Past Contestants, Future Stars

[viajero]

The video is out for Jordan's single.  Reminds me a bit of Ed Sheeran's Thinking Out Loud video, except that fortunately they didn't try to have Jordan do any of the dancing himself.

 

[viajero]

Melanie Martinez has released her latest music video, this time for the title track (and one of my favorite songs) from her album.  It surpassed 1 million views in less than 24 hours, which is something you usually only see with established pop stars. 

 

As usual for Melanie, she directed the video herself and its is not for the squeamish.  The way these videos are fitting together, they are going to end up telling a story by the time she's done (if watched in the same order the songs appear on the album). 

 

[PhD-Purgatory15]

 

Anyone needing an APB on Cassaddee, look no farther. This duet with her tour mate is up there on a number of Country music (and music video) charts at the moment. The fact that Chris Young who is in that top tier (or just off) of male country stars thinks highly enough of her voice to include her on this duet has to give her a little juice, which is much needed since the first single off of her second CD didn't make much of an impact on those same charts...

 

It's striking how much more mature she looks these days too...

[viajero]

As far as collaborations go, Jacquie Lee provided the vocals on this song.  Though she doesn't appear in the video (which just dropped this week), I think it shows that her voice is well suited to EDM.

 

[photo fox]

Anyone needing an APB on Cassaddee, look no farther. This duet with her tour mate is up there on a number of Country music (and music video) charts at the moment. The fact that Chris Young who is in that top tier (or just off) of male country stars thinks highly enough of her voice to include her on this duet has to give her a little juice, which is much needed since the first single off of her second CD didn't make much of an impact on those same charts...

 

I've heard he brings her out during his set to do this song, which is nice exposure.

 

CY is himself a reality show winner (Nashville Star), so it's nice seeing him "pay it forward" this way.  And I really like the song!  I would guess they'll get nominated for various "vocal event" industry awards, especially as there isn't a ton of competition in those categories.

[PhD-Purgatory15]

Just saw where they were added to the performers list for the upcoming ACM Awards (April 3rd). That will be some nice national exposure...

[amaranta]

Jordan has the best selling debut of any Voice winner.   I am actually a bit surprised.  I would not have predicted him to be the one to have the success story.

 

ETA:  Looks like he has a shot of staying in the top ten this week.  Jordan's not really my taste in music, but good for him and congratulations.

Edited April 1, 2016 by amaranta

[PhD-Purgatory15]

Thought Cassadee acquitted herself nicely on the ACM duet she did with Chris Young tonight. She looked a little nervous at the start though.

Then out of nowhere, during Little Big Town's performance with Trombone Shorty...they cut to the audience to see two familiar Voice faces, Colton Swon and Caroline Glaser. After twitter fishing a bit, it appears that the duo are romantically involved and Caroline has a new single out called "Drive". A full length album will follow in June. She also seems enmeshed into the Nashville scene with a couple performances at the pretty noteworthy, 3rd & Lindsley venue.

 

 

The more I look at her twitter, and official website.....it does look like this is a self-funded/DYI/Independent project. Couldn't see any evidence of major label support. And the song is still in her "female Jack Johnson" style so I'm not sure she can "go country" even with the Swon Bros and Nashville connections...

 

Also nice to see the Swon Bros have a pretty good gig as an opening act on Carrie Underwood's tour. That's one that a whole bunch of country acts would love to have.

Edited April 4, 2016 by PhD-Purgatory15

[jjjmoss]

Voice turned Idol contestant MacKenzie Bourg is T10 on iTunes even though he finished 4th. Relatively impressive. 

[viajero]

I really like this new single just released by Sawyer.  It gives me hope for his album.

[Kromm]

On 3/15/2016 at 8:49 PM, viajero said:

Melanie Martinez has released her latest music video, this time for the title track (and one of my favorite songs) from her album.  It surpassed 1 million views in less than 24 hours, which is something you usually only see with established pop stars. 

 

As usual for Melanie, she directed the video herself and its is not for the squeamish.  The way these videos are fitting together, they are going to end up telling a story by the time she's done (if watched in the same order the songs appear on the album). 

 

 

 

Yeah, I made a big long response to someone in the "Winners" thread who was posting about her there (maybe not aware she left fairly early? Mid-season, right?) That didn't keep me from over-responding with a huge career dump on her there though....

She kind of did more successfully what Dia Frampton tried... carved out a successful Indie Music path after the show.  And her label seems really behind her. Those videos of hers aren't cheap, and she's done them for most of the songs on that album by now.

 

She's the one case where that "you're an artist!" B.S. the coaches do actually turned out to be totally true. 

[simplyme]

13 hours ago, Kromm said:

Yeah, I made a big long response to someone in the "Winners" thread who was posting about her there (maybe not aware she left fairly early? Mid-season, right?) That didn't keep me from over-responding with a huge career dump on her there though....

She made the top six before being eliminated, which was just before the semifinals that year. (They went from 6 to 4 to 3.)

Also, your career dump on her was awesome. Thank you!  Loved the Teens React video.

13 hours ago, Kromm said:

She's the one case where that "you're an artist!" B.S. the coaches do actually turned out to be totally true. 

I don't think it's necessarily bs, just that some people are in differing stages of exploring and figuring out how that works.  Melanie is incredibly talented and farther along in that process than most people her age.

Aaaaand, yeah, sometimes it is BS. :)  

Edited June 1, 2016 by simplyme
Added reaction to Kromm's career dump on MM

[viajero]

Melanie's latest music video came out today.  That makes it 8 down and 5 to go.  I guess it makes sense that she's left the last 5 songs on the album for last, but I'm getting impatient to see the videos for Mad Hatter and Tag You're It, which are two of my favorites.

 

Edited June 2, 2016 by viajero

[Kromm]

I'm curious where Melanie goes from here. She's got to already be writing songs for a new album, and I think it's safe to assume the concept and cast of characters has to be totally different. 

 

Wow. This, from a few months ago, shows her being really noncommittal about Adam and the show. The annoying perky radio host tries to start the interview there, but Melanie just kind of blows past it.

Edited June 3, 2016 by Kromm

[viajero]

Melanie has never sounded all that enthusiastic talking about The Voice in her interviews, which may be one of the reasons they have never asked her back despite her relatively high level of post-show success.  Early on she talked a lot about the need to break away from what she did on the show so as to establish her artistic identify.  But it is true that more recently she has sounded a bit more positive about her time on The Voice.

[jjjmoss]

The show also very predominantly invites people back who made the finales. 

And the last 2 seasons there were only 2 returnees each - Jordan/Sawyer, Sawyer/Cassadee.

[dcinmb]

Judith Hill (Season 4): I Was on That Fateful Flight With Prince: A Protégée Tells Her Story (NYT)

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/22/arts/music/prince-death-judith-hill-plane.html?_r=0

[Noreaster]

The NYT interview with Judith Hill was a good read.  I knew that she worked with him at one point but didn't realize how close she actually was to him. There was some pretty heartbreaking stuff on her social media a few weeks ago and now it all makes sense.  

I made a mistake of looking at some of the reader comments on that NYT article and man, are there some majorly judgmental folks out there.  Some are accusing Judith of doing the interview solely for promotional purposes.  I imagine the timing of the interview is purposeful (she just began touring yesterday), but from a PR perspective, it makes sense for her to get the story out ahead of people speculating about her relationship with Prince.  People were bound to ask her questions.  

On a separate note, I remember this board was speculating how The Voice was going to recognize Prince's death.  In my opinion, the show did it in a really classy way.  Just the coaches offering their personal thoughts.  

[Noreaster]

The NY Times posted a podcast with the reporter of that Judith Hill interview.  It largely recaps the written article but also contains a few additional tidbits.  Apparently the reporter's editor found out that Judith was close to Prince and pursued her for the interview.  Then it took a long time before Judith was comfortable to talk.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/24/arts/music/prince-judith-hill-plane-popcast.html

[viajero]

Sadly this is the likely future of most Voice contestants - even finalists like Dia.

http://www.ew.com/article/2016/08/31/dia-frampton-essay

[jjjmoss]

Yeah, maybe 8 other contestants' albums charted higher than hers (4 of them Blake country people) so you'd think she'd be one of the bigger ones now. 

Edited September 1, 2016 by jjjmoss

[Padma]

That's a sad article about Dia, esp. sad because its not just about her, it's true about the ageism for women in the music business at 29.  Maybe Blake will see it and do something for her.

And on the bright side, at least she's a songwriter. If she can get a break there, the age won't matter and it can even be a backdoor to performing.

[PhD-Purgatory15]

Morgan Wallen, who had a brief run on S6 w/ Usher and Adam (after a steal) is starting to get a bit of airplay in country music with this new song:

How to put it tastefully....he appears to have received some sort of vocal transplant from the way he was singing in his Voice blind audition days:

Edited September 19, 2016 by PhD-Purgatory15

[viajero]

Melanie Martinez has outdone herself, as the latest music video from her Crybaby album racked up over 3 million views in less that 24 hours.  What makes this somewhat surprising is that the video if for the song Mrs. Potato Head and is a biting rather gruesome and hard to watch critique of plastic surgery.  Not at all the usual fluff that racks up millions of views on release.

[jjjmoss]

Hmm, Grace VanderWaal is expected to open with 50-60k copies this week; after Pentatonix and Jackie Evancho, The Voice despite being the biggest hit is looking like the least of the NBC singing shows in terms of cranking out people who can sell.

[viajero]

Jacquie Lee has released the first single from her new upcoming album with Atlantic Records and it's a tribute to Christina Grimmie and all the other greats who passed away this year.

[Bunty]

Jordan Smith sings Christmas Song "You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch" Live.

CMA Country Christmas Music

[SnarkyTart]

On ‎1‎/‎3‎/‎2017 at 4:34 PM, Bunty said:

Jordan Smith sings Christmas Song "You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch" Live.

CMA Country Christmas Music

Thanks for posting this, Bunty.  I found it oddly enjoyable. 

[Michel]

Austin Allsup's father has died.

Condolences to the family.

[PhD-Purgatory15]

I'm a sporadic Fallon viewer at best, but I typically binge a few youtube videos of his periodically. So consider my surprise when I saw Amy Vachal from Team Adam a few season back show up in a "Battle of the Instant Songwriters" from the episode that must have aired on either March 27th or 28th.

[Vyk]

Two months ago, Meghan Linsey was bitten in her sleep by a huge brown recluse that left a gaping hole in her face.

Glad she's okay.

[SunnyBeBe]

I was happy to see this article on Sawyer Fredricks.  I really liked that guy.  At the time, he was the youngest winner of The Voice.

 

http://gazettereview.com/2017/03/happened-sawyer-fredericks-news-updates/

[SunnyBeBe]

Sundance seems to have a lot lined up.  He'll be opening for Blake on a number of shows. That has to be great experience and exposure.  

 

https://www.bustle.com/p/what-is-sundance-head-doing-now-the-voice-season-11-winner-has-a-lot-planned-for-the-year-41028

[Nalan]

Deanna Johnson (season eight, Team Adam, eliminated in ninth place over boring, dull-as-watching-paint-dry Joshua Davis) was in the Miss USA pageant last night.  She didn't even make the top ten, though.

https://www.missuniverse.com/missusa/contestant/1000042

Edited May 15, 2017 by Nalan

[chocobot]

on s6, contestant Stevie Jo was told he "sounds like usher but looks like blake." Can anyone here recall other eg's of contestants who shocked coaches because they were a different race/ethnicity than assumed??

http://www.realitytvworld.com/news/the-voice-one-contestant-sounds-like-usher-but-looks-like-blake-shelton-another-singer-sets-off-fireworks-16003.php

[Star Aristille]

Season eleven's Michael Sanchez immediately comes to mind, because Adam, not at all demonstrating good decorum, outright told him he expected him to be a sixty-plus-year-old black man when he did his "Use Me" Blind.  In reality, Michael was a young Hispanic man.

[chocobot]

thanks!

[Star Aristille]

Per his Facebook, Christian Cuevas (Team Alicia) from season eleven got married!  Congratulations to the happy couple!

Edited August 16, 2017 by Star Aristille

[viajero]

Melanie Martinez has finally completed the series of videos from her first album.  It took her two years, but she did complete the story by making a video for every song.  Mad Hatter is just as crazy and disturbing as most of the previous videos:

 

 

If you want to watch the entire series of videos in the order of the story, then here is a list:

1. Cry Baby

2. Dollhouse

3. Sippy Cup

4. Carousel

5. Alphabet Boy

6. Soap / Training Wheels

7. Pity Party

8. Tag, You're It / Milk and Cookies

9. Pacify Her

10. Mrs. Potato Head

11. Mad Hatter

The video series has been remarkably successful with over 500 million cumulative views on YouTube.  The album was equally successful, reaching platinum in the US (as did a couple of singles off the album, while a third single went gold).  I suspect this makes her the most successful Voice alumni. 

[viajero]

Meghan Linsey in the news.  It was fairly courageous given that she's a country singer.

https://www.yahoo.com/music/national-anthem-singer-meghan-linsey-decision-take-knee-absolutely-terrified-032030972.html

[Star Aristille]

5 hours ago, viajero said:

Meghan Linsey in the news.  It was fairly courageous given that she's a country singer.

https://www.yahoo.com/music/national-anthem-singer-meghan-linsey-decision-take-knee-absolutely-terrified-032030972.html

I don't know.  The reactions in the comments tells me that that was a very bad idea.

[TheGreenKnight]

Well, being a woman in country, she didn't have much chance at success either way. Not much risked there. 

[viajero]

I really don't know what to think about this.  Whatever actually happened, it sounds like the very definition of a toxic relationship.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/melanie-martinez-accused-sexual-assault-080129312.html

[viajero]

Loren Allred from Season 3 has just broken into the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time with her single "Never Enough" from the hit musical The Greatest Showman.  It's also reached #1 on Spotify's US and Global viral charts.  Loren provides the singing voice for actress Rebecca Fergerson (Jenny Lind) in the movie.

For those who don't remember her, Loren was on Team Adam and pulled off a stunning upset in the knockout round by beating 4-chair turn and early favorite Nicole Nelson.  Loren did a superb version of "You Know I'm No Good" that turned out to be one of the best performances of the season.  Unfortunately, Adam gave her a real stinker of a song for the playoffs and she was promptly eliminated.

 

[viajero]

For those who don't remember or didn't watch Season 3, here is Loren Allred's knockout round performance:

[viajero]

Madilyn Paige from Season 6 is featured on a music video that is currently trending on YouTube.  It's a duet with David Archuleta (of Idol fame).  I take it that she regularly opens for him on tour and that's how they came up with the song.  I remember liking Madilyn early on that season, but she turned out to be a classic case of one of those young teens who should have waited a couple of more years before going on the show.

 

Probably her most memorable moment on The Voice was this battle with Tanner James, which may just be the cutest performance in the history of the show.  The fact that they were both from the same high school in Utah had people shipping them hard.

Edited January 27, 2018 by viajero

[TheGreenKnight]

I bought that album by David Archuleta. I liked the track, but I had no idea who Madilyn Paige was. Is this the first duet between a Voice contestant and an Idol contestant?

[viajero]

Taylor John Williams is one of those past contestants whom I liked when he was on the show (Season 7), but kind of forgot about afterwards.  Well, it seems he's competing on the current season of Idol and found love and a singing partner in the process.

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/relationships/a19596510/american-idol-amelia-hammer-harris-taylor-williams-dating/

[viajero]

Voice Season 1 finalist Vicci Martinez has a major role on the latest season of Orange is the New Black.  She plays a pimp named Daddy and is quite good at the role, particularly given the lack of previous acting experience.

Warning:  This video of highlights from the show is definitely NSFW.

Edited August 3, 2018 by viajero

[Cinephile54]

Emily Luther might have a little bit to reveal. I think there was some beef between her and Charlie Puth.  Whenever Puth is asked about her, he gets a little uncomfortable.