treebyleaf

Yes, Kelsey attended WTA. Reality Steve confirmed yesterday and in a pic Carly posted on Instagram you can see Kelsey seated with the rest of the women. E! has a preview of the women ganging up on Britt with Jillian defending her. No one comes out looking great but I do feel bad for Britt who I think is more of an impulsive/flighty type than a maniacally-plotting-to-trick-Chris type.

Wasted Love was by far the best of the new singles, and Matt sold it so well. Everything about it was way more awesome than the other songs, too -- that choir of backup singers? Fantastic. I've never been a Matt McAndrew fan -- he looks too much like a Muppet to me, and I think I'm too old for his charms -- but I predict him winning the competition handily with all of the new fans he just picked up. (I didn't, however, like his duet with Adam Levine -- his falsetto sounded like a cartoon, it wasn't melodic at all.) Chris is my favorite but I see him more likely to flounder in the music biz if he isn't adopted by the right mentors and labels. I really do like him though. Craig and Matt seem like they are finished artists enough to do really well after the show. Damien is awesome but I don't know if he has the personality to be a full-time artist.

I have to give Chris props for rising to the occasion again. Both this week's song and last week's song seemed out of his wheelhouse but he delivered. I don't think he gave the best performance of the night but I was expecting it to be embarrassingly horrible and it wasn't. Out of all of the contestants he seems like he can work with whatever he's given to put on a good show. The other contestants either play it safe in one genre or crash and burn (a la Reagan). I like T3's and Luke's singing voices but I think they'd be better as frontmen in a band. I would have loved to have seen Damien try 'Uptown Funk' last week or something more upbeat. I guess he knows what works for him and stays within it but his performances are becoming a little tiresome. I predict Craig Wayne Boyd for the winner... he definitely has the most 'Voice'-y storyline and, like the Swon Brothers, he seems well-equipped to hit the ground running after a win. I'm all for him!

I looked on YouTube and I actually prefer Sophia Louise to Sugar. This might not be the best example of her voice but I preferred her more "real" performance style over the hammy Sugar Joans. I'd rather an original Sophia than a duplicate Whitney. Ryan had the best "Last Chance" performance. It made me wonder if all of them have a "Last Chance" performance in their pocket, OR if those songs would have been the contestants' song for the next week. I think if Ryan had done "More Than Words" for this actual performance this week he might not have been in the bottom 3. The Duran Duran song was just not a great choice. It's interesting, this week's show made me realize that the performers I root for are not usually the performers I'd actually listen to outside the show. They're the performers who I feel "deserve it" and that I feel personally connected to. I voted for Jessie even though I don't listen to her style of music and don't really know if she's a great example of it, because she seemed like a sweet person, and I voted for CWB because I think he deserves a career boost -- but I don't like country and would never go to one of his shows! And I found Sugar/Sophia off-putting and didn't vote for her -- even though I actually like her voice and think she'd put on an awesome live show. Yikes, I'm an easily manipulated Team Blake viewer... Hmmm...

Ryan and Jessie are not dating -- Jessie is actually dating John Martin, the other pretty-boy singer who was eliminated earlier. I thought the same. Elyjuh is so drama prone, I expected him to start crying immediately. Especially with all of the judges' praise of his performance. So I'm assuming they'll still work together. I was starting to really enjoy him and if he could work on his facial expressions, I could see him doing really well. I'm not surprised Pharrell kept Sugar over Elyjuh but I am disappointed. Sugar is talented, but there is absolutely no way she'll do well on the show. You can be amazing musically and not have the personality/style to move further in a competition like this. The fact that Pharrell couldn't recognize this lessens my admiration for him. If he had kept up with the underdog story for Elyjuh and Elyjuh had worked on his performance skills he could have gone far. I was more surprised by Gwen's pick of Ryan, actually, because I think she's pretty strategic and Bryana could have been a contender. (Also, doesn't she have a clothing line geared for teenage girls?) But Bryana was definitely unsteady, and Ryan has one of the strongest voices in the competition right now. It's just his performance style (and the horrible clothes they are putting him in) that needs work. I hope they can figure that out for next week. Adam may have thought that Taylor Phelan and Matt McAndrew were going to split the votes and chose to throw Taylor out when Matt was voted in. That was the biggest surprise of the night for me. I don't see Chris staying past next week.

Whoa, did anyone else see the pics of Josh Kaufman in Pippin? He looks completely different. That's astounding. Also, Playbill says Sasha Allen (from Season 4) is starring in the national tour of the show (completely different cast than the Broadway version). Theater success for all!

Honestly I doubt that it's anything on Rebekah's part specifically. The producers and editors of the show want an entertaining, lively show with a big mix of artists. In listening to her tracks on YouTube, she has a gorgeous voice but her somewhat folk/softspoken/melodic style was already represented on the show by Taylor Breshears/Jessie Pitts/Clara Hong/others. (Not saying she's not an excellent singer or that she's just like the singers I mentioned -- just that she is a specific "type" of artist.) If the show's producers knew that she wasn't going to make the Lives, and she didn't offer something off the beaten path as a "character" on the show (unique genre, personal sob story, signature look) they probably decided to use those extra minutes on the show to develop other characters and storylines. Anyway, I think coming off of the show with some professionally mixed recordings and introductions to a bunch of talented artists and a few superstars is pretty cool -- something that the thousands of people who audition and don't get picked would kill for.

I'm not super into any of the contestants at this point, although I loved Anita Antoinette's KO performance and am looking forward to her next songs. The one I'm most interested to watch (although is not necessarily my fave music-wise) is Ryan Sill. He's a freakin' awesome vocalist -- better than the other "pretty boys" that have been on the show in recent seasons -- but his personality and stage presence seem a little smarmy, like he's a Voice "teacher's pet". He comes across as a bit of a suck-up to Gwen, although that could be editing (and I can only imagine the verbal flubs I'd make if I were sleep deprived and followed around with a camera as I interacted with Gwen Stefani)! I'm interested to see if he can learn to have better stage presence and "let loose" a little when performing. If he could I think he'd be a bigger threat to some of the other more seasoned performers who bring more of a personality to the stage.

Good points @tmelange. I guess I expect better of Usher than I do of Chris Brown but you're right, they're competing for the same fans and Usher still wants to be seen as young and current. I just hope he comes out with a fast-paced hit at some point where I can listen to the lyrics without rolling my eyes. (Oh no, I sound so old!) And I think he's a great coach. I think the next season with him as a Voice coach will be interesting because he'll be REALLY wanting to win this time. He'll have more to lose if his contestants don't do well since there won't be the excuse of him just being "new".

So I'm a huge fan of Usher - as a musician, a dancer and as a coach on the Voice - but I'm turned off (no pun intended) by the blatant sexual content of his latest songs. That song he performed on The Voice live called "Good Kisser" where he has "lipstick on his leg"? It's a beautifully sung, well-choreographed ballad about... not mouth kissin'. I'm dating myself, but I miss the early Usher of "My Way" and "You Make Me Wanna." You can talk about love, romance and sex without sounding like you're a 13-year-old boy trying to impress his friends.

I could see Jacquie doing really well. She seems very intelligent and self-possessed and able to appeal to both teens her age and adults.

And we need a break from Adam. Please, Adam Levine, do something else. A season with Blake, Gwen Stefani, Pharrell, and ANYONE DIFFERENT. Please, Voice powers-that-be, give us a break!

Songs are definitely not blocked until the end of the show. I've purchased songs from iTunes hours before the show airs. One would think NBC would have people monitoring this.

I think Matthew just burned out. He was oversinging, then I think he may have gotten sick -- you could see how drastically different his performances were when he went from full energy to half energy. But I remember the week he was eliminated one of the issues was that he tweeted out the wrong hashtag to his supporters. So it may not have really been his time to go.

And just looked at iTunes... Christina at #7, followed by Kristen at #35 and Audra at #43. Kat at #51, Josh at #56, Jake #57. The others haven't cracked the top 100. Tess is at #215, way below everybody else.