S07.E25: Finale Wildcard

[Cramps]

Sugar's final wildcard performance of the Amy Winehouse song -- which it seemed Pharrell had nothing to do with-- was miles better than any of the songs she worked on with him.

[peachmangosteen]

I don't think Adam is as strategic as he's frequently given credit for on the internet.  He strikes me as a much more transparent player than practically anyone, to be honest.

 

I 100% agree. I think it's fairly obvious Adam is the least strategic, what with the Tony Lucca debacle and that whole thing where he said America's stupid or whatever. If that's him being strategic, then he's definitely terrible at strategy! To me it comes off like Adam says any and every thing that pops into his head. Maybe his ADD is to blame, I don't know, but it doesn't make him look good to me.

 

People's problem with him, IMO, is that he can be too honest. No, Blake or Usher would never say that. But they are both thinking it. 

 

Sometimes "I'm just honest" is more like "I'm just an asshole" and, for me, that's Adam. As for whether Blake or Usher or anyone was thinking it, I can't know, but hey, props to them for having the decency/maturity/whatever to understand you don't have to say every single thing you think all the time.

 

As for Blake, I think he is hands-down the most strategic/manipulative coach. Whereas Adam literally never thinks before he speaks, Blake never says anything he hasn't thought about for awhile first.

Edited December 12, 2014 by peachmangosteen

[realdancemom]

Blake doesn't help himself when it comes to getting non-country artists.  He mentions not knowing who Ellie Goulding is and states when he doesn't know songs.  However, if I was a country artist and Blake turned around for me, I would definitely choose him. 

 

I also agree that Blake is strategic and Usher picked up on that.  He mentioned that he was watching Blake to get pointers on how to win.  Also agree that Adam is transparent.

[Noreaster]

I was wondering if itunes could give us some clues on which finalists may have built up the biggest fanbase. It's not always reliable of course and there are many other ways of free voting. (And as someone else pointed out, there is no cumulative itunes vote in effect for the finale.) But it's the only data we have so here goes...for the four finalists + Taylor for good measure. 

 

Season 7 Itunes rankings, as of vote close
In order of Playoffs, Top 12, Top 10, Top 8, Top 5 [two songs]:

 

Craig:     59, 11, 6, 14, [2, 23]
Matt:       31, 5, 27, 2, [5, 15]
Damien: 40, 12, 59, 7, [26, 58]
Chris:    133, 24, 38, 12, [6, 10]
Taylor:    65, 34, 25, 6, [18, 27]

 

It looks like:

-Craig and Matt have been the most consistent top-sellers.

-Chris has the most upward momentum. (Taylor also had good momentum but faltered in the Top 5 week.) 
-Damien has charted high a couple of times, but overall has been an inconsistent itunes seller. 

 

Other things we know for certain:
-Damien, out of the four finalists, got the fewest votes in the Top 5 week. 
-Chris, out of the five semifinalists, got the fewest votes in the Top 8 week.
-Chris got less votes than Matt and Damien in the playoffs.

 

Possible conclusions:

-Craig and Matt may be regarded as the frontrunners.  

-Chris has good momentum so it's possible for him to pull off a win.  

-Damien is least likely to win, based on itunes and his last-place finish (out of the 4 finalists) in the semifinals..  

Edited December 13, 2014 by Noreaster

[Noreaster]

Much has been made about the performance orders over the past couple of weeks.  Here is that information, updated with the Top 5 show.  

 

Performance slots
(* signifies last slot, ^ signifies second-to-last)

 

In order of playoffs (10/night), Top 12, Top 10, Top 8, Top 5 [two songs]:

Craig:    10*, 10, 6, 2, [2, 8]
Matt:        5, 9,  1,  8*, [4, 7]
Damien:  9^, 4,  3,  4, [1, 6]
Chris:      2, 11^, 10*, 5, [5, 10*]
Taylor:  10*, 6, 9^, 7^, [3, 9^]

 

Looking at the data and combining it with the itunes data we have, it seems that:

 

-Taylor has consistently been given very late slots. Chris also to some extent. These two also have not been the strongest itunes sellers but have built up good itunes momentum over the weeks.  

-Damien has mostly been slotted in the first-half.  Though never the "worst" 1st or 2nd slots (that is, until the Top 5 week where it couldn't be helped).  Again, itunes has been mixed for him.  

-Craig and Matt, the better itunes sellers, have been given mixed performance slots. Of the two, Craig has had the better slots overall, especially early on.  

-This may or may not be meaningful.  If I remember correctly, Craig was showcased much more in the taped rounds, largely because he was part of two steals.  Matt was montaged in the knockouts, a disadvantage that doesn't seem to have hurt him so far.  

Edited December 13, 2014 by Noreaster

[DownTheShore]

I don't think Pharrell was into the game.  Even when Sugar and Luke were in the bottom, he basically said that he was going to help them anyway.  It's kind of hard to  have the urge to vote for them if you think that they will be o.k. since Pharrell was going to help them with their albums. 

 

This. 

 

It was clear, for example, that Elijah knew that if he got the boot, Pharrell would still be helping his career.  Otherwise he would have at least teared-up when he didn't get the vote - and he didn't.

 

Pharrell may not have anyone in the Finals, but he has managed to ingratiate himself with some new talent.  Perhaps that's partly what this was for him - a singer shopping expedition.

 

Although I'm very glad that Damien got the Wild Card vote and laughing hysterically over that, I think it's a shame that it was announced during the Today show instead of on The Voice.  I, as a viewer of The Voice, feel cheated by that because I don't watch the Today show.  Damien should have enjoyed his moment with the people who've been paying attention to him all season, not the viewers of a different show.

[Sile]

I thought that Pharrell would do much better job than he did, given that I think he's a brilliant producer and I've been a fan of his for years.  But it seems that once he got the high, hard one for Sugar he couldn't think about anything else.  He passed up better steals for her, eliminated better people on his team for her and pretty much spent every rehearsal week mooning over her.

 

Then, when he finally couldn't keep saving her and America gave her the boot, it seemed like he's just been going through the motions ever since.

 

I think he'll smarten up, regroup and be a different coach next season.  At least I hope so, because he's better than that.

Edited December 15, 2014 by Sile

[TwistedandBored]

This. 

 

It was clear, for example, that Elijah knew that if he got the boot, Pharrell would still be helping his career.  Otherwise he would have at least teared-up when he didn't get the vote - and he didn't.

 

Pharrell may not have anyone in the Finals, but he has managed to ingratiate himself with some new talent.  Perhaps that's partly what this was for him - a singer shopping expedition.

 

 

I thought from the beginning that was why Pharrell decided to be a coach because he was looking for singers for his label. It was confirmed when he told that girl Katriz Trinidad that he has been "scouring the internet looking for a singer like her." He must not liked her after working with her cause he booted her out. So, I believe Pharrell didn't come to win. He came to shop for singers. Winning would have been bonus thought. 

[viajero]

I'm very late with my comments this week as I was out of the country and only finally watched the episodes today.

 

Of the wild card performances, I thought Anita´s was the most entertaining, DaNica had the best vocals, while very surprisingly, Sugar gave the best all around performance.  I would have rated Damien´s performance as actually somewhat disappointing given the potential of that song and certainty no better than middle of the pack.  While I was figuring that one of the semifinalists would end up going through, I was kind of hoping it would be TJW because at least he changes stuff up and has done something interesting most weeks. So I was not really happy to see that Damien got the votes, particularly since I thought TJW had the better of the two wild card performances.

 

As for the final, I still think this is basically CWB's to lose.  As the only Blake and Country contestant left, I think he's perfectly positioned to take a plurality of the votes.  Personally I´d rather see Matt win, but its going to be tough with Chris and Damien both siphoning off portions of the the non-country vote.  I do think CWB has the best chance of a successful post-Voice career, though I personally am much more likely to be interested in the music that Matt, TJW and/or Reagan might put out.