Category Archives: The Voice

Whelp, we are on battle round 3 (I know, I’m a week behind on this) and we are almost.to.the.live.shows.  OMG, this show takes forever to progress.

On Team Adam, Pip and Nathan Parrett will be battling with Amy Winehouse’s You Know I’m No Good. Pip gets to be mentored by Alanis, and Nathan is mentored by Robin Thicke. These guys are very comparable and both quite good. I can see where there is only room for one because they are very comparable. Pip ends up being Adam’s choice in the end.

Team CeeLo chooses Erin Martin and the Shields Brothers to battle with Tina Turner’s What’s Love Got To Do With It. The Shields Brothers rehearse with Babyface, and Erin rehearses with NeYo. This performance is a hot mess from every standpoint. The guys’ harmonies were way off, and Erin’s weird accent is so put on it is obnoxious. Can both of these groups go home? Apparently not. CeeLo chooses Erin.

On team Xtina, Ashley de la Rosa battles Jonathis. They are singing No Air by Jordin Sparks/Chris Brown. Jonathis is mentored by Lionel Ritchie and Ashley is mentored by Jewel. These guys were actually a good duo together. I felt they were both a little pitchy during the performance but gave a good overall show. Ultimately, Xtina chose Ashley.

AlyX and Jermaine Paul will be battling on Team Blake. They are singing Get Out Of My Dream by Billy Ocean. AlyX gets pointers from Miranda and Jermaine gets mentored by KC. This was actually an amazing performance on both of their parts, but Jermaine! Jermaine was amazing. He is one of the best in this whole competition. Blake obviously goes with Jermaine.

On Team Adam, Angel Taylor and Katrina Parker are paired up with Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis. Angel gets mentored by Robin Thicke and Katrina is mentored by Alanis. Katrina does get the best of the song and really steps up. Angel was much better in practice and kind of bombed the performance. Adam rightfully chooses Katrina in this battle.

In the last battle of the night, Gwen Sebastian and Erin Willen will be battling with Pat Benatar’s We Belong. Nice song choice, Blake! Gwen is mentored by Miranda and Erin is mentored by KC. This is such a good song, and a very comparable match up. Blake chooses Erin Willis.

So, the last battle round was on tonight, and I will be catching up soon!  This show better speed up fast…live shows!  live shows!

Another round of big voices dukeing it out in the ring.  Lets get to this, shall we?

Xtina tells her team that Geoff McBride and Sera Hill will be the first match up tonight.  The will be singing Chain of Fools by Aretha Franklin.  (Have I ever mentioned I named my car Aretha?  She is a diva and she ain’t afraid to flaunt it).  Geoff gets to work with Lionel, and he is a bit starstruck.  Sera gets some pointers from Jewel.  In battling it out in the ring I was impressed with the precision of Sera’s voice in her runs.  She is a technical, polished vocalist, and while Geoff has the power, he lacks the precision.  I would choose Sera in this matchup.  And clearly Xtina agrees with me, and she also chooses Sera.

On TEAM BLAKE, Charlotte Sometimes goes against Lex Land singing Pumped Up Kicks by Foster The People.  Charlotte gets to train with Kelly C, Lex gets to train with Miranda.  Between these two ladies, I think Lex is the most versatile, although Charlotte is probably better on tv.  Blake picks Charlotte for his team, and Lex seems so sad.  Aww.

On TEAM CEELO, Sarah Golden and Juliet Simms will battle it out with Rod Stewart’s Stay With Me.  Sarah gets to train with Babyface, and Juliet trans with NeYo.  It is pretty clear Juliet has the more interesting tone.  I don’t think there is much more Sarah could do – she did the best she could with the song she was given.  The harmonies and arrangement were great though.  CeeLo chooses Juliet, of course.

In the land of TEAM ADAM, it is Whitney Myer vs. Kim.  They are singing No More Drama by Mary J. Blige.  Whitney gets to train with Alanis.  She over thinks many things and seems to have confidence issues.  Kim trains with Robin Thicke which she surprisingly seems pretty excited about.  Whitney seems really nervous at the beginning and her voice waivers a bit.  The blending of both of their voices on this duet is the worst of all the battle rounds that we’ve seen so far.  For once, I was not a fan.   Adam chooses the obvious choice and goes with Kim.

Back with Xtina, she pairs up Lyndsay Pavao and Lee Koch.  She assigns them Heart Shaped Box by Nirvana.  Lee is training with Jewel, and he appears to be struggling with the song and the performance.  Lyndsay trains with Lionel and she learns she needs to work on stage presence.  This is a very dark haunting song for this pair of indie singers.  I don’t love either of these two after this performance.  Not great!  But Xtina goes with Lyndsay, who I do feel was better suited for the song.

Last up, CeeLo pairs up Jamar Rodgers and Jamie Lono to sing I Want To Know What Love Is by Foreigner.  Jamie, who had a great audition with Folsom Prison Blues, is very nervous and has voice crack issues.  He trains with Babyface, who tries to give him some pointers.  Jamar gets to work with NeYo.   Jamar is the clear winner of the duo, and I think he would have been even more successful with a different partner.  It is too bad Jamie was sort of set up for failure with this matchup.  CeeLo goes with the obvious choice–Jamar.

This weeks battles weren’t as impressive as last week.  It wasn’t for fault of the singers, but more so the song choice or matchup being severely uneven.  We are halfway through the battles, so we’ll see what next week brings.  I can’t wait to get to live voting!

The battle rounds!  We are cutting the 48 down to 24 people…these are going to be some brutal cuts, I think.

On TEAM ADAM the first match up consists of Tony Lucca Vs. Chris Cauley and they are singing Beautiful Day.  Tony is mentored by Alanis…and she is pretty freaking awesome.  Chris gets mentored by Robin Thicke, who likes to wear sunglasses inside, apparently.  In their performance both of these guys were quite amazing and very comparable.  But TONY LUCCA wins the battle.

On TEAM BLAKE, his first matchup is Adley Stump vs Raelynn singing Free Fallin’.  Raelynn is mentored by Miranda Lambert, who Raelynn was super pumped to meet.  Adley gets to be mentored by KC herself!  I would be way more pumped to meet Kelly than Miranda (sorry, Miranda).  In their performance it seemed that Adley was the much stronger singer, both in pitch and pipes.  However, Blake decides that RAELYNN wins the battle.  I think she started out very weak, and even though she came around in the end, I don’t think she deserved to win this one.

Next up is TEAM XTINA.  Chris Mann vs Monique are going to sing the forbidden Celine with the Power of Love.  Chris gets mentored by Lionel Ritchie, and Monique gets mentored by Jewel.  In their performance, I don’t think they harmonized together too well.  Individually, they were both strong, but they felt a little off kilter together.  I actually think Monique won the battle in the performance.  But Xtina takes CHRIS MANN as the winner.

For TEAM CEELO, Cheesa is paired with Angie Johnson.  They will be singing Total Eclipse of the Heart.  In their first rehearsal, they seemed a little petty and competitive with each other.  Cheesa has the opportunity to meet with Babyface for her mentoring opportunity, while Angie gets to meet with Ne-Yo.  This is  a badass battle between these two divas.  Angie was more technically accurate on this, but Cheesa had more passion.  CeeLo goes with CHEESA as the winner.

Back with TEAM BLAKE, it’s Jordis Unga vs. Brian Fuente.  They will be singing Ironic by Alanis.  So much Alanis tonight!  Brad gets to meet with Kelly, who is basically all sorts of awesome.  Jordis meets with Miranda, and she is too in her own head.  They tell her to stop thinking and just sing.  In the performance, these guys did not harmonize well together, either.  The key change between verses was awkward.  But Jordis definitely wins out on this battle.  She was way stronger.  And Blake agrees…he chooses JORDIS UNGA.

On TEAM XTINA,  Anthony is battling Jessie Campbell with Alicia Keys’ If I Ain’t Got You.  Jessie gets to rehearse with Lionel Ritchie, and Anthony rehearses with Jewel.  They don’t show Anthony meeting Jewel because he probably only knows her from the Intuition razor commercials.  This gets the award for the most mismatched contestant/mentor pairing of the evening.  As for the performance itself, it was pretty amazing.  They definitely saved the best for last.  Neither of these guys should go home, because they are both so strong.  But Xtina has the tough decision, and she goes with JESSIE CAMPBELL.

So we only saw 6 matchups tonight, and there will be a total of 24.  Will it really take us 3 more weeks before we reach the live shows?  Man this show moves at such a snail’s pace! Even though it is done well, there are way too many contestants on this show.

That said, this battle round is rough.  It is obvious that two similar (in genre or style) contestants get paired together to preserve the diversity of the team.  I don’t know if this is producer-driven or judge-driven.  I think it is advantageous to the judge to keep the absolute best contestants regardless of the genre or style, so I assume this is a producer choice.  Either way, I am enjoying this show overall, but I am getting impatient to move forward with the whole shebang.