The Voice Goes Live: Team Blake Shelton Vs. Team Christina Aguilera
“The Voice” has done well to set themselves apart from American Idol, including having the coaches singing live to open the show. Adam Levine got things started with “Bohemian Rhapsody” and Cee-Lo and Blake Shelton joined in with “We Will Rock You” (with Adam now playing a mean guitar). Christina Aguilera brought the ending with “We Are the Champions” in an outfit not made for prime time.
Tonight pitted Team Christina against Team Blake. Not sure why NBC decided to waste two full hours for 11 performances. I guess writers are too expensive for summer. One issue I have with “The Voice” is the rules. I have no idea what they are really. Tonight America voted to save one contestants, then the judges each save one and two go home. I think. I was slightly distracted at the sight of Cee-Lo Green without his sunglasses on. It was off-putting to say the least.
Raquel Castro led things off for Team Christina tonight singing “Blow” by Ke$ha. There was a lot of dancing going on and despite Coach Aguilera’s warnings Raquel did not change the choreography. She should have. By the middle she was out of breath on nearly every end note. It was not as good as it could have been vocally.
Jared Blake, the rocker underdog, came on for Team Blake with “Use Somebody” by Kings of Leon. It was the right song for Jared and I’m always a little surprised by his vocals. I didn’t care for the disco headband he was wearing and I agree with Blake Shelton when he said Jared was struggling with where he falls between country and rock. I think he’s rock, but he needs to find himself musically.
Team Christina brought out Beverly McClellan next with “I’m the Only One” by Melissa Etheridge. I had high hopes for Beverly and it was the perfect song for her big voice. Sadly Bev has a cold and it really affected her vocals tonight on “The Voice.” She had to shout and there was little else to brag about. I felt bad for her.
Then out came little Dia Frampton singing “Heartless” by Kenye West (cover version by The Fray). Holy cow, Dia Frampton became the front runner with this hit. She played piano and was as into the song completely. She changed up keys to fit her strange voice, and did it very well. This was the performance of the night for me.
It was time for the coaches to take to the floor with their teams. Another fun little twist for “The Voice” (though I think The Sing-Off did it first). Christina Aguilera and her girls brought “Lady Marmalade” by Patti LaBelle (covered by Aguilera). This was another perfect fit for the ladies. All sounded really good. It was obvious that Christina was determined to out-sing them all though, or maybe they were just intimidated by her near wardrobe malfunctions.
Team Blake was represented by Xenia next singing “Price Tage” by Jessie J. Poor Xenia looked petrified. They took her out of her comfort clothes and tried to get her to move a little, at least her arms. She did, but looked like a robot. Her song was so slow it was a boring performance. Luckily Xenia has a fantastic smoky tone to her voice and should stay just for the coaching. Please put her back in her comfortable clothes and let the girl sing.
Lily Elise was up for Team Christina singing “Big Girls Don’t Cry” by Fergie. I was shocked when Aguilera chose Lily in the battle rounds. I’m not impressed with her voice at all and she seems arrogant. Tonight was no different. Worst individual vocals of the night and even the coaches had to protest the dancers (or mimes as Blake Shelton called them). The whole performance was a mess.
Team Blake took the stage to sing a Maroon 5 song (just for Adam Levine), “This Love.” It was a pretty weak start, but this is the oddest group of voices. They didn’t gel very well. It came together when Blake Shelton took the stage. Unlike Christina Aguilera, this performance was all about his team. Adam Levine commented on the performance to say he was flattered. Which sparked this conversation:
Adam Levine to Blake: “You’re so much bigger than everybody else up there… in length I mean”
Blake Shelton: “That’s what she said!”
Adam Levine: “Really?”
Just another reason why I love “The Voice.” The rapport between the coaches.
Ending the night for Team Blake was Patrick Thomas singing “I Hope You Dance” by Lee Ann Womack. Patrick is a good singer, but this was not his best performance. He sounded shaky in the beginning. He did end the song strong and Christina asked him to take his pants off. So there’s that.
Frenchie Davis took the stage for Team Christina to end the night singing “When Love Takes Over” by David Guetta (and Kelly Rowland). It was good, but I expected more from Frenchie. I hold her to a higher standard, fair or not, since she has so much live experience. I do love her voice and if she gets control of her emotions I think Frenchie could own “The Voice.”
So far so good on this singing talent show. The only weak spots are Carson Daly and the backstage Twitter girl. NBC could safely get rid of both and improve the show.
I think it should be Lily Elyse and either Raquel Castro, Beverly McClellan or (sadly) Xenia going home next week. Two leave then we see Team Adam Levine versus Team Cee-Lo compete. Should be another good show.
What did you think about the first live show for “The Voice”? Who do you think will go home, or who did you vote for to stay?
Your nuts Xenia rocks and she aint going home now the others ya but Xenia HECK NO!!!!!
I love Xenia’s voice too, but based on last night she was one of the weakest performances I thought. Hopefully she stays. Thanks for the comment!
Agreed, there is no way Xenia is going home. Her iTunes sales reflect her popularity with the public. She may be the shortest in length
but she stands head and shoulders above the rest for voice alone. She really does need the stage work to improve though, the others are well ahead of her there.
I think Lily was weak also, my pick to leave. That Queen intro by the coaches was brutal too….cringe worthy!
I actually agree with most of this article with the exception of Beverly sang great even with a cold. That was the first thing I noticed. I was “expecting” it to be bad or so/so and she nailed it. So I have no idea why this author feels otherwise. I voted for beverly and sure enough she made it as America’s pick.
Xenia was my other pick. I agree she looked terrified and robotic (with the arms..it was humerous she was trying so hard with those..) but her voice was awesome. She has so much potential. I liked the Money song..very cute and not boring at all (to me)?! I so agree about the Lily. She comes across arrogant and I feel her voice is like nails down a blackboard and she has this one note that I am holding my ears waiting for the windows to break….nasty! I cant believe how much Christina went on tonight about how she can hit every note? Where has she been? It was such a travesty to see her win over that other gal on the duet competition. How sad.
This Dia chick..creeps me out with her face and the way she has this weird beedy eye look about her. I agree, her performance with Heartless was above average for her type of voice but she does absolutely NOTHING for me. I still think it would have been so much more exciting to have the Church Lady singer back. She could be annoying with her high pitch but she had talent and I feel there was such an injustice to choose Dia over her. Come on…
Dia will not go any further compared to Vicky and the baseball cap guy. I feel Xenia is way better singer and has more potential then Dia.
As far as Vicky..wow tonight I loved her voice. The only thing is she kept it way to “conservative”. That latter part where she belted it out..AWESOME but then she pulled it back and ended on a melow note. I still voted for her. I think she is extremely talented and love her voice. What I love about her is out of all of them tonight (Levine and Cee Lo) she sang with soul and heart. I felt that song. She was telling a story and it was TRUE. The others..yuk!
Although I did like the Kacey although she is alittle weird too. I felt she was a tad arrogant too and felt she was ended the song to fast toward the end. She was taking off her guitar before her note was done. Was she in a hurry? She kept looking over to much towards the end of song and I thought at one minute she was going to just “stop”. She needed to have more energy in her vocals instead of whimping out toward the end. Other than that, I like her voice.
The black guy with the permanent baseball cap? I at first thought he had the best voice, but his vocals are all the same “tone” or “pitch”. Sure he goes all over but always with the same high voice. Where is the low range..and some deep vocals mixed in would be more interesting. I find him alittle boring after seeing him now sing 3 times…its always the same. And he seemed like he went off key a couple times. That, and the fact he went wayyyyy to fast with the Sarah song. He didnt sing from the heart. It was more trying to get it done too fast. That song was not felt by me and usually that song always, ALWAYS moves me. But when he sang it, he sang to quick, fast, ended notes to abrubtly and was all over the place when it wasnt called for? I found it confusing and messy.
Thta’s my take.
Thanks Sydney, you summed up the first two nights of The Voice very well! I just expected more from Bev last week, but am more than happy to see her move on (and I really expected her to get passed last week). I can’t wait to hear her again when she feels 100% since she can rock it.
Pretty much agree with the rest of your assessment. I did like Javier (permanent baseball cap guy, lol) tonight. I thought he did better at not using too many runs and was glad Adam Levine talked to him about staying on melody.
Thanks for you comments, here is my recap of week 2 (tonight’s episode) of The Voice: http://www.tvreviewprogram.com/2011/06/the-voice-frenchie-davis-beverly-mcclellan-xenia-dia-frampton-move-to-the-semi-finals/
Meucci