S06.E18: The Playoffs (part 2)

[photo fox]

The top vocalists perform when the playoff round continues.

[leighdear]

I swear that Kristin Merlin looks like the short, blonde and female twin sister of Scotty McCreery. 

Seriously, look at photos of them both.

[netlyon2]

I swear that Kristin Merlin looks like the short, blonde and female twin sister of Scotty McCreery.

 

Ha, leighdear!  She kept giving me Helen Slater in "The Legend of Billie Jean" (post-makeover, of course).  Perhaps a blend of the two?

I guess I really enjoyed tonight's show since I scampered over to iTunes and purchased several songs:

- "Edge of Glory":  This is the closest I've come to owning a Lady Gaga song, but I dug what Dani did with it. 

- "Open Arms" and "Gold Dust Woman":  Not only did I pick up Kat's song from tonight, I was reminded how much I liked her blind audition and grabbed that, too.

- "I Won't Give Up":  Well, Grimmie finally showed up!  I'm happy to support her for her music as well as for her being on Team Pants.

 

My "Voices" playlist is up to 87 songs (including favorite songs from coaches and mentors).  It's an interesting time capsule of the show and its wide-ranging diversity really shows why I keep watching.  I'm looking forward to seeing what Team Usher will bring to the party tomorrow night.

[ToxicUnicorn]

I still don't remember who everyone is.  I keep having to consult the official webpage.

I'm glad Kristen made it through on Shakira's team.  I liked her a lot.  She had a lot of charisma.

The only ones I heard on Adam's team were Kat and Christie, and they definitely were good enough to move on.  

I'll wait to read what others say before I decide if I should go back and listen to the others.

[Lily Adler]

So I'm on Team Dani right now.

[awkward1penguin]

I thought both judges made the right choices, based on the performances. 

Dani needed a fantastic performance to make it to the lives - the judges said she was basically fodder until she came out with that performance. It was beautifully sung, and gorgeously emoted. If she can perform that way consistently, she could be a dark horse. 

Patrick and Deja were fine, but did not compare to Tess, Dani or Kristen at all. I wonder how Shakira's Top 5 would have been with Ddendyl and Clarissa (even though I agreed with their eliminations). 

I actually thought Kat did better than Christina, but that's because I prefer Kat's voice. Christina is a good performer and has a good voice, but I don't see much nuance or subtlety in her performances. 

[cosmic1]

I was impressed with everyone last night. I wished that all of Shakiras team could have stayed. I was happy they finally were able to pick their own songs.

[SunnyBeBe]

I wasn't a Kat fan until last night.  She sounded great and her image update was impressive. She was giving off quite a mature vibe before, but her do- over looked good.  She sounded great too.  I preferred her over Christine.  

Still my favorites were Shakira's team.  Loved Kristin and Dani.  I think they were the only two that the other judges told Shakira that HAVE to progress. I agree.

Lots of powerful female voices this season. 

[picklesprite]

I thought everybody did well last night, but that the ones who were picked were pretty clearly better. To a person,they came across to me as more being polished, showing more personality, and connecting more powerfully with their songs. Really enjoyable show. Praise to all.

Kristin's my pony right now, because she's adorable and brought such fun energy to her performance. Great to watch. I hestitate to compare her to Michelle Chamuel, but I do see some similarities in the conviction they bring, the way they can capture a room, and in the interesting qualities of their voices. I have no idea what either of them is like in real life, but on the stage, they both seem so lovable.

I'm most curious to see how Cristina does in the voting and whether her internet fan base will swing this thing for her.

The ones last night all seem to have found the right coaches for them. Shakira's doing really good work this time, imo, but really, the others are, too.

I love this season so far.

[no1skittishkitten]

I'm pleased with Shakira's choices. I think she potentially has the strongest overall team.

As far as Christina Grimmie goes...there's just something about her I can't connect with. She's pretty and sings very well, but I just don't connect to her. I know she said she was singing that song for her mother, but I didn't sense any emotional connection to it. Not compared to, say, Dani. I also get the impression she thinks she has this won already, which may be me misreading her, but, either way, it's a turnoff.

[ToxicUnicorn]

Based on the posts here, I watched the whole show and didn't regret it a bit... so many strong performances.  Kristin was great, she might be my favorite country singer this season.  I liked her version much better than Carrie Underwood's.  Tess' song and motivation struck me as a little melodramatic, but I didn't doubt it was real for her, so good for her.  Dani's performance of Edge of Glory was so powerful that I, too, got caught up in it.  However, at the end I wondered if she had been acting.  She switched to a smile so quickly that I almost felt I'd been manipulated.  But, it was good in the moment, and I guess that's what counts.

Have to agree Shakira made all the right choices.  She ended up with a lot of girl power.  I like that each one of them could still surprise us.  One of the things I didn't like about Tessanne's singing was that she never brought any surprises.  I'm really glad she didn't stick with Patrick because I didn't think he had any surprises in him either.

Usher won the night for me as a judge.  I thought his comment to Dani (almost moved to tears, or some such) was the best compliment ever.  Blake was pretty nice to Morgan, with his Travis Tritt type comments, too.  

Adam's team: Delvin impressed me for the first time, maybe he should have won that battle against Josh K after all.  I thought Adam was crazy at the time.  For me, Kat was the best of the night.  I might be biased ... Journey songs make me irrationally happy, but still she sang that song really, really well.  Christina was so good on the softer parts of her song but, on second listen, I think she failed to pull off the big parts.  To me, she is the weakest singer to survive on Team Adam, and I was surprised Adam chose her first.  Good team, though.

I wouldn't mind seeing a spin off of the Voice where some of the eliminated contestants continue to get coached.  Both Jake and Morgan on Team Adam have potential and I would be interested in watching them improve - just, not on this show.  

[Joystickenvy]

Kristen was my favorite of the bunch and glad to see her getting some love here. Hope she gets the voters attention also.

Agreed with the judges choices in terms of who was the best, but probably would have selected boy rocker over church singer just because I like his tone and I find church singer boring. Church singer probably has the best chops of Adam's team, but inserting runs that don't enhance the song or make any real musical sense is a pet peeve of mine and he does it A LOT.

I liked Grimmie more than most here seem to. She isn't the best singer on the show, but I think her sound is the most current of the front runners. So relieved Jake was not selected. He's not even an Adam Levine, let alone a Justin Timberlake.

Dani was the biggest surprise of the night for me. I was expecting gravel voice guy to get the third spot and then she nailed it.

[kj4ever]

I fell asleep during Team Adam, so that can't be a good sign. I am shocked that most of my favorites are on Team Shakira. Dani made me a fan for sure. I'm usually not a huge woman power vocal fan, but Dani, Tess, and the country chick that kept getting montaged are some of my favorites this year. Granted they were picking their own songs and I'm terrified to see what Shakira gives them. Her track record is so not good and I'm afraid she's going to jack them up.

I kind of fast forwarded through Team Adam once I woke up, and while I think he made the right choices his team is total meh except for Kat. I didn't think she was nearly as great as the coaches did, but she sang Steve Perry so there you go. For me if they don't sing it better or change it to be more of their song it just doesn't get me. The Grimmie Disney chick just bugs. She can hit notes for sure, but it's like there is nothing there. It's like the difference between looking at beautiful blue eyes in a live person and that same color with the blank stare of a dead person. I'm not a psycho (mostly) I swear, but that's the only way I can think to describe it. Devlin was good, but just not my cup of tea.

[jhlipton]

This is the point where we go from who has the best voice to who can win the votes.  So Nasal Screech will carry the day of good singers.

One contestant (I lose interest in their names at this point -- it was the piano girl) was not "flawless".  Sorry, but at this stage of the competition, if you still let nerves get the better of you, you should be out the door.

I didn't watch the live shows last season, and probably won't this season.

[Padma]

I'm curious why they montaged Kristen so much. She certainly did well this week when she was singing her own song. I imagine its because the duets bombed for some reason, but I think it's a big disadvantage for her going into the lives because I think she has enough going for her to go far--if people were already rooting for her. When you haven't seen her since the auditions, not so much.

I'm glad to see Shakira has a competitive team after all with Kristen, Dani (who could be the dark horse in the competition, I agree) and Tess who I think of as very pretty but generic singing-wise, but none of that means she won't go far.

Oddly, while I like Devlin and Kat a lot, I don't see either of them winning (or even reaching top 4) and I think Adam has the weakest, least competitive, team. Usher has Josh, who should go far if he gets good songs and doesn't oversing (I think Usher likes oversinging so I worry about that). Still rooting for Jake W on Blake's team, too, and the one who's name I can't remember (not Audra, lol, "the other one".)

I love that it's so even going into the lives. Even one's who -I- don't think have a chance could conceivably win it. And even though I think Adam's team is the weakest, it--like the others--has a nice balance of genres and its possible something could catch with any of them and take them to the top, too.

I like that its so wide open this season. Anybody's game.

[aradia22]

No question about it, Shakira went into the Playoffs with the weakest team. I don't care how many times she and the other coaches denied it. Tess for me, was the only totally solid one. Everyone else had problems during their Playoff performances. Dani surprised me. She's always been Shakira's pet and I'm still mad that Deshawn got eliminated instead of her but she did really well during that performance. Is it the best version of Edge of Glory I've heard on a reality singing competition? I don't even know anymore. People need to stop choosing this song. But I enjoyed it more than I've enjoyed her other performances. It would have been more interesting to have someone like Ddendyl still on Shakira's team and yet this is somehow better than Christina usually does so... yay?

 

I love Delvin's voice. I will look him up after the show. That's how much I like him. I don't even follow the people who win. Just the ones whose voices I really respond to.

 

Before his performance in the Playoffs, I thought of Jake as a version of Justin Timberlake. Not that I loved his voice but I could tolerate it. I think it was a mistake to go with She Will Be Loved. He needed the softness of the R&B-ish songs he started off with. This song exposed the weaknesses of his voice and gave her voice a sharper, harder edge that made it less pleasant. Also, I found his backstory about "never being onstage" increasingly underwhelming. It's not like you've never sung before. 

 

Kat has been good but not special to me before this performance. Her voice didn't grab me as being that unique. I do kind of hate how they made her up to look like a Real Housewife or that woman who does the Millionaire Matchmaker thing. Anyway, I still didn't find her voice that unique but it was nice to see hear her on her own because I think her voice lends itself too well to collaboration which is why it was getting lost in the previous rounds. Also, I'm glad she picked a song where she didn't have to hold back because it helped keep me a little more engaged (even if it made me a little sleepy because I associate that song with listening to the radio late at night).

 

I find Morgan really likable. Look, it was clearly not perfect but he's like a puppy that you just want to hang around to be the mascot if nothing else. It was very shaky and went flat a lot. There were some nice moments but it mainly sounded like vocal damage. 

 

I have found Christina very... shrieky from the beginning of the competition. But I think she started off in a a very pretty way. When she got to that sort of breakdown portion I found her voice very weak. I don't know if it was all the words or if she just only has that power in her upper register when she's screaming but it was not impressive.

 

For Adam, I think there was no question about his decisions. He had to pick Delvin. He's so good. And he had to pick Christina. They've been pushing her like crazy and she already has a fanbase. That leaves one more choice and Morgan and Jake, while they'd had their moments, are too weak, making Kat a solid, safe third choice.