenne a huge advantage, and so her performance of "Too Good at Goodbyes" by Sam Smith was enough to dethrone Lex.


Viewers were then introduced to Cocoa Sarai, a 28-year-old R&B and hip-hop artist from Brooklyn, NY.  

Cocoa sang "Jealous" by Labrinth, and while Charlie became "deeply emotional" while listening to her song, he didn't think she was better than any of "The Four" up onstage. As a result, Charlie voted "no" to a challenge when the other three experts appeared to totally disagree.

Kayla Ember, an 18-year-old from St. Petersburg, FL, stepped onstage next and sang "Bad at Love" by Halsey.

DJ Khaled admitted he was "missing a certain vibe" from her that he needed, but Diddy thought she has potential to really become something as long as she's working with the right producer.

But potential wasn't enough to face "The Four," and Kayla was sent packing with three "no" votes from the panelists.


The last contestant of the night was Jason, who previously competed on The Voice's eleventh season.

Jason performed "Love Me Now" by John Legend, and Diddy thought the artist had taken him to church. Not only could Diddy feel his pain in the song, but he also felt his desire to challenge.

Charlie said that Jason is the reason why he signed up for this show to begin with. With that being said, Jason chose to challenge Saeed, which was a courageous move.

Saeed impressed with his rendition of "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder, but Jason wowed the crowd by belting out "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons. It was clearly going to be a tough decision for the crowd.

When asked which artist she'd like to work with in the future, Meghan picked Jason. Charlie also called Jason "special." But DJ Khaled noted that Saeed is "not someone to mess with."

The crowd then voted Jason as the winner of the battle, and Saeed was ousted, bringing the show's host, Fergie, to tears.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski