The first time I heard Groban, I don’t remember the song, but I loved what he was singing. Every other song I’ve heard from him makes me go, “Meh,” but it’s not because I think he sucks.
I’ll take this to mean that you’re an opera aficionado. What is the “real deal” in regards to opera? Are you talking about the fact that Chris is singing pop tunes? What about “Ave Maria”? Is that considered opera or classical?
I noticed him too! He certainly was into it.
Oh Jermaine wins. Disaster.
Tonight’s show sucked almost as hard as last night’s.
Just did a marathon on both nights shows.
Jermaine did a very good job with the song he sang, and he had a lot of power and emotion. It’s not a song choice I like or style I really care for. His Soul Man with Blake was fun, but not spectacular. His tribute song, okay.
Chris is just not what I want in music. He’s got a great voice, but not doing anything I care for. Opera, or classical or operatic classical pop. I do, however, have to commend him for his focus. I don’t know that I could be so composed standing there next to Christina waiting for her to pop out of her top. :eek:
Tony Lucca, I didn’t like the song choice of 99 Problems, and agree with Christina about the misogynism of that line. It was an interesting and creative change to the song, and he really worked the stage well, but that line isn’t appealing to me. And he could have made a minor change that would have mitigated that - instead of just dropping the word, he could have sang it as “I’ve got 99 problems but that ain’t one.” And Adam’s argument that it was a metaphor range hollow. It’s not a metaphor, it’s a direct comment that the singer has 99 problems but a woman isn’t one of them, not all of life’s troubles aren’t one of them. WTF does that even mean? But even if it were a metaphor, it’s a horrible, misogynistic metaphor. Dude, pick a better metaphor! I did like the Team Xtina T-shirt, though.
I liked their duet of Yesterday, but agree he was washing out on the lyrics in his tribute song. Somehow he was getting winded or something and not hitting it all.
Juliet (and I finally am getting her name correct - not double t, just Ju li et) did fairly well given the song choices and being sick. (How sick was she? Don’t know.) Crazy was okay but not really done to fit her style. Born to be Wild didn’t really work, not sure why. She mentioned that her rendition of Cryin’ that didn’t get her picked before that she didn’t really feel it, I wonder if it was the same thing. And funcking Freebird? Really? It started out a little rough, but when she got into the power part she did connect with the song and belt it out. It was pretty good then, and the guitarist did seem like he was having fun too. She ended that song spectacularly.
Tonight’s show, I really didn’t need a lot of those performances. I started in about 35 mins late, and it made it fairly easy to catch up. Nope, don’t need to hear that <FF> Some of them I gave a chance before FF. The four guys return was kinda fun and well done. Juliet’s set with Jamar, Raelynn (Raelynn?), and Erin was pretty good. Skipped most of the rest.
Did enjoy some of the cute bits, like Purrfect.
Down to the end, and FUCK! Juliet didn’t win. I gotta wonder if song choice last night didn’t fuck it up for her. Stupid Stupid Stupid.
Fortunately, we’ve seen that not winning doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t get something out of this. All four finalists from last year have albums coming out. This may turn out to be another case like the American Idol season where Clay Aiken came in number 2.
Oh, and Christina forgot her pants again.
I’m a 40 year old man, and I bounce when I’m excited. You like that song? Better than It’s My Life? (At least I can feel his connection with that song.)
I wonder if she was tweeting.
That is awesome. Elegant and classy. Thank you.
Wait, what? Apparently, America loves to be sung to sleep.
Fuck. Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckityfuckfuck.
Good points of tonight’s show: Jamar x2. Some cute bits about the judges. Um… that’s pretty much it. No wait… it wasn’t Chris Mann.
Fuck.
You like It’s My Life better than Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay? I’ma need you to turn in your human card. Seriously… absolutely no contest. Just as a hint, one is Otis Redding, and one is Jon Fucking Bon Jovi. And I don’t hate Jon Bon Jovi. I just recognize that his music (which I mostly enjoy) is triflin’ crap, at the end of the day.
Never heard the Lori Lieberman version of Killing Me Softly. Nicely done.
I think the reason judges on the voice keep saying Lauryn Hill is because Katrina did the “Lauryn Hill version”…you know? The arrangement and style was just like the Hill version. I think Christina even criticized her for being a little **too **true to the Hill version. I do remember one time Cee Lo gave credit to Roberta Flack.
BTW, Justin Bieber’s performance tonight was an effing atrocity. I mean, I was expecting something competent but sucky. But it was embarrassingly piss-poor and bad.
I wonder at what point in the process of picking a song and making an arrangement the coach and the competitor and the music director decide these things. Because we do see really innovative reworks (like Juliet’s Roxanne), and then we see straight up resingings (like Jermaine’s *Livin’ On a Prayer). *I’m just curious how that process goes.
I also note, all the bring backs of other contestants, nobody brought back Jesse Campbell. I mean, they even had Sera Hill and the big black 50 year old lady, but not Jesse.
In other words, just like every other Justin Bieber performance.
I’ve been following Juliet Simms on twitter. She mention getting sick last weekend and even today tweeted that she’s not well. It’s a shame because I’m sure that affected her performance in the Finals.
Juliet has mentioned getting to work on an album. That’s one I will be purchasing when it comes out. Juliet is the only one this season that I care about hearing again.
I liked some of the other singers but not enough to seek out any albums they release.
A single tear just rolled down Wyclef’s face, and he’s not even sure why. 
That said… yes, it was definitely the Fugees version. Still, it is, in the mind of anyone over 35 a Roberta Flack song, covered by the Fugees, and there’s no harm in schooling the young’uns (as evidenced by Aeschines’ schooling of us all!). Hell, my daughter is only 21, and was saying “Could they stop calling it a “Lauren Hill song?””
I didn’t see a second of Bieber. God bless DVR.
I’d buy Jamar’s album. In fact, I WILL buy Jamar’s album. Do you hear me, Cee Lo?
So if Jermaine won, is there any doubt whatsoever that Jesse would have won if Xtina had kept him?
Right, my feeling was that Jesse did what Jermaine did only much better.
Sorry, just saw this.
I’m definitely a classical music aficionado, although I mostly listen to chamber music and symphonies. I’ve never really gotten into opera, although part of me feels I should.
I don’t like fake opera, however. Or opera-pop like Groban. To me, that’s like a string quartet at a party playing pop tunes. I’d rather hear, you know, a real string quartet by a real composer. Contrariwise, if it’s going to be pop, I’d like to hear a real band.
If Chris is so “opera,” then why doesn’t he just sing opera? Has he even tried? Why did everyone so uncritically accept that he’s like a real opera singer? That’s a very specific skill set. We didn’t hear him sing anything from a real opera, so that’s unproven.
“Ave Maria” was not opera. It was just a song sorta sung in an operatic fashion. Didn’t do anything for this Catholic apostate.
BTW, I was pulling for Juliet, but I’ve read a bunch of comments about the aftermath of the show, and it’s pretty clear that Juliet really has had a shot in the industry. She’s the lead singer of a band called Automatic Loveletter, and people mentioned having listened to her music since high school, etc. Jermaine Paul was of course a background singer for Alicia Keys. Tony Lucca apparently has released albums since 1999. At least these three are more or less industry insiders. So, really, the concept of the show is still pretty unclear–or rather, has grown increasingly unclear to me. Is it really looking for that hidden “the voice” out there–or not? If that’s the case, it would have been nice to see Katrina in the finals.
Of the four people in the finals, Juliet was the one I liked the most. Jermaine was never even in my top three so oh well. I’ve pretty much resigned myself to the idea that the people I like will never (very rarely) be the winners of these things and for my money the judges had already let most of my favs go.
BTW, am I the only one who thought Jermaine’s demeanor was strange throughout and verged on the bizarre?
And oh yeah, Adam, the song was disrespectful to women and the comment about it being a metaphor was condescending. You picked it, so own it.
Humph…
Even though my favs don’t win, I do enjoy the music and I do enjoy getting to know about new up and coming artists so I might give The Voice one more season if it doesn’t raise my blood pressure too much.
I agree - what exactly is the point of the show? I thought it was to discover new voice talent, but it seems to be giving already-established-but-not-famous artists a shot at the big time. If that’s what the show is, that’s fine… but it’s not clear. Also, why do the ones I like least always win?
I’m not sure why folks think it is to discover NEW voice talent. Has that ever been explicitely stated?
Yeah. They allow a fairly wide age range in, too, so why not let the lead singer of the Romantics or some other 80s one-hit-wonder band participate, since he didn’t make it that big?
I think these voting-based competitions systematically reward middle-of-the-road performers like Jermaine, since the more unique ones are liked more by those who like them but less by the voting public overall. That’s why someone like Lindsey or RaeLynn wasn’t going to win, since they appeal very strongly to a certain subset of voters but not to the majority. The irony is that the winners will tend not to be very commercially viable because they won’t have all that many passionate fans. It’s not a good system.