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On Monday, the fifth season of The Voice kicked off with one of the best premieres; getting the ball rolling as the judges began their search to find the newest music superstar. Tuesday’s show continued that momentum and further proved why they deserved their Emmy win for Outstanding Reality-Competition. The Voice has everything one needs in a talent show – humor, drama, great personalities and great talent.
On Monday, night, lead singer of Maroon 5, Adam Levine, snagged three vocalists, Cee-Lo Green and Christina were tied to win over two artists, and three-time winning coach, country singer Blake Shelton grabbed one singer. We already know that going into night two of the blind auditions, Blake would do whatever he could (mostly chiming in on all the wins he’s had over the other coaches) to make up for it.
I felt that Tuesday night’s show was about the coaches making sure they had the strongest on their teams. Adam and Blake, having been on the reality competition all five seasons, have become pros at knowing what they want right off the bat. Christina and Cee-Lo aren’t too far behind them, especially Christina, who can truly relate to the young female vocalists who vie for their chance at music.
There were many pauses when it came time to push their buttons to turn their chairs. I, at times, can understand why they hesitate to push their button, but there are times when I’m shouting at the television for them not to wait till the last minute to turn for an artist that could possibly garner them a win. Christina did exactly with Holly Henry, from Minneapolis, Minnesota, when she waited to push her button at the very last note she sang of “The Scientist” by Coldplay. I wasn’t sure if Christina was fully uncertain on taking a chance on her or if she was doing it to psych out the other three coaches.
Blake Shelton was really working the “I won three times on The Voice” pitch during the show. I can tell that he’s doing it mostly to get under the skins of his competitive co-stars. The only question I kept asking myself and most likely will continue to ask myself as the show carries into the Battle Round and the Live Shows; Will Blake again have a winning team to win his fourth title? I hope for the sake of the other coaches, they have their A game on at all times in order to have a chance against Blake. I hope that this time around, people are focusing on the talent that is the best and not the coach that is their favorite.
The big ‘Say What?!” moment was when 29 year old Johnny Gray from Austin, Texas, during his backstory shared not only shared with Carson and those watching, his time in the Air Force, but somewhat gushed how if he could work with any coach, he’d work with Adam. When he took to the stage and sang “All These Things I’ve Done” by the Killers and when Cee-Lo and Adam turned their chairs, it was the moment of truth; Johnny would finally get to work with the coach that he talked moments earlier about. Imagine how stunned I was, though when after both coaches shared why they wanted him on their team, he went for Cee-Lo. Why did Johnny pick Cee-Lo over Adam? Well, because, according to Johnny, Cee-Lo made a reference to Pearl Jam. Since this is solely my opinion, I must say, the one person that knows about Pearl Jam would be Adam.
The three highlights of the night were the following for me: Barry Black, E.G. Daily and Tessanne Chin and about to share why these artists stood out to me: Barry Black, the 27 year old Aua, American Samoa native who killed it with “What You Won’t Do for Love” by Bobby Caldwell, not only with his vocals but with playing the horn with his mouth. Sometimes simplicity is the best way to go. I’m personally glad that he didn’t do anything overly embellishing to the song, because it’s a classic song that really doesn’t need it. When it came down to whom Barry would choose for a coach, I was nervous that it would be Blake. Do not get me wrong, I think Blake has a great ability to guide whoever would be on his team, but I didn’t feel that Barry would get the most if on Blake’s team. His going on Adam’s team will give Barry an opportunity to stretch himself.
The second highlight that wowed me was that of eighties actress and voice-over actress, E. G. Daily. At 51 years old, she wanted to return to what she says has always been her greatest love: singing. Singing Faith Hill’s “Just Breathe”, I loved the slight rasp that she gave the song. I won’t say that she’s one of the strongest vocalists, but I love that she stepped into the competition to see if she still has it. One of the best moments, however, was when Christina immediately picked up on E.G. being an actress. The sheer shock on the coaches faces when E.G. asked if they’d ever seen Pee-wee’s Playhouse was awesome to see.
Tessanne Chin captured my attention because she reminded me of last year’s contestant, Karina Iglesias, hairstyle and all. The Kingston, Jamaica, beauty, grew up with reggae music but soon fell in love with rock music as well. Being a back-up singer for Sir Jimmy Cliff, Carson surprised her with a video message from the reggae singer himself, wishing her the best of luck. When Tessanne took to the stage to sing Pink’s “Try”, three chairs flew around in a flurry, then seconds later, the fourth. The question was: who would be closing out night two of the battle rounds with her choice of coach? Adam pitched his desires to have her; Cee-Lo wanted to take a journey with her, Christina and Blake also yearned for her to choose one of them. Tessanne, thankfully, chose the right coach to close out with a blind audition snag; Adam Levine.
Next week Monday and Tuesday are more blind auditions, so make sure to tune in to see what’s up the crafty sleeves of the coaches. Also too, word is that The Big Bang Theory actress, Kaley Cuoco’s sister; Bailey Cuoco is to be in the blind auditions, so you definitely want to watch out for that. The Voice airs again both Monday and Tuesday at 8/7C.
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