Tuesday night’s semifinal elimination round of The Voice brought the contestants down to three. If perchance you don’t know who was eliminated – and don’t want to know – then you should stop reading this. Go watch it on your DVR and then come back and see what you think of this recap/review. Certainly there will be SPOILERS about who left and who stayed. However, I’m much more interested in discussing why last night’s elimination round made it clear that here are two sides to The Voice. This is a good thing as most shows of this sort have only one. It gave me quite a bit to think about.
OKAY, I’m assuming that if you’re still reading this you either already saw the episode and know who stayed, or that you are fine with SPOILERS. The first thing I want to acknowledge is what a difference a day makes. If Monday night’s performance round of The Voice semifinals was a night that triggered every cynical thought about show business and talent shows that I have, Tuesday’s elimination round reminded me about the parts of this show that I really love and that makes it stand apart from the other vocal competitions.
One of things that I noticed right off – they changed the clip they used Monday night of Trevin Hunte singing “Wind Beneath My Wings” to a different point in the song. Smart move, since he was badly off-key in that other clip. The second thing was Carson Daly. On Monday he was an automaton, Tuesday he was far more relaxed and genuine. In fact, relaxed and genuine could be the theme of the entire show. After the montage of Monday night’s four performances, Adam Levine said something about the final four being great artists and regardless of whose team any one of them is they are all loved and respected – and he sounded completely sincere. Cee Lo Green is asked about the artists on his team and eventually got around to talking about their great heart and vulnerability – and I didn’t feel he was posing while saying it. Christina Aguilera got asked about Cee lo and Blake Shelton as coaches. It’s Christina, so she immediately included herself and Adam in her answer by saying that even though they are all so different, they all want the artists to succeed and really want to help them become the artists they want to be. Despite the turn to include herself, I actually believed the answer was heartfelt. She then actually went back to the original question and gave points to both Cee Lo and Blake for finding the windows that would play to the artists’ strengths. Blake got asked about how much more did he have to do between “now and next week.” After moaning a bit about how much there was to do he said, “but you don’t want to over think a performance, and you don’t want to throw too much at the kids all at once…” Awww…”Blake thinks of his team as “the kids.” It’s Papa Blake! That one phrase of his really just said it all.
All the sincerity going on didn’t mean the reality show elements weren’t there. There’s been a ton of manipulation going on – which is what reality shows do. Sometimes I can get caught up in the moment of the thing and forget that fact. For instance, after we’re told that Terry McDermott and Cassadee Pope respectively hit number one on i-tunes rock and pop charts, Carson dutifully reminds us that every i-tunes download counts as a vote. In other words, the rule about breaking the top 10 multiplying a contestants total votes by ten is definitely over. Wow. Way to fine-tune who wins! God forbid someone chart who doesn’t have the most votes – which they were fine with before.
Then the two number one chart-toppers sing a duet together. King and Queen? Maybe, but the song seems to really showcase Terry. It’s not the best song for Cassadee, whose tone often seems sharp, while Terry’s is smooth. In terms of connecting to the lyrics – in this case – Terry was tuned in and Cassadee wasn’t. I got that Terry didn’t want her to go – I have no idea what Cassadee was singing about. She does get one solo moment that’s more in her style, but still, if this were a battle round it would have gone to Terry. I don’t know, it felt like Terry tried to connect to with Cassadee, but gave up because she just wasn’t there for it. Was there some tension between them at the end? Maybe. Or Cassadee may have just been having a bad night – perhaps Terry’s number one (again) made her realize that winning might not be the cake walk that she thought.
Then it was last year’s second place winner, Juliet Simms. Juliet was AMAZING! Without having any of the constraints of being on a reality show competition, she came out, no holds barred, as a hard-rock, fierce as hell, diva! She wasn’t just connecting to that song – she WAS that song. Blake’s comment about Cassadee on Monday night seemed even more ridiculous, but I’ve forgiven him. After watching the Tuesday night eliminations I realized that Monday night – and the last couple of weeks – have been all about the reality show game and who the producers want to win. Heaping on phrases like “the best ever” was part of that agenda. Tuesday had a different agenda, and so it was like Monday night had never happened. Not that Blake didn’t praise Cassadee or that they didn’t talk about her ability to connect to a song. What was different is that it wasn’t framed it a way that put one contestant over another. The attitude of the music being the most important thing and the coaches having a genuine respect for all the performers, is what got me watching The Voice in the first place. Only after watching it tonight did I realize that it had been missing recently.
For the last couple of weeks we’ve had the Adam/Christina competition thing – which from the get go just seemed totally phony to me. Christina’s been extra snarky and over the top. Her affect towards certain singers was bland, belittling and uncalled for – unless you’re trying to create drama. Blake had been making statements that made absolutely no sense. For instance, his comment about America liking originality, so they’d be more likely to pick Nicholas David over Amanda Brown? It had bloggers and viewers alike scratching their heads, but that certainly fit the agenda to try to spin the reason Amanda went home. Cee Lo was actually less involved in the game because he was out of the coaching for a week, but he did give Trevin “Wind Beneath My Wings” to sing – and that song was a horrible choice. (I’m now convinced Adam was being facetious with his comment about him thinking it was the perfect song for Trevin.) The final height of Monday night’s annoyance was the visiting the hometowns with violins in the background – that, was “X-factor” worthy. Last night, none of the above behavior was in effect – and it was great!
Instead, what we got was musicians enjoying other musicians. Adam commented that the coaches are artists enjoying watching fellow artists perform and grow. Christina says “No matter what, they are all so talented.” Throughout the show former contestants from season two will come and perform – none whom actually won The Voice. Viewers got to see how they all had grown, both musically and with their stage presence. Juliet Simms – with her incredible Hard Rock awesome – is signed to Cee Lo’s label. Raelynn, the young country singer from Texas had done some touring with both Blake and his fellow country-star/wife Miranda Lambert. Furthermore, the song she performed had been written by her and two other Voice contestants from last year – and from different teams no less. Robert Mann has two different albums out, and has improved dramatically from where he was last year. Christina’s work to get him to be more comfortable on stage with a pop style of music has come to fruition – which it hadn’t fully last year. We also learned that Adam, who’d had such a great connection to Christina’s fellow Mouseketeer Tony Lucca, has signed him to his label and he and Tony have been working his first album. Clearly all the talk about The Voice being a family and about mentoring beyond the show isn’t just talk.
In case people missed the message, Carson sat down with the final four and discusses how they’re feeling about the competition. Sure, Terry and Cassedee admit it would be nice to win, but Nicholas says what all ultimately agree with, “I feel like we’ve already won.” Carson then asked the four about what inspired them to become singers – again, going to the idea that these contestants are artists, not just contestants on a reality show.
Terry was the first one saved. Given the song he’d just done with Cassadee I wasn’t surprised. It’s the first point where I suspected that yes, it was going to be Trevin that’s going home. The fact that they changed his clip clued me into that, regardless of the coaches said Monday night, they knew he was off-pitch. Then we got the performance from Raelynn. She may be seen a country sensation, but her song, “Boyfriend,” had cross-over written all over it. Her vocals were also much stronger than last year. Once the performance was over she’s far less put-on coquette and started honestly gushing away like a normal teenager. Nice to she she’s not jaded (yet.)
Did we get to know the second person saved yet? No, but I didn’t mind so much because the little time-filler “The Voice Confessionals” was amusing, cute, and showcased how these people all connect. It started with the question “If you got stuck on a desert island…” who would they want with them. Except for Cassadee, who’s the only one who seemed disconnected from the others, they all appeared to have a good time with this. What really jumped out at me: so much for the Adam/Christine feud. Adam picked Christina because they could have “musical superbabies.” I’m not trying to start a rumor here – I don’t remotely think Adam’s got a crush on Christina. I do think he absolutely respects her talent. After all, he had her on his album. Plus, of the four coaches, he and Christina are always the ones to notice pitch and musicianship issues. Dog-ears, both of them. Christine Milan was cute, “Blake picked me!?” Honestly, all night I really did think she was cute. She was far more relaxed and easy-going than usual. She wasn’t trying too hard to be bubbly and cute – the result being that she actually was. Oh, and if anyone doubted that Blake was a true country boy, all of The Voice “staff” knew that he hunted and fished, and was comfortable in the wilderness. Also, he really does have a bit of a scoundrel’s reputation. The presentation of that information was funny. My favorite line about Blake was Carson’s – “he’d be rum-running within 3 years.” LOL!
Now do we get to know the second person? No! It’s Chris Mann singing a song from one of his two albums. Like I said before, he’s definitely improved from last year in terms of connecting to the pop-style lyrics. Afterwards Carson informs us Chris performed for President Obama. Chris manages to plug his albums and his performance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno coming up. He then blows a kiss to Christina before leaving the stage. Not bad for not winning The Voice. Of course, doing well whether you win or not is the theme of the night.
The second person saved was Cassadee. I’m not surprised, and at this point I was guessing my prediction about Trevin going home was going to come true. Both seem okay with the situation, putting an arm around each other. Team Cee Lo seemed to have a real bond, one that fit with the theme of the people at The Voice Being a family. Earlier in the show the two were interviewed and Trevin talked about how nurturing Nicholas has been to him, and Nicholas called Trevin “little brother” and said with how amazing Trevin is at 18, he looks forward to seeing just how even more amazing he’s going to get as he older.
Before we got to find out for sure who the third person saved was, we have a pit stop with Christina, Adam, and Tony Lucca. Tony didn’t perform, but we got to find out he’s on Adam’s label and recording an album. So now we’ve seen previous contestants from all four teams – none of whom actually won – who are doing really well and in some form still connected to their coaches. It’s a pretty good segue-way to Christine letting viewers know that auditions are open for The Voice season 4.
That lead to the final duet of the night – Nicholas and Trevin. They sang “Hero” by Mariah Carey. The song was perfectly suited for Trevin’s voice. Why he didn’t get to that as his performance song Monday? Oh yeah, that’s right, it’s reality TV. My thought: the producers want Cassadee to win. If Trevin stayed and then knocked a song out the park like what he did with the Dreamgirls number the week before, that might not happen. They want a pop star – and that would be Cassadee. I’ll be curious to see what Terry gets to sing next week. “Hero” wasn’t a great song for Nicholas, but since it’s going to be Trevin’s last performance – by then I was sure of it – they wanted him to go out on a high note. I now think that the coaches know beforehand who is going home. Cee Lo looks tearful as Trevin sings.
The last part before announcing the final person chosen was actually my favorite part of the night. Mainly because it brought home the message the show has been pushing all night. Winning doesn’t matter. Carson asked Adam if he had any “last words” for the last two contestants. Adam, immediately said, “last words? This ain’t a funeral….this, predicts nothing for your future.” He went on to talk about how unique and special Nick & Trevin are, not just as performers, but as people. He even goes are far as wishing he’d turned around for them in the beginning because over the course of the show he’s gotten to see and love their talent.
Carson then went to Christina and mentioned how she’d been on “one of these shows” and didn’t win. Christina really ran with this, and I felt it was a glimpse of the real Christina. She said that only did she not win, but, unlike Trevin and Nicholas, she didn’t even last one round. She goes on to mention Jennifer Hudson not winning American Idol (without saying the name of course – no free advertising!) and going on to be an Oscar winner and superstar. “This is one moment, and it will pass and you will learn from it and move on…. ” She was very passionate about the show being just a place to learn and grow as an artist and that where they go from here is up to each artist – and unlimited. Again, I really believed her.
Blake’s comments Tuesday were much better than the last two weeks: “As much as this is a competition, it’s also a family. I hate that one of you has to go home tonight.” Cee Lo blathered a bit but then came from his heart and said how both performers have his admiration as artists, his loyalty, and that he “will be with the both of you from this point on.” Seeing Juliet Simms perform on the show that night, I knew he meant it, because he said something similar to her last year – and now she’s on his label.
For me, the honest admiration, support, and respect all the coaches have for the performers/contestants on The Voice is what separates the show from all the other vocal competition shows out there. The best moments tonight and throughout the seasons are the ones where the coaches get to do what they really love to do – nurture and work with other talented singers. When they get to enjoy a performance and give helpful pointers is always a better and more interesting show.
However, The Voice is still a reality show, and the producers obviously want to create an overnight sensation. All of the tweaking this season and the infusion of drama moments have seemingly been so that the show moves in the way they think will give them what they want. For instance, those questions by Carson aren’t off the top of his head and I suspect the coaches know they’re coming. Like all reality shows, The Voice isn’t strictly scripted – but it’s shaped and manipulated towards the outcomes the producers want to have. Cee Lo alluded to that fact earlier in the year, but I do think the last few weeks have been more bit heavy-handed in that regard. Ironically, it’s the semifinal elimination show that brought the show back to its center of a shared enjoyment and camaraderie of singers working with other singers.
Sure, Tuesday’s semifinal elimination episode was also a manipulation, one determined to remind viewers what the core of The Voice is all about. It reassured viewers that there’s no need to worry their favorite contestants like Melanie Martinez, Amanda Brown, or Trevin Hunte (who did in fact go home) – will all be taken care of. The message they were determined to get across on : The Voice doesn’t abandon it’s artists just because they don’t take the top spot, and success as an artist isn’t tied to winning the competition. However, I would say that the message of the night is actually true. If you make to the top eight, never-mind the top four, winning just doesn’t really matter. The coaches on the show are more than willing to mentor singers and help them build careers beyond the show. It was nice to be reminded of that. Even Dia Frampton, season one’s runner-up, (who now has a record deal and has since released a critically acclaimed album, which charted three songs on Billboards top 100.) toured with Blake the fall after NOT winning The Voice.
I can’t say that any of the other American talent shows have shown the kind of care and taken the kind of active interest in the careers of its “non-winners” the way The Voice has. Still, if winning doesn’t matter, what’s the point of tuning in next week? Well, I want to see the final performances for the sake of the performances. The talent level on this show is always high. Plus, I am curious to see who America picks to actually win. Still, watching The Voice is far more about each artist’s journey than which one ultimately wins the title of being “The Voice.”
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