There was a short 30 min preview after the Olympics finished. I think there were 3 auditions. They are on the Voice web site. The main 2 hour premier was Monday Sept 19.
Recap Ep 1
I need to watch some of the performances again on YouTube. Several of these singers are so good. It’s hard to pick my favorites.
They upped the talent this season. Maybe because of Alicia Keys? The talent of the R&B singers is incredible. Several of these vocalists are obviously working professionals.
Alicia is going to have a packed team of pros. Miley has grabbed a few of them too. No country or Indy acts yet. I’m sure they’ll pop up later.
Quite a bizarre moment when a clip of Dolly Parton was used to persuade Sophia Urista to join team Cyrus. Sophia isn’t even a country singer. Dolly should have been saved to steal a country singer from Blake.
Best moment of the night. Lauren Diaz singing If I Ain’t Got You” by Alicia Keys to Alicia Keys. I expect Lauren to be in the finals.
One Hour episode tonight. I wasn’t excited by any of the auditions on night three. The best was Josh Halverson singing Forever Young. A Bob Dylan song.
Zack Hicks didn’t have the vocal range for At This Moment. Billy Vera’s version is so iconic. That is a tough song for anyone to cover. Very bad song choice for Zack. Coaches told him to try again next season.
Night 4
Austin Allsup was really good. I think Halle Tomlinson may make the finals.
Several of Blake’s team picks were only briefly shown in a summary recap. That bugs me. These singers depend on fan votes to stay on the show. How can they get a fan base when their audition isn’t shown?
Final night of blind auditions. They were very abbreviated this season. Remember when NBC used to air the auditions Mon,Tue and Thur nights? This season they didn’t bother airing a lot of the auditions. They just announced so and so is on Team X.
This season each coach has 12 people going into the battle rounds.
Blaine Long and Courtney Harrell were my two favorites in this last audition episode. I am glad to see a duo again this season. The sisters, Shannon & Whitney did a nice cover of Landslide.
I’m still not thrilled with Miley Cyrus, but I think it’s because her personality grates on me. I’m definitely an introvert, and to have to be around her for any length of time would be excruciatingly painful.
I really liked the duet. It’s funny how they said before they sang that they’d choose Blake if they could, but when they chose, it was Alicia.
She has a great team, but it’s almost too many good singers. She’s going to wind up getting rid of half of them for having a bad day and they’ll get picked off by other coaches. One of the ones picked off is likely to win.
The battle rounds are very good so far. They’re doing a better job arranging the two vocals into a performance. Instead of two people trying to one up or sing over each other.
Alicia Keys is doing really well. Except for the battle round between Michael and Dave. The gimmick with one keyboard and making them swap out was just awkward. It would have been so simple to set up two keyboards and each guy could play their part of the song. Otherwise I’ve liked the songs Alicia has arranged.
I strongly dislike Pink Floyd’s Money. That song got so over played in the 80’s. I hit the mute button on Sophia and Lang’s round.
It’s great they got Bette Midler. There’s no one better to coach on performance and showmanship. The young guy with Alicia seemed to give great advice too. The other guest advisers were ok.
Tues was only an hour. They skipped several Battle Rounds and just announced the results. I don’t understand what’s going on. Are the ratings in trouble? Are they afraid to air too much of the show this season? They’ve really cut back on the number of episodes.
This is a strange season. Usually there’s several singers that stand out and I can predict they’ll be in the final. No one is jumping out at me like that this season. There’s been some good voices, but I have no idea who has a shot at the finals. I’m not commenting on anybody because I’m waiting to see who survives into the Live rounds.
The knockouts start tonight. They are always a favorite of mine. Especially because each vocalist picks their own song. That’s risky. If the song sucks or doesn’t showcase the full range of their voice then they are screwed.
Speaking of questionable songs. The third battle episode had some weak songs. imho Brand New Key is a cute song, but it doesn’t have much range. Terrible choice for a competition. It’s hard for me to enjoy a person’s voice when I don’t like their song. The last Battle round ended much better.