The Voice knockout rounds were intense – and not what I expected. This is actually good news, because it means the coaches weren’t just thinking about who was popular, and made some choices based on what they heard. So, unlike last year, there’s more lee-way about the winner. As The Voice starts the live shows tonight, it seems they have a few possibilities they’re willing to consider. Not to say there isn’t some manipulation towards an agenda, there is. Do I think the agenda is cool…not really, but I understand it.
The Voice is still looking for that mainstream star – but they’ve widened the field. He or she could be pop, rock, R&B, any major US market, but the keyword is US market. Last week I talked about the Jessica Childress elimination. This week, what really caught my eye was Team Sharika. Somehow, she ended up letting go of BOTH Mary Miranda and Monique Abbadie. Seriously. She paired Mary Miranda with Chris Thomas and Monique Abbadie with Karina Islesias.
As soon as I saw the pairing of Monique and Karina I knew Monique was out. Likewise, the pairing of Mary with Chris made me nervous. Take a look at this battle:
Blake Shelton voiced what I think everyone thought – why this pairing? The battle was evenly matched, but if you listen to the crowd, Mary stole their hearts. I’m not saying Chris Thomas shouldn’t have won, he was brilliant, but the pairing itself was strange. As for Usher – all I could think was – “what an idiot.” Like seriously, you missed her dancing around? The show is called THE VOICE. I really don’t like him as a judge because no matter what he says about having diversity on his team, he has a very narrow view of what makes a good performance. He he was totally tearing up during Mary’s performance, but he missed her playful, dancing energy? Come on, Usher! Speaking of tearing up, so were Adam Levine and Blake. I think Mary’s version of “Every Breath You Take” showed she’s got the making of a major cross-over star. I think they all saw it, and realized they may have made a mistake in setting her up to lose.
I do think both Mary and Monique were set up to not make it to the live shows. With Monique she bobbled a bit on the big note, she had some pitch issues, and overall it was a bad song choice. Karina’s performance, as one-dimensional as it was had no vocal issues. However, with Mary it also appeared that Shakira’s knew before the battle started that she was letting go of Mary. There was no hesitation from her. She said that because of Mary’s lack of experience it would be harder for her to try something new. Right…Mary’s singing in English, a song by The Police and it’s a rock ballad. doing it seriously, like a torch song – no dance routine, no sex kitten antics. It was just her delivering a classic song – but making it hers – and she was mesmerizing. Nothing about her performance indicated not wanting or being able, to try something new and Shakira has been giving spot on critics. That critic felt false, like something already planned. Also, Shakira’s usual energy was missing, she was completely flat. I don’t know how much of the show is planned and totally spontaneous, but I felt that – like Jessica – the results of the battle were known before it started.
I do suspect the producers were concerned about the Latin vote swinging the competition. While Sharika has worldwide recognition, in the U.S. she’s not as huge a star as everywhere else. Monique in particular struck me as having a strong Latin influence in her stage style. Not that she didn’t seem to have cross-over potential, I thought both she and Mary did, and do. Mary and Monique were in the top five of popularity on Youtube. Mary was third, Monique fifth. Was it a cross-section of voters? If not, it would mean that if they won, they’d essentially be launching a Latin artist and be dealing with the whole cross-over issue. This is The Voice, in America: they want a winner with mass appeal in the US, and they want to hold a diverse audience. Having a full fourth of the roster as Latin with two Latin front-runners doesn’t serve that any more than 3 African-American female R&B artists did. There’s an entertainment factor to be considered.
It’s also possible they were worried it would appear Sharika was bias towards her Latina team members. With Mary & Monique out, that issue’s removed. It leaves two Latina artists in the competition: rocker Karina Iglesias and Cathia who was stolen by Usher. With Caitha now being steered to R&B The Voice has two Latina artists with a mainstream sound and the potential to garner mainstream support. No one can say it was skewed by either Shakira or by the Latin vote because Shakira didn’t initially choose Karina – she was a steal, and her two strongest Latin artists that she did turn around for are out. Meanwhile Usher is on his way to finding the next Beyonce – but I’ll get to that when I do his knockouts.
Last week I was worried they would make Shakira give up either Monique or Mary, but it looks like she had to give up both. I feel like calling foul, because losing both of them weakens her team. Although Chris and Sasha still keep her in second place. it cuts her down genre-wise to rock and R&B. Sasha Alexander is her strongest candidate and then Kris Thomas. I get her choosing Katrina – she wants to work with rock on the show. As for the Garrett thing…she has a blind soft spot for him. Tanya Reynolds gave a solid performance and would have given her a country artist as a third genre. I suppose his coming back a second time and making it onto the show is a great story for The Voice to promote. However, unless Shakira works some serious magic, he’s going be eliminated pretty quickly in the live shows. Just to be clear, Shakira’s final four are Sasha Alexander, Kris Thomas, Katrina Iglesias and Garret Gardner.
Team Adam’s big knockout shock was letting go of Midas Whale. Never would have thought that would happen, but honestly, Amber Carrington just beat them. She did an Avril Lavigne song (viewers of season 3 don’t freak out.) but her voice is richer, and her style was more like Kelly Clarkson. Midas Whale’s song choice was not anything like what they’d been doing and it just wasn’t as interesting. (There’s a theme of that through the knockouts, pretty much every person who changed their style from what they’d done before ended up losing). Adam is consistent with making his decisions based on the performance he’s just seen. Even if he’d thought Midas Whale was going to win, he wouldn’t just give it to them like that when Amber’s performance was stronger.
Amber was my pick for a save if there was one, because she was ranked #16 in YouTube views. If she keeps singing like she did for this knockout I can see her making the top 10. Adam’s other three team members. Judith Hill, Sarah Simmons, and Caroline Glaser, were a done deal already. Also, Adam’s position hasn’t changed. He’s still got the strongest team.
Remember how I said Usher let go of Jessica Childress because he wanted the next Beyoncé? I bet you thought I was joking. I wasn’t. Take a look.
There you have it! Usher’s answer to Beyoncé! Rynn Innes made this choice easy for Usher by his song choice, although Usher’s coaching for this made it even worse. The stomping around the stage that Ryan was doing was a tip from Usher. ultimately though it really was just the wrong song. The song choice is supposed to represent the kind of singer the artist wants to be. Usher loved Ryan Innes as a soul/blues singer. The switch to rock tanked him.
I wasn’t expecting Innes to change things up like that in terms of his style. Other than that that pairings and winners weren’t surprising, although how clear it was who won each knockout was. There were clear winners for each one. He paired Michelle Chamuel with Audrey Karrasch, and her vocals in the beginning, against Michelle’s excellent rendition of the Pink song “Raise Your Glass” made the decision for Michelle easy. Vedo went up against C. Perkins and won. Perkins did an okay job, but again, not a great song choice. That left Josiah Hawley up against Jess Kellner whom I had no doubts was going home before the knockouts even began – and she did. It looks like Josiah’s going to be in for a while – he’s got no real “cute boy” competition. Usher’s final four are Michelle Chamuel, Caitha, Vedo, and Josiah. As Michelle has seriously moved up the rankings Team Usher passes Blake and moves up to third place.
Team Blake was also interesting, but not surprising. I think The Swon Brothers lucked out when Midas Whale got sent home because it meant they were the only duo left. The show made mention about never having a duo make it to the lives before, plus they had a decent song choice and Grace Askew didn’t. She made it easy for Blake to chose them because they had a much better performance. It was the same for Savannah Berry and Justin Rivers. Savannah chose a key that was a bit low for her in the beginning, and it wasn’t pure country. Justin did a super job and totally won over the crowd. Blake said he’d done the pairing thinking Savannah would take it, but he’s also a coach who does live in the moment. Justin simply did a better job. Danielle Bradbery verses Taylor Beckham was the same thing – Danielle was flawless and pure country, while Taylor had pitch issues and was doing a pop/R&B styled song. Danielle is still ranked in the middle of the pack, but my personal thought is to keep an eye on her to move up the rankings.
The only difficult battle in Blake’s knockout’s was Luke Edgemon and Holly Tucker. It was difficult in that they both had strong performances. Luke Edgemon did an great arrangement on the Katy Perry hit “Teenage Dream” – an R&B arrangement. There was no way Blake would have picked that over Holly unless she’d seriously tanked, which she did not. She was vocally straining in a couple of spots at the end, but it was still a heart-felt strong performance and she connected with the crowd well. I’m still trying to make sense of Usher’s comment to Edmond: “It was hard for people to one hundred percent connect with it.” What? It sounded a bit like sour grapes because Luke didn’t pick him in the steals. I was glad Adam and Shakira jumped all over his statement, (Those two are becoming quite the dynamic duo!) because it was an awesome arrangement! I didn’t even think of the song as Katy Perry’s song until Usher mentioned it! Nevertheless I thought Blake’s assessment was fair – Holly went big and Luke went mellow. Even Adam said the choice didn’t show all Luke could do, but for Blake, all things being equal, was going to pick country. If Luke sensed that, it was smart to have his last appearance showcase not only his R&B style, but his ability to arrange music.
Blake’s final four going into the live shows are Danielle Bradbery, Holly Tucker Justin Rivers and The Swon Brothers. He moves to third place.
Here’s a look at the top sixteen for tonight:
Team Blake and Team Adam
Team Shakira and Team Usher
For me personally, out of those eliminated in the knockouts I will miss Monique and Luke the most, but the show must go on! Tonight we go into the live shows – and the popularity games really begins!
In terms of popularity, the top four most viewed knockout rounds on Youtube are: Sarah Simmons, Judith Hill, Caroline Glaser, and Michelle Chamuel. The bottom four are: Amber Carrington, Holly Tucker, Justin Rivers, and the Swon Brothers. (As a separate note – only Sarah Simmons and Judith Hill are currently charted on the iTunes top 100 songs.) However, if the eliminations are 1 per team – it’s a different story. The four who’d go home by team are: Team Adam – Amber Carrington, Team Blake – The Swon Brothers, Team Usher – Vedo, and Team Shakira, Garrett. So, how the eliminations are done is going to matter a lot! Also, there’s always the possibility that someone does a killer performance – we’ll have to watch and see!
Don’t forget that this week The Voice is on for three nights, Monday – Wednesday! Check in with Gossip and Gab for the live recaps, and vote for your favorite artists!
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