Noreaster

Came across this tidbit in an article about the new show Songland. Ryan Tedder mentions that he was asked if he wanted to fill Adam’s chair on The Voice when Adam was thinking about leaving the show a few years ago. https://variety.com/2019/music/news/songland-tv-ryan-tedder-shane-mcanally-ester-dean-1203226920/

Usher also performed a few seasons ago in a finale duet with Jordan Smith so I don't think it means anything. I think he probably just has an open invitation to come back and perform on the show whenever. Or maybe the show couldn't get enough celebrities this season and their backup options are former coaches like Usher and Cee Lo. Conference call transcript with Chris Blue: http://starrymag.com/chris-blue-the-voice/

They had plenty of current artists in the past and I liked them too. I also enjoyed the specific two that you mentioned this season (they were very good fits for the younger Aliyah and Mark). Just missing the couple or so where the older finalists got to sing with their idols or really big stars. Maybe the show just couldn't get them this year or the ones they got were for non-finalists hence the format for this finale. On a separate note, do you remember season 5 when Will Champlin's wife got pissed off and posted some really rude tweets about NBC or the producers during the finale? Tessanne got Celine Dion, Jacquie Lee got Paramour, and then Will got Aloe Blacc..... Clearly not someone on Will's wish list (though it was a very current, arguably overplayed, song).

That's true they had recent chart-toppers but what was missing for me was the interesting celebrities from past finalists' wish lists... like Kiss last season for Sundance Head, Celine Dion for Tessanne Chin, etc. Celebrities who were not just there to promote their latest singles. Those duets were more fun and felt like a reward for the finalists. Maybe the change has to do with money and cost-cutting? Does the show have to pay for these celebrities and not for those who have something to promote? I guess Gladys Knight was a good one this season and was possibly on TSoul's or Vanessa's wish list. But almost all the others had been on the show before and therefore didn't feel like contestant choices to me. I could be wrong of course.

Indifferent on the results. Thought this was a weak bunch overall. For the contestants' sake though, hopefully they can leverage this exposure and improve their careers. Not sure about Lauren getting radio play and all the supposed help from Blake...people seem to say that about many many country contestants but Blake's resources are limited and he can only do so much. For example, we haven't heard much from Adam Wakefield who only two seasons ago hit #1 on itunes with his original song on the show. For this episode, it felt very scaled back to me. It almost seemed like the show didn't put much effort in the celebrities this time around and the duet pairings were less interesting. Nothing against them but we've seen some of them before (Little Big Town, Rascal Flatts) while a few slots were also given to present/former/future coaches. I did enjoy seeing Usher a lot though. Also Chris Stapleton is great...I really do need to look up his music. And I wouldn't have expected a reggaeton number to open up the show...that was interesting. I miss the group bring backs. The finalists seem to be getting much less air time overall. It's cool that some of the other Top 12 contestants got to sing with celebrities but before it almost seemed like that was a prize exclusively for the finalists and now being a finalist is a little less special. I think Mark Isaiah got to sing almost as much as them between his instant-saves and the celebrity performance.

I think there is definitely a Blake factor when it comes to voting. He's a likable guy and he makes his contestants seem more likable. I suspect we wouldn't see so many comments this season about how adorable Aliyah is and how likable TSoul is if they were not on Blake's team. Then there is the country music factor. The genre has seen very strong support on this show since season 4 and is probably never going away. Christian music too has become a bigger presence in recent seasons because of strong viewer appetite. Just look at this season's finalists... last week, two performed Christian songs, one performed country, and then the fourth was sort of country (Jesse who did the Chris Stapleton songs). Actually it may be more accurate to put Jesse in the blues/soul/folk lane that we've seen more of recently... like Sawyer, Joshua Davis, Laith, etc. Adam Wakefield and Sundance Head probably belong in this category too instead of country. I think this season's finalists are a lot weaker than last season's. I didn't care for Sundance or Billy but they were really solid all around. Both were very good vocalists and experienced performers. We wasn't great because of her youth but I think she had some unique qualities that made her interesting (compared to Aliyah who is just too young to have much of an identity). Josh's performances were whatever to me but he seemed like he was delivering effective performances for his lane (I think this is the bro-country stuff?). Actually I was surprised that a country contestant could get to the finals on a non-Blake team (since the other coaches have so little country knowledge) but that showed me just how popular this genre is on this show. Lauren is very similar to Danielle Bradbery to me. If I were to just listen and not watch, I would enjoy them more. Very pretty tones but so little stage presence. Danielle was really young so her blank face and awkward movements were understandable. Lauren has better facial expressions but otherwise is just so wooden. And I have gotten so bored of her songs. Ballad after ballad after ballad. Perhaps if it was the earlier show format where the contestants sang multiple songs in episodes leading up to the final, we would see more variety and I could better appreciate her but under the current format, she is such a snooze. I can't imagine listening to a full album from her and I definitely don't see myself going to one of her concerts. I don't remember feeling this blah about previous country contestants. I guess my favorite this season is Jesse but his stage presence is not quite there. He comes across like what I would expect given his background... he's a guitarist transitioning to being the frontman. Thinking back a couple of seasons, I liked Laith's performances much more. He was a very experienced professional who was comfortable singing and playing the guitar at the same time. I felt very entertained by him even though I didn't think he had the best voice or anything. For Jesse, perhaps I would appreciate him more if we were able to see a few more performances. I actually think he was showing good growth and more confidence as the show went on. I never cared for Chris Blue. Decent vocals but his performance skills are not good enough for his song choices. I don't know his back story (I skipped a ton of stuff this season) but he comes across as relatively inexperienced to me. Like there needed to be more refinement to his moves because they seemed too forced and not seamless enough. Probably not a fair comparison but I think of how good Cody Belew was in season 3 when I felt thoroughly entertained. For this season, I would have preferred Vanessa as an entertainer instead of Chris. She was pretty solid overall though she also didn't end up as good as I hoped (not as good as Kimberly Nichole, Judith Hill, Amanda Brown).

Pretty blah finale. No real wow performances and a lot of boring ones. Lauren's and Jesse's original songs were decent. I liked the guitar solos in the Jesse/Adam duet. Chris's cover seemed to be the right way to end the show as it was the most upbeat but it still felt lacking to me. Aliyah just showed tonight how she didn't really belong in the finals at all. Very high school talent show. I wish Vanessa or Hunter was there instead.

I'll have to look up Chris Stapleton's stuff. Also randomly, I recently started listening to Sturgill Simpson because my local PBS station was playing one of his concerts. I thought this music was more in the Americana category (which I know I like) but it seems to be classified as country.

Conference call with eliminated contestants: http://starrymag.com/brennley-brown-tsoul-vanessa-ferguson-hunter-plake-the-voice/

Based on a few different contestant interviews, it doesn't seem like the coaches are involved in the save songs. Jeffery Austin said that for his season, the contestants had to choose from a list and then lock down their instant save songs at the Top 24 stage. I thought all three instant save performances were pretty good this week. Actually liked Jesse's the least as I just don't care for country. But obviously on this show, a significant number of viewers do. Would Jesse's I Was Wrong song on Monday be considered country? I looked it up and it's by Chris Stapleton who's a country artist. If so, that's the type of country music I like. So just randomly, in case people here might appreciate, I was in Trader Joe's recently and heard a bluegrass version of Purple Rain which I thought was really cool. Looked it up online later and it seems to be by Dwight Yoakum. Reminded me of the country guy who flipped the Cher song in this year's blind auditions.

In Lyndsey Parker's The Day After weekly chat with Jeffery Austin (season 9 finalist), she sounds more calm and they kind of put to rest some of the conspiracy theories. Jeffery provided some insight on the song choice process and how he believes the producers really do try to help the contestants do their best on the show. I think it's worth a listen (at least the first 10 minutes or so) if you're interested in the behind-the-scenes stuff.

Are you talking about vote-splitting? If so, I don't think it's a big factor. There have been way too many 3-person saves where two contestants are from the same team and one of them gets the save. Yeah, it's always kind of hard to say. No vote transparency so we're always guessing and itunes has proven to be wrong enough times. I remember Amy Vachal in season 9 who did very well in itunes all season long (including several top 10s) and she ended up getting instantly eliminated in the bloodbath and couldn't even sing for the save. I get the sense that the indie artists and songs that are "flipped" tend to sell well but may not necessarily be getting a lot of votes. Perhaps the same thing with Hunter?

I didn't watch it. But what I meant was he likely wasn't deliberately feeding bad info especially on things that could be fact-checked. I think his narrative/argument all season was how Jesse was going to be the first 1-chair turn to win. So this just seemed to be a continuation of that which turned out to not be completely accurate.

It doesn't really matter but for Nicholas David, two coaches' teams were already full by the time of his audition. It seemed like Adam just misspoke anyway. I usually like reading Lyndsey Parker's recaps as she's pretty knowledgeable about the show and the music industry. But this one read more like a crazed fan with all the conspiracy theories. I guess she was really upset with the results.

The show hasn't posted all the instant-save videos yet so no comment on the performances. I'm bummed that Vanessa didn't at least get a chance to sing for the save. Glad that Jesse got through. His winning margin looked huge. Really wish that Aliyah didn't make it. Maybe another couple of years with some more age-appropriate songs (and preferably no religious ones) and I would appreciate her more. Being cute and adorable doesn't cut it for me. I wish there was room for Hunter. I didn't care for him every week but I think he would have made the finale more interesting.