The Voice US Season 15

Cafe Society
1

I haven’t been paying much attention to The Voice lately.

This video clip caught my eye.

This is a preview of the season that starts on Sept. 24, 2018. This is a clip of a 13 year old girl who is so good, I’m not sure how anyone will beat her this season. She got Jennifer Hudson to sing with her. She started crying when Jennifer Hudson started talking to her.

One of the best parts of that clip was how happy the coaches were to watch the duet of Jennifer and Kennedy Holmes.

She’s fearless. She’s amazingly talented, poised and well-spoken. It might be interesting to see how she does this season. They cut off the picking of the coach but it’s hard to imagine her picking anyone but Jennifer.

I’ve seen young people blow out on the show before. That African-American guy who was an amazing singer and dancer at 16 (forgot his name)*, got unfocused and didn’t go far, but this girl looks like she has a chance.

While I was looking for this clip, I also read that John Legend will replace Jennifer Hudson next season.

I hope this turns out to be a good season for The Voice.

*anyone remember who this was? I think he was on Cee Lo’s team.

2

I’ve been binge watching The Voice over the weekends. My thoughts are a little disjointed because of the way I’m watching it, but since no one else is discussing the show, I thought it would be OK to just post some random thoughts.

This season seems to me to have better talent than the previous couple seasons.

So far, the people standing out to me are the two young girls, Kennedy Holmes and Reagan Strange. SandyRedd is really dynamic with her dancing moves. I liked OneUp for their dance moves and how positive they seemed. Cody Ray stood out in the battles.

Everyone who didn’t get a turn, I didn’t feel like they deserved a turn. They were off-key or off-tempo or something that made their performance fall flat. There wasn’t anyone this season that I thought deserved a turn that didn’t get one. That wasn’t true in past seasons, but I didn’t see one person that deserved a turn this season that didn’t get one.

This season, there’s a new thing they’re doing called the comeback stage. They brought in Kelsea Ballerini to bring back 8 people who didn’t make the cut to compete against each other to see who could make it back to the stage. I think that’s only on youtube. I’ve seen a couple. The ones who didn’t make the cut didn’t get remarkably better the second time.

But I did disagree with one of the calls the coach made. I felt like the daughter of the Journey band member, Madison Cain, should have won out over the other girl. She was nervous during her blind audition, but she was a bit better in the sing-off.

The Battles

I couldn’t believe that Kelly chose Cody Ray over SandyRedd. Cody Ray was good, but SandyRedd is great. I think that Kelly is playing the same game that Pharrell used to play. She’s picking the one who she thinks won’t get stolen so both can stay on the show. But that’s a dangerous game because sometimes it doesn’t work. That’s a travesty to the singer. If SandyRedd left the show, that would be an injustice. Luckily, SandyRedd had all the other coaches trying for a steal.

The battle between OneUp and Kimberly was really fun. It was too bad that OneUp left.

Another tough decision was Emily vs. Reagan, the two young girls on Adam’s team. Emily had the stronger voice, but Reagan’s voice is just magic. Adam chose the right one, but it was sad to see Emily leave.

Jennifer’s battle that was hard to call was Tyshawn and Zaxai. Zaxai had the stronger voice and more experience, but I was pulling for Tyshawn.

Blake had a battle where he put Dave, an accomplished country singer, against Keith, a park ranger. I really liked Keith, but he wasn’t up to beating Dave. Blake chose the right person, but I was happy to see Keith get stolen.

Next up - The Knock-outs. I’ve seen a preview and was really impressed, so I’m looking forward to it.

3

I’ve been watching. The faces and voices all tend to blur in my mind early in the season.

The auditions are my favorite part of the show. I chill out and enjoy the great music. There’s just too many people to track and half get eliminated in the battle round.

I usually get focused as the knock outs begin. That’s when I start watching certain people and hope they reach the finals.

Lets try to keep the thread active going forward.

4

Glad to see I’m not the only one irritated by the edited battle rounds. It’s not fair to the contestants. How can you build a fan base that votes when most of your performance gets edited out?

They need to select fewer artists in the blinds. Then fully focus on the cast as the show goes forward.

5

Same here. Unlike a lot of people, I like to see and hear the stories. When I see the adversity people face to do what they love, I’m often pulling for them more.

I was so annoyed to see that they montaged out Kennedy Holmes’ battle. She was one of the strongest singers in the blinds. If she ends up going far, no one will know how she did in the battle to give a fair assessment.

I’ve been really enjoying a sneak peak from next week’s show. I’ve probably watched this clip a half dozen times. I can’t wait to see who won next week.

[spoilered so people don’t accidentally click if they don’t want to see next week’s clip]

[spoiler]RADHA vs. Reagan Strange

Both of them did better than I expected. I was mesmerized.[/spoiler]

6

I’m watching the show for the first time this season. I’m glad to see the edited battle rounds get mentioned, because I was thinking that’s a pretty obvious way of telling us who to pay attention to…but I guess those are new this year?

Before I started watching, I didn’t know that people have to audition even just to get to the blinds. I’ve watched a few seasons of American Idol: sometimes the really bad auditions are funny, but it was kind of nice that everyone on The Voice could actually basically sing. Starting from a baseline like that made the blinds more interesting, I think. I watched all of the stories during the blind auditions, but during the battles I skipped the coaching/rehearsal stuff.

I didn’t care for some of the folks who made it to the Comeback Stage – it felt like a few were chosen for looks rather than singing ability – but I’m not paying attention to that so I don’t *really *care. I don’t think I disagreed with any battle winners/losers. Those were tough, man!

I was going to ask how the knockouts work, but I did some Googling and apparently they’re new this season, too. :slight_smile:

7

Welcome to The Voice watching club! It’s always fun to see new people joining in. I hope you have a fun time watching this season.

Montages have been around since pretty much the beginning. People (including the professional critic writers) complain about them every year, to no avail. In some seasons, there seems to be no rhyme or reason why the battle got cut down. In one year, the person with the montaged battle went on to the lives. That means that the audience is voting on them without seeing all their progress up to that date. If they messed up in the battle, the voting public won’t know it. That’s unfair to the people who are getting all their work judged.

The Comeback Stage is new, but the knock-out rounds have been around for a while.

In the knock-out round, if it works the same way this year, the contestants are paired up by the coaches. The contestants choose their own songs. They get rated based on how well they chose the song for themselves as well as how they sang their choice. Sometimes people fail on song choice and get cut just for their inability to execute on their song choice.

Unlike the battles, the contestants perform individually but with both on the stage. One sits in the background.

The coach still picks which one of the contestants wins. There are still saves where the other coaches have a steal to pick up a player for their team that gets let go from another team.

In the battles and the lives, most of the song choices are made by the coaches.

8

Thanks, Heffalump and Roo!

I could swear I saw something on an official website indicating that the knockouts were new this season, but of course I can’t find it again now. sigh

I’m looking forward to this week’s shows. But just FYI I’m always at least a day behind, so I won’t read this thread/post until a day or two after each episode airs. :slight_smile:

9

My favorite week is the one where the artist picks their own song. That’s when we hear them perform music they actually enjoy. It’s probably the style they aspire to focus on professionally.

Sometimes they get burned and told it’s the wrong song for the show. But that’s how it is in the real world. Sometimes the audience doesn’t have the same love for a song as the artist.

10

I’ve only seen bits and pieces of Monday night and the end of Tuesday night, but there are some notable things so I’ll post them piecemeal.

I’m reading a critic’s review to piece together the parts I missed for now. I’ll watch the rest later.

First off, Cody Ray Raymond left the competition. Cody Ray left a message that he and his family are fine and that he’s rejoining his old band. That’s a bad sign. No one leaves the biggest singing competition and the biggest break in their career if nothing is wrong. Hopefully, he’s OK.

The last time someone did that, he was battling drug addiction. Anthony Riley. It was heart-breaking because that guy was a sure winner. Riley committed suicide a couple years later. That was such a loss of a great talent.

The knock outs that stood out for me was RADHA and Reagan Strange and Patrique Fortson and SandyRedd. Mackenzie Thomas was also a standout.

RADHA was technically very good. She had the bad misfortune of doing a Mariah Carey version of a Michael Jackson song when Mariah Carey was the visiting coach. Carey was not very complimentary about it. Reagan’s performance was so emotion-filled that I watched it over and over. She’s amazing.

Adam picked Reagan and did a self-steal of RADHA, both good choices, I think.

Patrique Fortson had a really nice performance. I thought SandyRedd would overtake him, but her style is getting a little too played out. Her performances start out at 10 and stay that way. Her dance moves don’t vary much. There’s not enough variety in what she’s doing. Hopefully, Jennifer will force her to change it up at least in tone for the next round. I loved her in the blinds. I’m getting a little bored of her now.

Jennifer chose Patrique as the winner and self-stole SandyRedd.

I really liked Mackenzie Thomas’ blind audition. I was surprised that only Jennifer turned for her. I thought the beginning of the audition was beautiful. It turned out that she had auditioned last year. Last year’s audition was a disaster. It would be hard to imagine that this disaster last year would be the same person as this season’s knock out winner. The improvement is so big, it’s almost unrecognizable as the same person. I love her tone this season.

I didn’t see it, but I read that Mariah Carey cried when she saw Mackenzie’s performance. Kelly’s leg cramped when she got up to celebrate it.

11

The Voice Coaches Perform Blake Shelton’s “Honey Bee”- The Voice 2018

For Halloween, the coaches dressed up as Batman characters. Blake was Batman. Adam was Robin. Jennifer was Cat Woman. Kelly was a penguin (not The Penguin).

Dressed like that, they sang Blake Shelton’s “Honey Bee” on Hollywood Blvd with an audience on the street. It was quite a spectacle.

12

I lmao. Great video. Thanks for posting. :wink:

It’s nice seeing the coaches do a country song.

Blake’s had to perform rock and even hip hop (Waterfalls) with them in other seasons. He’s been surprisingly versatile. It was fun seeing Adam & Jennifer perform country.

13

I watched more of the Monday night 10/29 show.

Mariah Carey is the guest coach. Everyone looks like they’re walking on eggshells talking to her. It just feels uncomfortable to watch. The fawning looks oddly forced. Kelly is quoted in an article that Mariah was not a diva on the show. Kelly said that Mariah was prepared and gave great information.

The first pairing was Keith and Tyke on Adam’s team. Keith is the park ranger. Tyke is the surfer. There was no way that Tyke won that. That was a bad song for him. But at least Keith was stolen by Kelly, and Adam had planned to steal him back if Kelly didn’t win.

Then Kimberly, Natalie and Zaxai. They all did great. Kelly picked Kimberly first. (I’m waiting on a commercial) I’m predicting Zaxai. That falsetto was amazing. Yup, Kelly picked Zaxai. But Blake picked up Natalie.

Mackenzie vs. Mike. Mackenzie made that one easy, unfortunately for Mike.

RADHA vs. Reagan. Both were amazing. Reagan’s emotion is amazing. RADHA did well technically, but her emotion doesn’t come through. It will be hard for her to go much further without more emotion. Reagan’s tone is amazing. She reminds me of Danielle Bradbery. Reagan sounded really young in her blind audition. She’s grown a lot in just this one year.

Katrina vs. Funsho. Another easy decision. I don’t know what electro pop is, but whatever Katrina did wasn’t very convincing. Funsho won easily.

Patrique vs. SandyRedd. Patrique was great. SandyRedd lost me on that song. I like the song, but the way she did it was so repetitive. The coaches loved it. I wasn’t as sold as I was in the blinds. I want to see her do something different.

I’ll have to catch up with Tuesday’s episode another time.

14

I can respect Mariah Carey, but I’m not a fan. I get why some of the contestants were a bit star-struck, though.

Like last week, I fast-forwarded through just about all of the coaching and rehearsal footage. Did we learn anything new about anyone?

Heffalump and Roo, I agree with you about all of last Monday’s pairings/outcomes! :slight_smile: Especially RADHA and Katrina. RADHA definitely needs to find a way to bring some blood to her performances: they’re technically good but not great, and so “meh”! Katrina surprised me. She had a great voice, but she showed some very poor judgement with that song choice. Oh well.

Looking forward to watching tonight’s show tomorrow evening… :smiley:

15

That was mostly the fawning part. Mariah said something a couple times that the contestants should have taken to heart. She said that when people remake a song, they should try to stay true to the original melody.

I watched a bit of Monday’s episode live tonight, but I won’t comment here yet.

I went back to last Tuesday’s episode to watch the whole thing.

Franc and Tyshawn on team Jennifer. Both were very good. Tyshawn’s range was amazing. I think he would have won if he stayed closer to the original song. There were a couple places in the song that sounded off because he took too much poetic license with it. That was sad. Franc won that sort of by default.

Claire and Abby on team Kelly. Abby was a lot better than Claire. But they’re doing something on the show that is as annoying as the montage. They cut off the beginning of the losing singer so you know who’s going to win before they start. That’s annoying.

Dave and Kameron on team Blake. This was another battle where the person who took too much poetic license lost the round. Kameron was really good, but again, he took too much poetic license with the song. It’s hard for the audience to get behind the person when they change the song too much. Blake chose Dave. Adam stole Kameron.

Don’t these contestants watch the show? Every contestant who takes too much creative license with a song gets booted every time. You have to be super good to pull off straying from the melody and still having the audience pull for you. Even Judith Hill couldn’t pull that off, and she was great.

16

I watched Monday night’s epsiode last night.

I continue to agree with all of the picks for knockout winner, but I can’t believe Jennifer stole Colton! I thought his song choice and performance were both very “meh,” and frankly I was a little relieved at the idea of him not being in the mix any longer. She stole him simply because he was able to keep it together when his earpiece stopped working? Whaaaa? :dubious:

Also, whoever let Anthony pick “Operator” needs to be fired. I love Jim Croce, but what a horrible, horrible song choice: he needed something with much more range and emotion. (Again, I skipped all of the coaching and rehearsal parts; maybe someone said something to him? I might need to go back and watch his coaching session.) And sorry, Adam and Jennifer, but he does *not *sound “exactly like” Croce! Ugh.

17

My favorite this season is Kirk Jay. His cover of In Case You Didn’t Know is stunning. He has a very good chance of reaching the finals. I keep rewatching all his performances on YouTube.

Dave Fenley is very good. He was on Americas Got Talent a few years ago. He’ll surprise people with his song choices. He did a Spice Girls song on AGT. He’s not purely country. He’s your typical veteran musician that has never quite made the big time. He’s got so much more experience compared to the other Voice artists.

Chris Kroeze and Michael Lee did nice jobs in the knock outs. Burning House is a great song and you can’t go wrong with Whipping Post by the Allman Brothers.

I’m completely baffled by Jennifer Hudson’s save of Colton Smith. I think she screwed up and didn’t use her save earlier. This was the last night and I guess she needed to use her save on somebody. It’s a shame she didn’t save a better singer that might benefit from a 2nd chance.

Colton screwed up so badly. Totally off key singing Lady Marmalade. I think he’ll be eliminated in the next round.

I still need to listen to the other singers on YouTube. See who I like on Jennifer’s team.

18

Have you been watching the web extra Comeback Stage?

Kelsea Ballerini has been coaching a group of rejects from The Blind auditions. She’s picked the two best and they’ll be on the Lives next week.

I’m not impressed with either artist. They’ve improved with coaching and competition. But, imho they still aren’t in the same league as the Voice cast.

The competition between the final three is on YouTube. It’s pretty underwhelming.

Search for Kelsea Ballerini comeback on YouTube.

19

No Tuesday night episode this week? Are they going down to once a week for the live shows?

I didn’t quite get all of the love for him. I mean, yes, he did a great job with the song, but sitting behind a keyboard the entire time (with your eyes closed most of the time) makes it hard to connect with the audience. I was whelmed, but not overwhelmed.

I think my favorite right now is Kennedy Holmes.

I thought they were both tremendous! That decision could have gone either way and I would have been OK with it. I’m super glad that Blake saved Chris. They are each right up there on my favorites list, not far behind Kennedy.

You know, I got to wondering if maybe that’s why Jennifer saved him: to make at least one decision in the next round easier. If so, that’s kind of a crappy thing to do.

Nope; I’ve had zero interest in that entire concept. :slight_smile:

20

I’m not loving the Live format. They are just trotting out every member of the team to sing. It feels so rushed. Here’s Blake’s team, wham, bam, thank you ma’am. Now here’s Kelly’s team… :wink:

There’s no comments about the performance.

At least the music is still good.

I guess NBC won’t commit as many episodes to this show anymore.