By 
It was a night of ‘anything can happen’ on The Voice, and Monday night was just that. The Top 10 had some of the best singing so far, there was an awesome musical performance from the band Rixon and Blake Shelton did the unthinkable of tweeting Adam Levine’s cell phone number on live television….or did he? We’ll discuss that matter a little bit later, but first let’s talk about Monday night’s competition and my Top 5 performances that kept my ears and eyes at full attention that night.
Let’s talk about the band Rixon, who performed the song “Til We Hit the Floor”. I’ve never heard this band, but then, I haven’t been listening to the radio in over some time now, so I missed out on this band. I do love their enthusiasm as they performed and the catchy beat got the audience on their feet and at attention before the live competition were to begin. After their performance, I instantly found myself searching for the song to put in my iPod collection. Great job, Rixon, great job!
Now let’s talk on my Top 5 Performances of the night! I’m going to get this out there right now, yes, three of the performances from Monday’s show were from Team Adam (no shame at all in saying that), but two others were from Usher’s team and that of Team Blake. I may or may not be in the minority in saying this, but this season has become a great season in terms of performances and all of the Top 10 contestants should be very proud of themselves, because they all did well on the stage. With that said, here we go.
Kat Perkins has and will forever be my all-time favorite performer. She opened up the competition with the Stevie Nicks song, “Landslide”. That is one of my favorite songs, therefore, I am always on the fence when someone decides to sing the song in a competition, and however, Kat did the song pure justice. During her initial run through of the song, Adam brought in close friend, and Crosby, Stills and Nash singer, Graham Nash on to help mentor his three contestants. There wasn’t too much that Kat needed to keep in check or focus on. When she was on stage, she made that genuine emotional connection with the song and in some places, she did deliver that rasp that Stevie tends to do. At the end of the song, Kat’s delivery of that high note brought the house down in my opinion. It was so touching to see Kat’s emotional release at the end.
The second performance of the night that wowed me was that of Josh Kaufman from Team Usher. I will say it here; I had strong reservations of Josh being on Usher’s team, primarily because of fear that he would box him in with basic song selections. Usher, thank you for proving me wrong and making me have a huge change of heart. Josh performed the song, “This is It” by Kenny Loggins and he gave it such a soulful feel to it, that it breathed new life to the song.
In rehearsal, Usher brought on producer, Natural to help mentor his team. Usher and Natural both stressed that they wanted Josh to not lose the ability to match his energy to the natural energy of the song. Josh did it just that way. I love the way he managed to hold the audience’s attention from beginning to end; one minute he’s giving us soft vocals, the next, his register raises and he draws us in with the command of a louder tone. No matter what, Josh stepped up his game to give an excellent performance.
Christina Grimmie is my hero, I am not the hugest listener of Drake’s music, but Christina got me interested when she announced she would be taking on his song, “Hold on We’re Going Home”. It wasn’t at all a choice that Adam suggested to her, but she was the one that brought it to his attention. She stepped outside the box and showed great determination that she’d perform this song in competition. I loved how she stepped away from the piano and right into the middle of the stage toward the end of her performance. This is a young woman who knows how to compete and I find her to be a breath of fresh air. Christina definitely had my attention from the start of the song all the way through to the very last note.
The comeback kid, Delvin Choice could very well find himself up against at least two of these top five I have mentioned here so far. He had such a fitting song for his performance, and that was Gary Clark Jr.’s “Bright Lights.” He said throughout the song, by the end of the night we were going to remember his name and yes, I certainly do. The minute he stepped on the stage, he owned the stage. Delvin took me (and I’m sure the audience) to church with this song. I loved how he made the entire audience ‘wait for it’ with his final notes, and even Carson Daly thought he was done when he started to emerge out on the stage. Delvin, if we continue to vote solely on talent and performance, could very well find himself in the finale.
The last performance of the night was Blake’s Sisaundra Lewis. It’s a given that she’s a great performer and that every song that she takes on becomes golden. She, is one of the best contestants on Blake’s team and I wouldn’t be surprised if she doesn’t remain in the finale of the show.
Sisaundra took on the Steve Perry song “Oh Sherrie” and, just like Delvin, she blew the roof off the place with her performance. What can one say about her performance other than it was outstanding. It’s an automatic given that she would close out the night with sheer perfection. I hope, though, with the next round of completion next week, that Sisaundra will blow us away with something that is unexpected. She’s great with giving us powerhouse vocals, but I’d love for her to show some serious vulnerability to the audience next time around.
Now about that little matter of Blake tweeting away Adam’s cell phone digits. Many will argue that it was Adam’s legit number, many others will argue that the number give-away was pure stunt. First off, many fans who have seen pictures of Adam and who follow him via Twitter, know that Adam’s phone is an iPhone. I don’t recall him ever using anything other than iPhone. Second, before the show even began, there was the initial threat from Blake saying he was going to do away with Adam’s number, to which a playful Adam poo poo’d about in a tweet all his own. I’m going to be one to argue that it was a beautifully orchestrated stunt and also because the phone that Blake had that was to be Adam’s was not an iPhone. It was fun to see the tag #IfICalledACoach tag floating all over Twitter that night.
On Tuesday we will see who will come out on top as The Voice Top 8. My fingers are crossed that my Top 5 I talked on are still in the running for next week’s competition. Until next time, stay tuned for The Voice!
Comments