Tuesday, December 17, 2013

“The Voice”—Finale – Recap & Predictions


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After six live shows, it all comes down to this week’s finale of The Voice. Will Champlin, Jacquie Lee, and Tessanne Chin performed for the last time last night vying for your votes. It’s been a interesting season, with an unmeasurable amount of talent, and taking everything into consideration, predicting a winner is giving me a serious headache... all three are very talented... all three have amazing strengths... all three showed exactly why they are and deserve to be in the finale.

Last night, each artist performed three songs – their Blind Audition song, a duet with their coach, and a final song for your votes. After the coaches performed “Pour Some Sugar On Me” together to open the night, Tessanne took the stage with “Try.” It was really well done and felt as though you were at Tessanne’s headlining concert. Will came next with “Not Over You,” and you couldn’t help but notice how much he has grown as an artist. His personality is finally coming through and just adds to his great vocals. Jacquie rounded out the Blind Audition 'flashbacks' with “Back To Black.” There is so much power in her, and sometimes, she does need to reign it in a bit... but still a performance well done.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

“The Voice”—Semi-Finals – Recap (And Finale Predictions)

It was no surprise when Matthew was sent home last week, and this week the eliminations are pretty straightforward again. After last night’s show, the voting was opened to determine the Top 3 artists who will move on to next week’s Finale. There will be no Instant Save... For the first time this season, the ‘true’ bottom artists will go home.

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The show opened with the Top 5 performing “Best Day of My Life.” It was very well done and set us up for what would be coming throughout the hour. Will was actually much more ‘animated’ tonight. James was his usual self, and Cole was Cole but seemed to have some technical issues (I’m guessing), as his voice had a subtle, but weird, electronic hum... fortunately, whatever it was, it was corrected fast and really only affected his first verse.
Tessanne brought her lovely accent, and Jacquie was softer and ‘keyed’ down, which really let her vocals shine through. Both the girls were glowing, and it almost felt as though it was a Jacquie and Tessanne number with the three guys playing backup.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

“The Voice”—Top 6 – Recap


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With Ray and Caroline leaving the show last week, we are down to six. Matthew was also in the bottom three but was spared with the Instant Save. The six remaining artists are all very talented, but only five can advance to next week’s semi-finals. Last night, the remaining six each did two songs – one chosen by the coach, and one chosen themselves as a dedication song. Honestly, there really isn’t much to say about each artist at this stage that hasn’t already been said on more than one occasion by more than one person... so this will be more of a recap than a review.

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Cole started the night off with “Rich Girl,” a song chosen by Blake. Both decided to forgo the acoustic guitar and, instead, went electric for this song. Going ‘plugged in’ for this song was a smart decision, as it very much fit with the feel of the song. I’m not sure the song itself fit well with the image Cole has established thus far, but he did perform it perfectly.
The second song (performed later in the show), “Better Man,” Cole chose and dedicated it to his “first love.” Though they are no longer together, he said that she still makes him “want to be a better man.” This song choice was a much better fit for him. His almost natural vocal ‘roughness’ added a nice element to the song, but there were times where there was too much rasp in his voice. Christina did notice this and gave him the advice of not working his voice so hard in rehearsals, because in the performance, it will sound like someone who has been singing too much and too hard.