On The Voice: Live Round Teams are Set
Monday on The Voice the coaches wrapped up their selections and presented their final five to move on to the live rounds starting next Monday. This was a pretty standard night of competition so I’m going to recap by judges not in order of performance. It’s just more fun to mix it up.
Round One (Team Adam): Nate Butler vs Brian Nhira
This was a tight one for Team Adam as both Nate and Brian are unique singers with very different qualities. Brian chose to sing Grenade by Bruno Mars and Nate chose Let’s Stay Together by Al Green. I’ve liked Brian since the blind auditions but Nate reminded me a little too much of last year’s winner Jordan Smith for me to put much faith in him moving on. Adam made me really happy and kept Brian. I think he must have heard me yelling at him from my couch.
Winner Brian Nhira
Round Two (Team Adam): Laith Al-Saadi vs Jessica Crosbie
I honestly thought this was going to be the highly pimped steal round of the night. I was looking forward to both performances tonight but it wasn’t meant to be. Adam paired these two and I was expecting a real battle but the thing sort of whimpered. Faith is a powerful, growly guy with a great Bob Seager kind of thing going on. He chose In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel, which I thought was neither in his wheelhouse nor interesting for him in any way. I get the need to show other sides but I don’t like this side. Jessica chose Wake Me Up by Avicii and I didn’t like her choice either. The songs did nothing to showcase what was cool about these two and the winner was kind of the one that wasn’t as bad as the other.
Winner: Laith Al-Saadi
Team Adam looks like this:
1. Owen Danoff
2. Brian Nhira
3. Laith Al-Saadi
4. Shalyah Fearing
5. Caroline Burns (who actually was put through tonight during the one and only montage of the knockout rounds)
Round Three (Team Blake): Mary Sarah vs Brittany Kennell
This is another one of those rounds where I wonder if Brittany showed up and was like…oh, crap. Mary Sarah is adorable, has a lot of country experience and is right up there on my personal likability scale with Alisan Porter. She chose a classic country tune You Ain’t Woman Enough (to Steal My Man) and sang it with all the hints of Loretta Lynn that it needed. Brittany chose Shania Twain classic Still the One and it came off a little one-note boring.
Winner: Mary Sarah
Team Blake looks like this:
1. Adam Wakefield
2. Mary Sarah
3. Katie Basden
4. Paxton Ingram
5. Joe Maye (who he stole from Team X-Tina tonight – Spoiler)
Round Four (Team Pharrell): Abby Celso vs Caity Peters
Going into this round I wasn’t sure what to expect. I didn’t remember much about these two from previous rounds. Abby insisted on singing Rich Girl by Hall & Oates, which seemed to bother coach Pharrell a bit. He let her continue on because the song had meaning to her but he probably shouldn’t have. Her performance came off very much like a lounge singer on a cruise ship and I could tell that her voice was a lot better than that song choice. Caity chose Leave Your Lover by Sam Smith and this really turned into a non-battle. Caity has a sort of Brandi Carlisle tone to her voice and it sounds deep and rich and elegant in an indie-pop sort of way. I like Caity a lot but I worry that she blends in with girls like Hannah Huston and the Emily Keener and America can’t keep them all straight.
Winner: Caity Peters
Team Pharrell looks like this:
1. Hannah Huston
2. Caity Peters
3. Emily Keener
4. Lacy Mandingo
5. Moushumi
Round Five (Team Christina): Bryan Bautista vs Trey O’Dell
Christina played it safe and paired Bryan Bautista, singing Sorry by Justin Bieber, with relatively un-remembered teammate Trey O’Dell singing I Live by One Republic. I was nervous when Bryan wanted to give the Biebs tune a Reggae spin but it was subtle and perfect and swoon worthy. Miley even had a little crush on Bryan after their mentor session…who wouldn’t. I didn’t remember much about Trey so maybe he was a montage victim. He was real nervous and seemed flat and the entire time. TBH, I’m not sure I know the difference between pitchy and flat but I know bad and he was that for sure.
Winner: Bryan Bautista
Round Six (Team Christina): Kata Hay vs Joe Maye
Carson Daly couldn’t stop pimping this most ridiculous, I mean dramatic, steal of the night. Even when it was the only battle left and Blake still had one steal. Please stop with that!! Karaoke Kata Hay chose to sing Reba’s Why Haven’t I Heard From You and Joe chose Earned It from 50 Shades of Gray. I thought both of these performances were a little over the top and just too much everything for my liking. Kata has a way of screaming though a song with just enough performance to make us think she is a good singer, but I don’t really think she is. I do think Joe is a good singer but his performance was more awkward than entertaining.
Winner: Kata Hay
Steal: Joe Maye to Team Blake
Team Christina looks like this:
1. Alisan Porter
2. Tamar Davis
3. Bryan Bautista
4. Ryan Quinn
5. Kata Hay
Live Rounds start next week so we’ll see what America thinks of these teams. I am feeling pretty good about Christina’s chances of winning this year but Blake has a few on his team that could spoil. I’m not going to recap the clip show tomorrow because that would be like recapping a recap. Nobody needs that.