I thought that was one of Cee-Lo’s guys.
Just like Shakira in that way. Shakira’s voice was really bad, IMO. But she was genius in packaging herself. I’ve been looking for stuff Gwen has done. The stuff I’ve found is very different. But the vocal parts don’t really show range and quality. I keep thinking that there’s something out there that shows something different.
Yes, and I didn’t mean to spoil next week for anyone. I apologize if my comments did that for anyone. I tried to make it as general as possible and purposely didn’t link anything. I just wanted to explain why my interest in the show was renewed in a big way. I was losing interest there for a bit.
That was my recollection as well. Cee-Lo wasn’t much on collaboration.
I’ve always liked both of their voices myself.
Years ago I remember Danger Mouse being interviewed about the status of Gnarls Barkley. I don’t remember all the details, but it left me the impression that whenever Cee-Lo felt like doing Gnarls Barkley songs he’d get together with Danger Mouse, and when he didn’t feel like it he’d have nothing to do with him.
On the other hand, he did sing one verse for Vicci Martinez’s version of Come Along
Come to think of it, Martinez is the only voice contestant I’ve heard a hit single from (#17 on Billboard Hot 100). Any other voice contestants with singles out?
Oops, you are correct - Diego Val from Season 3.
The lack of post show success is one really weak point for the Voice versus American Idol. Lots of them have put out EP’s (whatever those are).
I started looking back at artists to make a list, and read some interesting things on the wikipedia page on Javier Colon, the season 1 winner.
First, he had previously had a recording contract with Capitol Records prior to his being on the show. Then, after the show, he won a contract with Universal Republic Records. He released an album, Come Through For You, in November 2011. He left Universal in June 2012, saying
Ouch.
Dia Frampton, runner up from Season 1, put out a solo album, Red, in 2011. She’s been working on a followup album, but apparently was dropped from Universal, and is now in a new band, the Archis. Okay.
Jermaine Paul, season 2 winner, put out a single, “I Believe I Can Fly”, that made it to #83 on Billboard. He has an album due in 2014.
Juliet Simms, Season 2 runner up, was signed by Cee Lo Green, and released a single in December 2012: “Wild Child”. She was then dropped, and is now working on a new album, it looks like self published.
Tony Lucca, from season 2, got signed by Adam Levine’s record label, 222 Records. He released a 6 song EP in 2013, toured for a while, and then was dropped.
Chris Mann, also from season 2, put out a Christmas EP, then a full length album, Roads. He subsequently did a PBS Christmas special that has been released on CD.
Cassadee Pope, Winner of Season 4, signed with Republic Nashville, put out an album. Her debut single, “Wasting All These Tears”, hit 37 on Billboard Top 100, and 7 on Billboard Hot Country Songs. That single has gone Platinum.
Danielle Bradbury, season 5 winner, put out an album, Danielle Bradbery, which reached 19 on Billboard 200. A song of hers was chosen for the Olympics in Sochi.
Several others dropped Singles or EPs that were announced on The Voice and they performed them there, but I never heard beyond that.
Wow, that’s pretty bad. I’m betting American Idol is similar. It also reminds me of the save a failing restaurant shows Restaurant Impossible and Kitchen Nightmares. Looking up stats, about 50% or fewer stay open.
Looking at the singers who won America’s Got Talent, even though you never really hear about them, it seems only one would be considered a failure, season 4 winner Kevin Skinner who put out a CD in 2010 which failed to chart, and he hasn’t put out another one. So I’m guessing for a halfway decent music career, go with AGT.
Cassadee Pope is doing really well and may have a long career. Still early and a lot depends on her next few releases. Sustaining a music career is tough.
I’m glad some success has come from this show.
Tonight’s Battle Rounds were the best of what Battles are supposed to be. All were very good performances, several were very tight.
Elyjuh Rene vs Maiya Sykes, “If I Ain’t Got You”: Two strong performers, but Elyjuh stood out to me. I just heard his voice better. So I give the win to him. I was a little surprised there was no steal, but I guess they looked at her age and said if he beat her now she’s probably not getting better.
Chris Jamison vs Jonathan Wyndham,“Young Girls”: Both were superb. I didn’t know how to call it. Again, no steal and I don’t know why.
Jean Kelley vs Sugar Joans, “Survivor”: Um, yeah. Both were great. I had a slight preference going in for Jean, and I liked hers a bit better. Glad she was Saved.
Craig Wayne Boyd vs James David Carter, “Wave on Wave”: Another great pairing for another great duet. With no discernable difference here, Blake went with who impressed him most from Blinds. And the other was Saved.
Amanda Lee Peers vs Taylor John Williams, “Jolene”: I think this was an error for the night. I get that Taylor is an artist and has a clear vision of who he is, but Amanda won this IMO. Her voice was better, she stood out vs blending in, her tone was better. His tone was dull to me. And nobody Stole her.
Griffin vs Luke Wade,“Maybe I’m Amazed”: First off, way over praised going on. When they were rehearsing and it was bumbling along, then Alicia (Damn, she’s pretty) suggested changing it to Aretha Franklin version, they really opened up and it made both voices better. I’m not the fan of Luke Wade the coaches seem to be. I didn’t like his voice in Blinds, and something about his tone isn’t pleasing to me. Griffin was a crooner in Blinds and I wasn’t sold on him, but here he knocked it out. I agree with Blake, he had the better part of the song (I mean, he made it sound that way), and he really did more, including range that Luke couldn’t hit. Luke the best voice on the show? Ha! Adam’s full of crap there. Best Battle Round ever? HA! Get me some hipwaders. Griffin was the winner to me. Good on Blake and Gwen for going in. Blake’s a good choice for him.
Those two butchered Dolly Parton’s son Jolene. That was terrible.
The other performances were very good.
Argh! Pharrell blew out Maiya on the first battle! I’m bummed.
I’ve only seen two battles so far. I hope this isn’t how it’s going to go. I already didn’t have many favorites. I could be out of people to cheer for pretty quickly.
Age bias is starting to bug me. The majority of time in a battle round the coach picks the much young singer. Claiming they can offer them more. Even when the older singer is only in their thirties. The coach picks the teenager.
I knew Maiya would get booted. She was older and heavier. Pharrell goes with the younger and more photogenic one.
The thing about Cassadee though, is that she was doing well and already had a pretty good career with her band, Hey Monday. It’s a little less surprising that she’s having some success on her own. She already had a following.
If that’s what that was, that would really bug me.
I’m not seeing how Elijah could have been better than Maiya. Pharrell was amazed that he hit that ONE note. She was hitting notes like that through the whole song with ease. That was a bad choice, IMO. I hope that Pharrell isn’t going to be making the same kinds of choices as Cee Lo. They think that unique and quirky is what sells records and maybe they’re right. But quirky doesn’t win that show. No winner of that show has been quirky. The style has to hit a big audience and her voice has the ability to do that, IMO.
I was also a little surprised about Blake’s country choice. I thought the other guy had a much stronger voice and a much bigger presence. But Blake’s pick had a bit more versatility, I think.
Gwen’s song choices suck so far. I like those songs but not for those singers. ‘Survivor’ and ‘Jolene’ didn’t match those people at all. It just left them struggling and making them look worse than they were.
I agree with Irishman about the crazy comments about Luke and Griffin. I was jazzed about the performance but Luke isn’t the best voice on the show and that wasn’t the best performance I’ve ever seen. That said, Alicia’s idea to change up the style on that song was genius. It worked for both of them and showcased them wonderfully. Having seen their blinds and then this performance, it was completely amazing what they did with the song. But I wonder if they could do that again without Alicia’s help. I don’t get the sense that either of them have the creativity to create another moment like that. Because of that, I think Pharrell made the right choice with Luke. And Blake made a good choice with Griffin. It’s probably best that they stay in their own lane.
Elyjuh vs Maiya - For me Maiya was just slightly better, although I thought that both were good.
Chris vs Jonathan - To me Chris seemed to have a better range and he sung effortlessly.
Jean vs Sugar - I personally liked Jean’s lighter voice so I picked her. Sugar was giving off Christina Aguilera vibes.
Craig vs James - I could not choose between the two. It was 50/50 tie to me.
Amanda vs Taylor - I started out liking Amanda, but as the song went on I changed my mind and went with Taylor. I felt like Amanda kind of got worse and Taylor kind of got better.
Griffin vs Luke - To me it was no contest. Griffin had a much better range and sang the song better. I don’t fault Luke for not being able to hit a high note. Not everybody can. But that doesn’t change the fact that Griffin could go lower and higher than he could. I was surprised at all the praise Luke was getting.
I read an article a few months ago (I’ll see if I can find it) that said The Voice is really for the coaches. Blake blew up outside of country after he started going on that show, but as you show, the contestants haven’t really done much.
“The Voice” is supposed to be about how they sound without taking age and appearance into account, and that certainly gets them in the door with the Blinds, but the problem is after that, all the other factors come right back into the equation. Once they have seen the competitors, all the traits that affect the music industry and success are back on the table. Including the mysterious “something” that makes one person pop over another, “star quality” or whatever you want to call it.
Which is why Gwen is using as one of her go-to lines stuff about their appearance, and shopping for clothes and styling hair and whatnot - “the whole package”. Previous seasons have seem similar things come up. When Usher was taking his team to the gym for conditioning drills, Shakira was taking her team to the store shopping for dresses. Dressing up the stages, putting on those big light shows and extravaganzas, all that production.
Well, that was what I perceived. I can’t really describe it well, but Elyjuh’s performance was just more engaging for me. His voice stood out, Maiya’s didn’t. It’s not about range or the number of high notes, it’s an overall impression of how I felt listening to the performance. He was the winner IMO.
Because I’m right. 
Hard to say, but it was definitely Alicia’s suggestion that made them both shine. Griffin was asking about how much he could vary things, so at least he was thinking what he could do.
From my own perspective, I have to agree. When the Voice debuted, the only coach with name recognition for me was Christina Aguilera. I knew Maroon 5, but not Adam Levine. I had heard of Gnarles Barkley, but not Cee Lo Green. I don’t follow country, so had no awareness of Blake Shelton. I know more about all of them now. It definitely raised their visibility.
It’s also been a platform for the coaches’ advisors. Remember the first season, when they all had nobody’s as their advisors? Okay, I just went and checked wikipedia.
Adam had Adam Blackstone, Maroon 5’s “Musical Director”. I have no idea what a musical director is for a pop/rock band.
Cee Lo had Monica. Okay, somebody.
Christina had Sia Furler. Wait, that was Sia? Never heard of her then.
Blake had Reba McEntire. Okay, I forgot that.
So my impression was wrong. Still, the advisor notability jumped for season 2.
(And does everybody remember when Christina had Sia sitting on stage with her for the Battle Rounds?)
The weird thing about age is that it only matters sometimes. Like it really mattered with Sisaundra. They kept talking about it. She was 46. But with Josh Kaufman, I didn’t hear one mention of his age. He was 38. I think Maiya is also 38, so mention of her age would be weird since the winner last season was the same age. All the winners so far have been slim, but Trevin Hunte made it pretty far, and he’s not slim nor is Jake Worthington.
In this show, I think it’s short-sighted to discount for age or weight. And I think it backfires to go for looks. All the models haven’t gone very far once America’s vote kicks in. Model-looks only played well with the coaches.
I’ve been reading Michael Slezak’s comments over the last couple seasons. We’re in agreement a lot of the time. Unfortunately, America hasn’t seen it that way. He and I were big Sisaundra fans last season.
This is what Slezak had to say about the Maiya battle:
I just noticed that he kicked in the female part as well as the age part. If that’s true, that’s even more upsetting. To think that an over-30 overweight male would have a better chance than a over-30 overweight female is just. . . . sigh.
In the beginning of the Michael Slezak piece, he made a metaphor to Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom where the strong survive, “or at least those attached to the youngest, doe-eyed-iest, most social-media-approved bodies” on The Voice.
FUCK! FUCK FUCK FUCK those stupid Fuckers! I wanted to see Clara Ong perform again. Instead, nothin’. She’s gone. :mad:
Last night was night 2, where they try to squeeze 6 performances in 1 hour instead of 2 hours. In other words, three groups montaged - this time without any snippet of the performance at all, just a quick snip of the coach choosing. Dammit, this part pisses me off.
Okay, for the ones we did see.
Jordy vs Taylor, “Breakeven”: Alicia Keys just saved the day again. It almost looks like Pharrell should just give his chair to her. She caught them struggling with the conflict between the tempo and the emotion, so she slowed it down. Both competitors sounded pretty good. Very good harmonies. Both had moments when I went “wow”. I think I liked Taylor’s just a bit better, and I’m glad Pharrell agreed.
Alessandra vs Joe, “Stay”: Joe did a decent job, but Alessandra had better tone - it was rounder and smoother, and she sang so effortlessly. I definitely think she was the right pick. Joe’s young, he’s got a lot of time to make a career.
And Blake is once again going overboard on the compliments. Best vocal ever? Nope. Kudos to Pharrell for walking out with Joe.
Menlik vs Troy, “She’s a Maneater”: I’m a little surprised, Gwen has two reggae singers but she didn’t pair them like I expected. Instead she’s got Menlik singing pop. That kinda goes directly against what he expressed he wanted in the Blinds. Maybe she didn’t want the certainty of bumping one of her reggae singers. In the rehearsals, I don’t like the reggae element Menlik’s inserting - he also sounds a bit monotone. Good observation about the physical movement difference between the two. For the competition, Troy’s definitely more comfortable and sounds better with the song. Menlik’s got his arm swinging up behind his back, looks odd. Reggae crap. Troy might have been a little theatrical, but liked his better. Blake: “This has been the best battle of the day.” Nope.
And then we get two Steals in. WTF? With other people that went by without the steal, and then two drop on Menlik. And Menlik passes on Adam a second time.
For me Jordy VS Taylor was very, very close. I picked Jordy by a hair, but I’m not surprised that Pharrell picked Taylor.
Adam vs Joe on the other hand was no conest. Tome Alessandra was noticeably better than Joe. And yeah, that was nice of Pharrell to walk back with him.
Menlik vs Troy - It might be my bias showing (I’m not a big reggae fan) but I thought Troy did better. Now that Menlik is saved, let’s see if he gets better so he won’t get cut in the Knockout rounds.
I’m so with you on this. I wanted to see Clara Hong as well. Adam’s comment without context could be taken poorly. When he picked the other singer, he said that he had to pick the contestant that he could communicate with. What does that mean? Clara is from Korea, but she speaks English really well. I’m hoping he meant something else, but since there was no performance to judge it on and the context was missing, I was left wondering.
She’s just genius.
Michael Slezak is announcing that Pharrell and Christina Aguilera are locked in for season 8.
[whiny voice] why can’t it be Alicia Keys and Pharrell instead? [/whiny voice]
Wouldn’t that be fascinating, though? Just watching her in these first few clips has just been so fun to watch. Her ideas are so creative and unexpected. And she’s so beautiful.
I was just thinking that the women coaches have all been uninspiring so far. Christina, Shakira and Gwen have been the weakest links. If they could get Alicia Keys, that trend might flip.
For the battles, the first time I heard it, I liked Joe Kirk better. I like his stage presence and just something about him. I watched it again and could see what maybe others are seeing in Alessandra. I still wanted Joe to win. I have to say that it bugged me that Pharrell talked about her being a diva and that whole ‘good looks’ thing was playing in my mind, so I was a little biased against her.
It was nice of Pharrell to talk to Joe, but that small snippet that he said didn’t seem that comforting. He was like, well, you’ve wanted things before and survived not getting them. That’s small comfort in not getting your life’s dream. Still, hopefully Joe will go on to have a great career. This was great exposure for him.
I was really surprised in the Troy vs. Menlik battle. Troy did some amazing stuff. Who would have guessed from his audition? I didn’t like Menlik in the blinds because of his attitude, but he’s not as bad as I remembered. I felt like he was really arrogant, but I don’t know what I based that on. He said all the right things. He said he was working to serve people and that he sings reggae to bring awareness to the plight of others. We’ll see if he gets better on Pharrell’s team.
Teeny tiny nitpick: Adam didn’t turn for Menlik in the blinds. His only choices were Blake and Gwen.
I’ve been a big Taylor fan, so I’m glad to see Taylor moving on.
In a weird bit of hypocrisy on my part on the whole looks issue, I wanted to see John Martin win or at least see why he didn’t. He’s a good-looking guy, but without the pretensions. I liked his attitude and was hoping to see a bit more of him.
Pretty good night. And I enjoyed that my picks also happened to be the judges picks.
Damien vs Kelly “Knock on Wood” - To me Damien owned the stage, had better range, and was a stronger singer.
Jessie vs Ryan “I Need Your Love” - I preferred Ryan. Jessie had that quirk that I’m not fond of, and also, sometimes her voice seemed… the best way I can articulate is to say it sounded kind of muffled. I know I’m probably not phrasing it right but that’s the only way I can describe it.
Blessing vs Katriz “Do I Do” - Katriz seemed to throw herself into the song. She did a lot of hard work to sing it well, but it seemed effortless. Blessing seemed like he took the song for granted and was phoning it in. Obviously Adam and Gwen didn’t feel that way though.
Ethan vs Matt “Yellow” - It was close, but I thought that Ethan had a bad start and never really recovered. I mean, towards the middle and end he was almost as good as Matt, but I thought Matt was better over-all. And it’s funny because in the rehearsals they both seemed even to me.
Bree vs Taylor “You’re No Good” - Both were good but I preferred Taylor. I agreed with Pharrell that Bree needed more confidence. But I did think she did good considering that the song isn’t the style of music that she’s suited for.
Danica vs Toia “Halo” - I thought Danica was strong throughout. And although I don’t think she had a bad start, I thought it took Toia a while to warm up. I’m glad she got Adam and Gwen to press their buttons though. I think with some more coaching she can do a lot better.