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Tuesday night’s installment of The Voice bid adieu to the central conceit of the show’s auditions — that its judges must turn their backs to potential contestants and decide based on singing ability alone whether or not to become their mentors — and introduced us to the concept of “Battle Rounds.” In what essentially serves as The Voice‘s semifinals, the judges take two members of their eight-person team, watch them perform a duet, then choose which one of ’em will advance to the finals.
And whaddaya know, on Tuesday, the sexy teenager in the slinky dress bumped off the balding, middle-aged dude, while the hunka hunka burnin’ cowboy advanced over the gay Mormon kid dressed like he was auditioning to replace Kurt Hummel on the Dalton Academy Warblers. To be fair, though, it all sounds a little more nefarious on paper than it played out on TV. Let’s break down each individual battle — ranked from most- to least-promising winner — and assess the contestants’ chances as they head to the final 16.
Team Cee Lo: Vicci Martinez d. Niki Dawson (pictured)
Blake Shelton said it best that someday, when Cee Lo is old and gray, he’ll look back on his life and regret pitting Vicci and Niki in the same semifinal faceoff. Both ladies nailed their portions of Pink’s “F***** Perfect” with gut-busting passion and total pitch perfection. Monica, who helped coach Team Cee Lo this week, was on her feet mid-performance, and rightfully so. But I agreed with Cee Lo that Vicci truly tore down the room — I could feel her performance resonate all the way down to my ankles — and couldn’t fault him for giving her the slight edge. That said, I’m not sure Vicci’s “war dance” wide stance is the stuff of sold-out stadiums; she might want to consider a fashion upgrade, too, before the voting rounds begin. (See video below!)
Team Xtina: Frenchie Davis d. Tarralyn Ramsey
I loved that The Lady Aguilera (in something from the Betty Boop Collection) picked an uptempo barn-burner as a forum for her monster-voiced divas. As she pointed out, neither Frenchie or Tarralyn needed to prove their pipes, so why not pair ’em up on Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” and see which one had the charisma and swagger to truly sell it. You could hear Tarralyn straining to deliver some kind of killer glory note in an attempt to distract from Frenchie’s fast and furious flow, but it merely led to her hitting the part of her register that sounds like a squeaking chew-toy. In the end, Frenchie’s attitude that you can’t win while worrying about your competition was a clear-cut winner over Tarralyn’s strategy to hold back during rehearsal and not let her rival know her full range. And now that Frenchie has finally been informed by Xtina and Sia of her tendency to go sharp — an issue I noticed in her “I Kissed a Girl” audition — she could go far in the competition.
Team Adam: Casey Weston d. Tim Mahoney
While most of the judges paired like against like, Adam matched up the self-described “King of Almost” (with several records and hundreds of concert dates under his belt) against a youthful songbird with only four years of singing experience. The resulting duet on “Leather and Lace” was a real treat for the ears, if not a radical departure from Stevie Nicks and Don Henley’s template. There were moments when Casey’s nerves bubbled to the surface and brought an unnecessary quaver to her vocals, but her harmonies were spectacular, and her emotional connection to the material was undeniable. Tim sounded pretty great as well, but too often I felt him performing to win, rather than truly embodying the song. And even though Adam praised him for improving the phrasing of his intro, I wasn’t as convinced he’d succeeded in channeling his mentor’s advice. Plus, while I’m sure Casey’s slinky appeal (and heavily accentuated cleavage) didn’t hurt — “Oh man, that’s my little girl,” gulped her dad — I think Blake had a good point that she’s got a lot of room to grow as the competition continues.
Team Blake: Patrick Thomas d. Tyler Robinson
I’m loving the articulate, level-headed vibe from The Voice‘s judging panel, but I’m also a little flumoxed by Blake’s decision to choose the blandly handsome, blandly competent Patrick over the vocally superior Tyler — especially since the latter singer showed vast improvement by following Blake and buddy Reba McEntire’s counsel to “pick your places” and “don’t wear it out” when it comes to showy vocal runs. Yeah, I understand Patrick’s country style is more in Blake’s wheelhouse (ugh, did I just say “wheelhouse”?) but Tyler’s vocals were the lasso to Patrick’s tied and immobilized calf. Heck, Cee Lo and Adam agreed! Maybe it was Tyler’s leather bowtie that did him in? Either way, I hope we see more Reba: Her advice to focus on every word and create a mental video of every song you’re singing may not have been revolutionary, but it was articulated in a way that could be very helpful to Patrick going forward.
Anyhow, that’s my take on Day One of Battle Rounds. What did you think of this next step in The Voice‘s evolution? Did you enjoy it more or less than the “spinning chair” auditions? Who was your favorite performer of the night? And were there any judges’ decisions you disagreed with? Sound off in the comments, and for all my reality TV recaps, follow me on Twitter @MichaelSlezakTV!
I really enjoyed the battle rounds! I felt that the four performances we saw were outstanding! And, it is hard not to compare to Idol, I thought these performances were miles ahead of most we have seen on Idol this year. I am loving the fresh concept and these people can SANG! I agree with your recap totally. I thought they got it right with the exception of Tyler. He was clearly better, but he is out of Blake’s country comfort zone! Looking forward to more talent ahead, I hope!!
Voice-aloonies!!??
Voicés [voicees] sounds more like it. ;-)
But Damn America has sure got some mighty fine talent. I enjoyed the battles. Most of them were frikking awesome.
Both women who sang first went out of breath and probably neither deserved to move on. Head to head against Niki and Vicci, they’d get slaughtered.
The 18 year old who “beat” the old guy probably has more to work with as she more like unmolded clay while he’s nearly over fired masonry, but she had waaay too much “goat vibrato” for my liking.
Tyler was good, and might have more “potential” than the cowboy, but I found his voice wispy.
Vicci did sound far too much like Melissa Etheridge, and I thought that Niki sounded more original and seemed like she has a very good head on her shoulders. I wished that they’d have shown her more than just a fleeting glimpse during the audition round. Because of that, it took all the drama out of their duo as you just KNEW Vicci would win.
You’re obnoxious, and unless you are at the very top of the music industry – which is doubtful since you’re commenting on a blog about television – you need to be quiet. Everyone did a fabulous job.
I thought Vicci did the best of last night’s group, but we’ve still got some heavy hitters yet to come. She’s got a Melissa Etheridge vibe. I agree with all the judges’ decisions. A lot have complained about Tyler not moving forward, but Patrick has got more mass market appeal, and that counts for something in a competition like this one. I personally liked the country singer who sang Blake’s song at the audition more than Patrick, though.
I think Tyler could have mass appeal in sort of a Jason Mraz vein. Geek chic. :-) Patrick’s appeal is more conventional, but less distinctive — guys like him fit right in on the country scene, but have to struggle to stand out… Agreed about the other guy from the auditions, though. Didn’t he wind up on Cee-Lo’s team, or something?
Yes he did. Will be great to see how CeeLo works with him.
Has the potential for greatness.
While I found Patrick rather ho hum, I actually liked his voice better than Tyler’s. Tyler’s voice is rather thin to me, and I’m never a fan of useless runs. BTW, LOVED Blake’s comment about where he’s from “the runs” are a bad thing. Took me a minute to realize he wasn’t talking about singing — cracked me up.
I had the same reaction to Tyler’s voice….kind of thin. That probably has something to do with the venue, the band, etc.
The real star was Vicci Martinez, war stomp and all. That move actually sent chills up my spine. Talk about passion.
I completely agree with your assessment. I totally agree that Patrick’s voice wasn’t *dazzling* here or anything, but I really did like his voice better than Tyler’s.
Patrick has this great warmth and richness in his voice that I’m really fond of that Tyler’s lacks.
And oh my goodness, yes, “the runs” comment was fabulous, it had my entire family laughing.
The Melissa Etheridge vibe is what I don’t like about Vicci, I have heard that voice and that style too much, it’s uninspired. I didn’t dig the angry stomping either. Niki had a much cleaner vocal, in her own voice, not a copy of someone elses voice, so I appreciated her vocal much more.
I am disappointed in Blakes choice, maybe he thought Patrick would go further.
2 of my picks won, I also hope like others here that there is a wildcard round so folks like Niki and Tyler have a chance to make the live shows.
It was a good show, I look forward to seeing more.
While I do think I have heard Vicci’s voice before, Niki (who killed it) has a tone that is even more unoriginal and sounds like any R&B feme singer out there. I thought both women did a great job, but I really think you can complain about Vicci’s tone being unoriginal, without commenting on Niki’s.
I agree on the WC. I want Tyler and Niki to get a chance at a wild card… I don’t think Tim and Tarralyn need that chance…
I think Casey actually got lucky in her pairing, as she would of gone up in smoke against Tarralyn, Niki, OR Tyler…
Niki sounded way too much like Beyoncé. She is perfectly competent, but also equally bland. Vicci might do some left field stuff in the weeks ahead, but with Niki there was no chance of that happening. Patrick won’t be able to go an inch further in the competition since he has such a nondescript voice. Tarralyn had a yucky work ethic and was completely unprofessional in my opinion. She deserved to go solely on that. Casey has so much potential. I’m impressed with her.
Mass market appeal? I’m sorry, I think you may be talking about the wrong show. This one is called “The Voice”. The criteria is your voice. Was patrick’s voice better? Not a single judge made that case aside from Blake. I was seriously let down by this decision as it makes me think that perhaps Blake thought he was on Idol.
This stage of the competition desperately needs a wild-card component — after all the battles are finished, let each judge choose one (or even two!) of the other judges’ cast-offs to add to their own team. That way mistakes like pairing Niki and Vikki hurt Team Cee-Lo (he still has to lose one of them), but don’t hurt the singers (Niki just gets snatched up by someone else).
Personally, I wasn’t flummoxed in the least by Blake’s choice of Patrick, much as I was sitting here pleading at my screen for him not to do it. With Blake as judge, the bowtie didn’t have a chance against the cowboy hat — or the lovely runs against the solid baritone. Contestants get pushed out of their comfort zones on this show, but I guess judges don’t.
I am really crushed Tim’s out — there was something positively enchanting about his tone. But my pain is diminished by the discovery that he has lots of albums already out there for me to buy…and judging from the iTunes clips, they’re seriously good stuff.
Anyway, there is still ONE thing from last night that I can’t complain about at all: FRENCHIE FTW!!!
I’m also unhappy that Tim is out – but I knew he was going to be as soon as I saw the pairing. I remembered Adam’s disappointment that he wasn’t a woman. Then I saw Casey’s dress. While Tim took Adam’s advice, Casey did not. I do like Casey though … I just thought Tim was better.
I agree, i feel as though that pairing was destined for casey to win. Casey’s voice overall overpowers tims and you could even hear it in the auditions that the register was too high for tim to really get into the song
Total agreement here. I think it’s a shame the Tim wasn’t able to go on.
I second this smart, noble suggestion. Let another coach pick up a wild card. America should not be deprived of Niki’s voice because of producer and Cee Lo shenanigans. A singing contest should not lose one of the best voice in the third show. That’s just dumb.
Sorry but Frenchie is so grossly unattractive, and unfortunately appearance does matter in that world…
I think Frenchie is beautiful.
Rubbish, I guess now I realize this show IS gimmicky. It’s quite obvious the judges had already made up their minds long before the battle, especially with Blake and Adam.
I agree that Patrick getting through was a sure bet (Blake surely wanted a country guy in his final team), but Adam’s decision is understandable. Casey sang the song really well (even if for my taste a bit too close to the original)
She has potential to become really great throughout the live shows.
yeah…was wondering how much time the judges spent with their teams off-camera beforehand to develop preferences or to check out previous music by individuals online…did the rules state the decision was to be solely based on the battleround or by whatever makes sense to the individual judge: overall vocal ability, compatability from a producer’s perspective, marketability…?
So much for “The Voice” in regards to Blake’s choice.
Was hoping for more than 4 performances in the hour, they really stretched it out and this process goes on for another 3 weeks.
I think keeping it to two hours for two weeks of battle rounds (or two nights one week) would have been much better.
I’m guessing they don’t want to get to voting rounds before AI’s season is over…even for addicts like me, that might be a bit much at once. :-)
Tyler was robbed! Even though I didn’t like him much, he clearly sang better. Frenchie was the more humble performer and I think she overall sounded better. I don’t see what everyone saw in the Cee Lo group, didn’t think it was that spectacular. And you’re right, Casey has room to grow.
loving the voice. It seems much better than this season of idol. since haley and scotty are the only two likable right now but mostly due to the judges. the idol judges are CRAP!!!! meanwhile i love these 4 mentors. Blake’s got to be the best thing to happen to reality television.
I was excited for Frenchie, but I haven’t enjoyed her at all so far. Cee Los two girls were the clear top 2 performances of the night, unfortunately for Niki.
I’m so excited to see Rebecca Loebe again, I hope Adam puts her up against some cannon fodder.
I really hope Rebecca gets though, she is fantastic.
Bought her newest album a few days ago, it’s beautiful!
I think the lesson that the future contenders need to walk away with is that working together while in a duet is working for yourself, too. Don’t “hold back in rehearsal” so you “don’t show her all you’ve got.” Really? Incredibly unprofessional, and completely counter productive. If you don’t come in ready and practiced, you’re going to get booted. Agreed with most of the decisions last night – just not Blake’s team. Unsurprising, but still disappointing (and well said in the above).
I love the performers and the coaches, but this phase of the format is seriously flawed. It is designed in such a way that a singer could be eliminated before an inferior one purely because of how they were paired up, as is evident by the Vicci/Niki pairing. I suppose the coaches could rank their eight in order of preference, then match someone from their top 4 against someone from their bottom 4, but can they really do this ranking well based on one audition? They must change the way this elimination round works to be fair to the singers and accurately pick the top 16.
Couldn’t believe Blake picked Patrick over Tyler. It actually made me lose a lot of respect for him. He kept saying he wasn’t just a one-trick-country-pony during the auditions but then stuck with Patrick – who fits his style better – rather than the vocally superior Tyler.
Totally disagree about Tyler being vocally superior. Don’t enjoy his vocals at all. I was actually very surprised that he was picked in the blind rounds. Not that Patrick has a chance in Hades of moving on once we hit the voting rounds…
Completely agree. I wasn’t really impressed with Tyler during the auditions, and, if I am not mistaken, Blake was the only one to turn around (I don’t think Tyler would have picked Blake either), so none of the coaches were that impressed with him either. I also agree that based on voice, Patrick won’t make it very far, but look at how that country exaggerated-facial-expression, play-to-the-crowd boy over on AI has done. I don’t watch AI at all on my own, but was forced to when I visited my parents and they love that freak.
I think what works for AI’s country boy this season won’t necessarily be working for Patrick. For one thing, the AI kid’s a teenager, and has been played up as a “good kid” — he’s popular partly because he’s bringing out people’s maternal instincts, in a way that Patrick won’t. He also sings bass, which viewers of AI aren’t used to hearing, and so a lot of people automatically think it’s brilliant. Patrick’s voice doesn’t have anything as obviously distinguishing, even if it’s stronger overall.
But the other big difference, I think, is that The Voice is going to have a different viewing demographic — especially now that it’s on at 10pm, it’s going to be fewer parents and kids, more younger adults. So the same things won’t necessarily play, anyway…or so I’m hoping. :-)
totally agree with sherimoonzombie – thought Tyler was a bad audition waiting to happen – you’re kidding he was actually picked up by Blake. Razor thin voice must have been someone’s idea of a joke. Really.
Are you kidding? Patrick is hot and that counts in this business. Plus he has a really good voice.
I liked Patrick better than Tyler myself. I was surprised by the other judges praising Tyler. All I could figure was that he did better than they expected, so they were surprised.
I totally agree that Vicki had the most promise to go far in the competition. Battle round episode had too much filler and only 4 songs.
I really wish they had a wild card round of sorts where each judge got to pick one singer that had lost their face off to be added to their team.
I agree.
The K.O. system can be really unfair, would be nice if they had a small safety net that helps some of the eliminated contestants.
Or even better if the judges could poach from each others’ rejects.
Yes!
Vicci for the win. That is all. Idol ladies, take note. That’s how you leave it all on the stage. And no, dont let the Voice stylists anywhere near her, with their trunk load of bad prom dresses and blue eye shadow.
this x 1000000
this.
Vicci FTW!
IAWTCx1k! She’s from Tacoma and looks it. Sounds it, too! Saw her at Jazzbones a while back, amazing live performer and incredible voice. Vicci for the Voice!
I was really disapointed to see Blake choose Patrick over Tyler. Patrick wasmuch better and original. After his not so classy gay joke on twitter and this decision, I don’t know how I feel about Blake…
thank you. Something Slezak failed to mention, to keep his Voice Judges Good/American Idol Judges bad scenario going, he conveniently left that out. And it wasn’t just homophobic, it was VIOLENTLY homophobic. But obviously Slezak cares more about his narrative than his people. Ass.
So you post something that isn’t even true, spin a conspiracy out of it and then call someone who obviously is smarter and did some research about the topic “ass”?
WTG man, you showed us some equality.
The tweet was meant to be ‘in persona’ as Shania Twain about some guy grabbing her. It was a completely idiotic thing to tweet, but I can see why he didn’t realize it when he was looking at it from a completely different angle.
I agreed with all the judges pick – though I was iffy on Frenchie, but I understand it. Patrick clearly had it over Tyler – I’m sorry. It’s not just looks, but stage presence *does* matter, and Patrick sold me on the song. Tyler sounded good, but I didn’t connect to the song through him and that matters.
I think that Adam and Cee lo’s praise of Tyler over Patrick was part strategy in the hopes that Blake would agree and choose the lesser threat. While Patrick’s vocals may not be the best, he’s got the “whole package” thing going for him. (Imagine Patrick vs. Scotty McCreery….I’d go with Patrick in a second!) Btw…I felt Reba was unnecessarily intrusive when drilling Patrick on his relationship status. Once he said he didn’t have a girlfriend, she should have stopped at that.
You know that’s exactly what I thought. Given Patrick vs. Scotty McCreery, I’d take Patrick every time. Scotty is creepy and his facial expressions and the whole sideways microphone… yuck. Patrick seems much more down-to-earth and his voice has more range and power. It also doesn’t hurt that Patrick is much, much better looking than Scotty who looks like that kid from Mad Magazine.
This show is on too late for me to care! I hope it gets moved to 8 or 9 pm or I’ll never get to watch it “liv”e and certainly never vote. :(
I am totally with you on Vicci–she was PHENOMENAL! (though I could already tell after her AH-MAAAAZING, rocked out “Rolling in the Deep” in the Blind Audition, that I was going to LOOOOOOVE her. TEAM VICCI!!!) Nikki was excellent as well, but I am SO thankful Vicci survived the cut to move on!
And I doubly agree about Blake’s WTF choice of Bland Cowboy P over the marvelously talented Tyler. He so obviously just went for Patrick because of the whole country thing (despite what he said in ep 1 about going for people of other genres too). I sincerely think he paired those two up so he could easily eliminate the less-attractive Tyler in favor of his golden cowboy. I’m sure he wasn’t expecting poor Tyler to step up and throw out that amazing vocal.
So I guess in Blake’s case, he really IS taking the looks into account, despite the premise of the show being to find the best VOICE in America. I noticed he was pretty critical of Tyler’s looks when he turned his chair around in the Blind Audition too. Too bad–you’d think the coaches themselves should be the greatest advocates of their team members, regardless of looks, since they themselves chose each of them based on something extraordinary they heard in their voices.
I’ve definitely lost a bit of respect for Blake after that decision.
=__=
What I like about this format is that there is one human being (with a helper) who is responsible for the fate of a fellow singer. We do not get the corporate judging panel, each member of which can pass the buck to the next judge.
If I disagree with a judges decision (ahem, Blake) then I know exactly who to point the finger at.
This format does not guarantee that judges will not be nudged in a certain direction from the show’s execs…but it does bring a refreshing level of accountability to the process.
I will be eager to see if the judges maintain their autonomy when we come to the live shows or if (like Jennifer and Tyler) they will be forced to tell twitchy lies every week.
For now, my hopes are high.
This show is everything American Idol isn’t. The judges are great and refreshing, they actually give GOOD advice and the vocalists are spectacular – something that Idol, let’s be real, hasn’t seen since season 8. Every single performance from last night’s show was superior to any Idol Season 10 performance.
wow. i must be watching a different show cus while i think the judges and their mentoring are all awesome and what idol is lacking right now, the vocals here SUCK. or at least could be A LOT better. single ladies was murdered by those two girls. some people can sing, but the song choices and pitch are all over the place for almost all of them. it’s like watching the american idol reject pile compete.
I think these battle rounds are best compared to AI group nights — learning a song in a hurry, singing with someone you’ve never worked with before, and who knows they’re in competition with you (even more so here than on AI), so that the incentive isn’t really to support each other… We rarely see anything spectacular in that round on AI, and often even really good singers turn in kind of mediocre performances. If the same is true here, then I’m hopeful that the voting rounds will be of a different caliber entirely.
They are at the top32 basically, so you can’t compare that to Idol’s top few shows.
Idol usually has WAY more trainwrecks in the early stages, and even into the live shows.
Hell, look at this year… they still had off pitch trainwreck performances in the top5.
Idol ofcourse also had great years with really good talent years ago.
But currently, The Voice wins hands down in a fair comparison.
I’d love to see you, Michael Slezak, do a video series on “The Voice”. We could call it “Voice-aholics”.
Tarralyn was tooo screechy; she tried too hard. Frenchie totally earned the win, not only with the nuances of her vocals and dynamics, but also her performance, which was just more interesting…fierce, but not in your face.
Vicki/Nicci–agreed all around. Both were fantastic, very hard to choose, shouldn’t have been wasted in a battle round against each other. But ultimately think Vicki did edge out.
Patrick/Tyler–I don’t get the love for Tyler; definitely don’t find him vocally “superior.” He was fine–but even though he held back on the runs, the vocal ad-libbing was just…off for that song. I thought Patrick delivered the better performance overall.
Casey/Tim–Don’t get the Casey love. Didn’t like her first performance. Didn’t like her call-back. Didn’t think she deserved to be mentioned in the same breath as Stevie Nicks, never mind compared favorably. I would have picked Tim; not because he was hugely better, but because she is so incredibly mediocre. As with Cee-Lo, I think Adam wasted some cannon fodder and we’re gonna have to really two stronger talents pitted against each other and have to bid one adios. Remember, these people are gonna sing for America. Do we really think Casey can hold her own against a Vicki? (or, hopefuly to come, a Xia or Rebecca or Javier)? She SHOULD be one of the first to go, but she probably will have a teen fan base that will keep her around too long….
I think Vicki has the “IT” factor- her song resonated within and from her whole body and being and thus it resonated way over here to me in Pennsylvania- I could feel her all through my body and self. A real find she is. I was surprised cause I thought she was just ok in her initial audition.