Agreed with all of it. I really liked that group song.
I’ve also been hoping for Dez to be voted off, but tonight I realized that had more to do with not wanting Christina to win. I’m wondering how many other people felt that way.
I’ve also been wondering why any of the contestants would pick Christina if they had the choice of anyone else. If you’re really good, she’ll get rid of you. I knew she would eliminate the Disney girl, although at least in that case, the competition was comparable. Too bad Christina is the only one who picked her and no one had saves left by the time she eliminated her. And as someone mentioned above, Christina takes all the air time in team songs that the other coaches give to their team members. Christina keeps saying how she would love to coach Trevin, but I keep thinking that if Trevin were on Christina’s team, she would have already cut him.
For the remaining 6, I like Trevin and Amanda. The difficulty with Trevin is that he’s so consistently good, it just looks so easy for him. It doesn’t look like a challenge or a breakout moment. Amanda has been up and down, but more up than down. I wanted to like their group song tonight more than I did.
So there I am, still smiling from Rhythm of Love, high on life from Cee Lo and Muppets, when… Cody!!! NOOOOOOO!!!
Stoopid America.
Dez was the right choice, but other than him I think either Cassadee or Melanie should have gone. I actually like Melanie way more than I expected to and think she has potential, but on the Lyndsey Paveo to Dia Frampton scale, she needs a couplefew years to reach Dia. As for Cassadee, well… we all make fun of the Christinalikes, but is the world screaming for another Avril?
Failing that, Terry should have gone. I like him and I think he’s better than his last few performances indicate, but he’s been carried too far on the wave of goodwill from the first couple (and of course, a sweet accent and awesome Lego hair).
I personally prefer Cody to Trevin, but wouldn’t actually wish for Trevin to go home. Oh well, at least Nicholas is still there.
Color me pleasantly surprised that Dez was sent packing, but that is offset and more by the disappointment that Cody went home. Cody’s performance was tops and he shouldn’t have been let go. Whereas they said that Terry’s song went to the top of the iTune rock chart, and I’m “What?” Did they hear the same performance I did?
I like Cassadee and her song choices.
Really, everyone in this final 8 seems good enough to me to pull a record deal. Even Dez, whom I despise his style, is firmly good enough to play in the Michael Bubble (It’s Bubble, dammit, I refuse to say it differently) field.
Terry’s the one who seems to be struggling the hardest to me.
It’s ironic to me that Melanie is the youngest competitor, since she strikes me as the most complete artist. She knows who she is and what she wants to do and how to make things hers. That “signature style” being lauded all over Bryan Keith really applies to Melanie. Her vocal ability isn’t that great, but neither was Madonna’s when she started. Melanie’s style isn’t about technical range and precision, it’s about the character of her voice. The things she’s getting from Adam are far more about how to focus her emotion and how to tweak her vocal performance rather than anything to do with shaping the direction she is going.
Even with Trevin’s great technical ability and voice, I’m getting less thrilled with him as this goes along. Style choices? Don’t know why, just wasn’t as thrilled with his performances as others.
Cody is a performer, he’s got great range, and he is energetic and fun. I hope things work out for him. I really do see him like George Michael.
I am totally in the bag for Amanda. She rocks it and she has great stage prescence, too. But to be honest I actually like everybody left except maybe Trevin, not because he can’t sing, but he bores me.
I don’t get the love for Terry. He’s got a high voice and can find his pitch relatively well, but he’s got no stage presence and his renditions of songs are boring and formulaic. I don’t see him as an artist so much as a really good karaoke singer.
I feel pretty much the same way about Trevin - he’s got a great range and he has awesome control over his voice, but to no real purpose. There hasn’t been a performance of his yet that I felt rose to the level of ‘artist’ as opposed to really good singer following a formula.
What I’ve come to realize over the years is that great singers are a dime a dozen. Go to any music school and you’ll find many. My kid competes in music festivals, and each year we hear many singers that are as good as most that are on these shows, in terms of raw singing ability. It’s just not a rare thing.
So I’m always looking for the ones who are real artists with something to say, something new they bring to the table. It can be attitude, stage presence, charisma, song interpretation, emotion, whatever. Something that makes them more than just a singer.
This year, there have been lots of great singers. But the real ‘artists’ left on the show boil down to Melanie and Nicholas David. Amanda and Cassadee have had their moments too. Those are my four favorites left. Right now, I’m rooting for Melanie because I think she’s probably got the most to say - especially after she gets beat up a bit by the industry.
Of those already booted off, I thought Deb’orah was unique and brought something new to the game, and I wish she had stuck around a bit more. Cody was the other person who was more than just a ‘singer’.
Glad we got rid of Dez… and I really think Terry should have gone instead of Cody, but what can you do. I’m rooting for the two ladies on Team Adam at this point, with a little bit of side love for Nicholas. Trevin has really soured on me as he keeps coming out with performances every week that are just boring, Cassadee is doing really well but isn’t exactly pushing herself every time she does another Avril genre song, and I haven’t been impressed by a Terry performance for weeks now.
On the other hand, my fiancee insists on calling Terry “the hobbit”, and I do continue to enjoy that.
He does have a hobbit-y face and hair, doesn’t he? It always shocks me to see how tall he is. Standing next to Blake, he doesn’t look short, so he has to be over average height.
I think I have to award tonight to Amanda. Both her performances were excellent. She had two very different songs, and did them both well.
Cassadee also had a good night.
As commented, Melanie was a bit flat on her first song in places, but it was still an entertaining performance. Her second was better, and was fun. I’m starting to like her a lot.
Trevin’s first performance had me a bit meh, but his second was vocally amazing, the Trevin Hunte we expect. So he’s got a mixed ticket.
Same thing for Nicholas David. His first left me “meh, I’m over him”. But his rendition of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” was very different and he was on pitch. He still had slight tempo issues, but not enough to kill the performance. Nicely done.
Terry also had spotty performances. Question: am I high? Because once again they are lauding Terry’s “laser perfect” pitch, but it sounds off to me. Every time he hit “I wanna know what love is”, the is just sounded wrong. Kinda dead. Flat, off key, wrong note - something. Which is a shame, because I love the song, and the soft performance was a nice way to take it, but they were right, there was nowhere to hide. Except they apparently had earmuffs on or something. Terry’s second performance was better, and more fun, but it was Rod Stewart’s “Stay With Me”, which I don’t care for. Oh well.
I don’t know who is going to be voted off. Melanie seems to have a following, she’s been charting high. Sounds like the three ladies all charted on Billboard last week.
I’d vote off Nicholas and Terry - Nicholas for his style and Terry because he just keeps being off, not living up to the promise. Then probably Melanie and Trevin: while Melanie is a complete artist and can probably have a good career, her voice is just off enough and not up to par with Amanda and Cassadee. While Trevin has a superb vocal talent, he doesn’t win my attention on style. For the final winner, I’m leaning toward Amanda as my pick. Cassadee is certainly good and I’d listen to her music, but I think Amanda has just a little more original flair.
I thought that Amanda’s two performances were the two best of the night, and purely based on talent and performance, she should be the odds on favorite at this point. I am not, however, particularly representative of the normal voting demographic of these shows, so who knows.
Cassadee and Trevin are fairly similar in my mind, in that I really like what both of them can do, but I’m continually underwhelmed by what they’re actually singing. Of those two, I actually liked what Trevin did last night a bit better, largely because Cee Lo’s song choice was suitably off the wall. I could see either of these two winning, but they’d have to really knock it out of the park over the last couple of weeks, in a way that I don’t really expect them to given what they’ve been doing recently.
Melanie was a mixed bag. I thought her first song was the most fun three minutes of the night, non-Amanda-Brown division, even though (as pretty much everyone agrees) she wasn’t quite there on a lot of the notes. I didn’t like the second one as much, but it was a better performance, and on the whole I’d put her on the borderline but through.
Nicholas really disappointed me last night; I especially disliked his first performance. In past weeks he’s been so good that it makes me forget how musically limited he seems to be, and he didn’t get there last night.
Speaking of musically limited, hi, Terry! I thought his first performance was the worst of the night; I am entirely with you, Irishman, on how completely off many of his notes sounded. I was really excited when I heard the song choice, and really disappointed after the performance. I am a big classic and '80s rock fan in Real Life Music, and I have no idea how he keeps hitting big on the iTunes charts week after week. No. Idea.
I quite liked Terry’s second song - both because it’s a great song and also because I thought he finally turned in a performance that equaled the praise that’s been heaped on him. But for me it wasn’t enough to keep him around against this level of competition.
Trevin is a difficult one. That version of “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going” was quite spectacular. He’s definitely got a vocal gift. But there’s something about his deliveries that just leave me cold, and his first song was one of the worst trainwrecks on the show to date.
Amanda turned in a solid first performance, and a fantastic second performance. I love how hard she’s willing to rock - it puts her in a different category than the myriad ‘divas’ that these types of shows tend to shake out of the woodwork.
I thought Melanie was very badly served by Adam’s song choice for her. And did anyone else think she looked kind of pissed off about it? When Adam was telling her why he picked that song, it looked like she was going to shoot laser beams out of her eyes and burn him down on the spot. Having her prance around like a cute little girl was the exact opposite of the vibe she’s going for. I think that’s the first time Adam has really screwed the pooch on song choice, and it may send my favorite contestant home.
Nicholas’s first song (the judge’s choice) was awful. It was outside his range, his comfort zone, and who he wants to be as an artist, and it showed. It was also over-produced and his voice dropped back into the mix and the chaos and didn’t do a good job of showcasing who he is. The second song, however, was brilliant and made me a real fan for the first time.
Cassadee Pope has to be the front-runner now. Both of her performances were good, and she’s got real charisma on stage as well as a killer voice. She really knows how to sell a song, even when jumping around, waving her arms, etc. She’s the total pop package. And she’s killing it on iTunes, so she’s clearly got a fan base.
I think I’d have to rank last night’s performances like this:
Cassadee
Amanda
Trevin, based on the last song.
Nicholas, ditto
Melanie
Terry
Now, Melanie may be helped because iTunes purchases count and she tends to do better than anyone other than Cassadee in that regard. Nicholas seems to be finding a fan base as well. So my guess for the two going home are Terry and Trevin, but I’m probably wrong. With this level of talent, I don’t think anyone is particularly safe.
It would make sense that she’d have a fan base. Hey Monday (the band she fronted) were around for a bit, enough for people to take notice. One of their songs was even sung on Glee, so she’s had previous exposure.
Ditto. I was only really watching because of Amanda, so I think I’m checking out for the season. I give my surplus kudos to Trevin.
As for the performances, the Ne-Yo/Amanda song was excellent (and sexy), but I thought the rest were pretty blah. “Criminal” with Melanie and Nicholas, especially. Please stop planting the singers in front of instruments that they can’t or don’t play – it’s silly. And please stop changing the genders of song lyrics to match the person singing – it feels inappropriate. Maybe it’s just me.
If I’m reading between the lines right, this will not be a good night to be watching. Serves me right for reading the thread an hour before the show airs here. I was going to put in a prediction, but that’s pretty moot now.
But since I still haven’t seen it, I’ll still put in what I was going to post. If I had my druthers, which obviously I don’t, I’d pick Melanie and Terry to go. I am so not a fan of hers. I like the artistic style. . . after the artist hits all the notes.
Wow, I had exactly the opposite reaction. I thought the Neo/Amanda performance was a mess, but the performance of ‘Criminal’ was a highlight of the season. And why would you say that Nicholas can’t play the piano? He clearly plays it quite well.
In any event, I’m sad to see both Melanie and Amanda go - I wish it had been Trevin/Terry instead. I think Melanie was a victim of Adam’s horrific song choice for her on the previous night. If she had done ‘Criminal’ like Christina suggested, I think she’d still be in the competition.
I’m not sure why Amanda got the boot, other than that she seems to rub some people the wrong way. My wife kept saying that there was something ‘wrong’ with Amanda. Strange personality, too skinny, whatever. Something she couldn’t put her finger on, but she didn’t like her. So Amanda just wasn’t that appealing to some people, despite being an excellent singer.
Well, I shouldn’t say that Nicholas can’t play piano; I’m saying he’s pretending to play it while singing. Like when Cassadee pretends to play guitar while on stage. They’re props – we’re not actually hearing the notes they may be playing.
I don’t expect them to have to learn an instrumental piece AND learn to sing a song, when other contestants who don’t play instruments just have to sing – that wouldn’t be fair. But using pianos and guitars as props is silly. Then again, The Voice is quite silly, so my criticism is probably misplaced.
Melanie was too much of a niche artist to stay around. But looking at who should have stayed, Amanda is the only choice except maybe Trayvon.
Cassadee = zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. At this point everyone is a great singer and she is boring.
Nicholas, Terry, Trayvon - one ok song and one good sone just won’t cut it. The difference is Trayvon’s good song was great.
Chestina (Y) was even bitchier than usual last night. She’s a co-coach now? Offering to take another coach’s mentee on the road? Let me show you how to sing i.e. everyone look at me.
Gah!!! America, you suck! It defies logic that Terry is still in the competition and Amanda was sent home last night. Now when I heard he topped iTunes with both his songs, I knew he was not going home, but beating out Amanda? She by far had better vocal performance, better variety, and better stage presence consistently through the show, and Monday’s performances she had the two top songs. And she went home? WTF?
I guess I’m left rooting for Cassadee, since Trevin and Nicholas bore me, and Terry can’t hit his notes.
I mean, I would have sent Nicholas home weeks ago, which means I would have missed out on his version of “Over the Rainbow”, but I’m okay with that. Instead, we just lost Amanda. :mad:
I’m the opposite. Amanda sang well, but it was Ne-Yo. Meh. I watched about half the song before FFW.
Actually, I liked it. It was kinda funky and putting two quirky singers together.
It’s just you. Okay, depends on the song. Some songs the pronouns can be switched without affecting the rhymes or meter, other songs it stands out more. Those are better served by not having them sung cross-gender.
I wouldn’t go that far. It was cute, but not stand out like many of the other performances, such as the aforementioned rendition of “Over the Rainbow”. Or most of Amanda’s songs, or several of Cassadee’s songs, or even some of Trevin’s vocals.
Plausible, but I’m not convinced. We’re in the top 6. Everyone is pretty good, even Terry when he hits the notes. Melanie has a career ahead of her, but her vocal control isn’t that great and this competition is fierce. I’m okay with her going home, because of that. But yeah, seeing a sultry side might have played better than the cutesy song. But also might have helped for her to hit the notes in “Crazy”, so there’s that.
I don’t get it, but I think something like that was at play with Cody. I don’t know if his homosexuality played a roll, like singing “Jolene”. I can’t help but think there’s a segment of the population uncomfortable enough with that to not pick him because of it.
And you know this how? What’s your evidence that they aren’t playing?
