S11.E24: Live Semifinal (Top 8) Results

[bluepiano]

Bullying has become the go-to sob story for everyone who doesn't have a physical disability they've overcome or a dying relative to garner sympathy. Not that bullying isn't a real thing which has led to actual suicides, but almost all kids experience other kids being mean to them at some point. That's what We's story sounds like. It certainly hasn't stopped her from having the confidence to perform, and as she goes to a special school for artistically oriented kids, I imagine she is something of a hero there these days. So her playing for sympathy really rubs me the wrong way.

I have noted before (and been criticized by her fans) for pointing out the times on this show when We forgot to speak in her breathy little girl voice. I think it was part of a cynical, calculated strategy to try to win this show. Ambitious young performers (and their ambitious parents or mentors) are notorious for feeling that the end justifies the means in the pursuit of success. So be it, but it certainly does not jibe with the "dedicated young artist" persona that she promotes for herself.

Win or lose, maybe she will be cast in a remake of "Fame."

Edited December 8, 2016 by bluepiano

[JMarie99]

Just have to chime in and say I really miss Idol. A lot. I'm sick of these coaches overpraising everyone. Pitch can be all over the place and they can totally screw up the lyrics and nobody says anything. Simon could be cruel but he has been gone a long time. Harry and Keith and even J-Lo offered constructive criticism. And I don't get why they are letting the final contestants go in batches. If this show is so damn popular why are they ending it so quickly? I still don't get the whole "team" thing and why that matters. I don't even keep track of who is on whose team. I couldn't care less. I'm just interested in the singers themselves. I do agree that it's great that they don't have an age limit. Idol ended up with too many teenagers. But other than that, I am enjoying The Voice but really miss Idol. I really hope it comes back someday. ☹️

[Noreaster]

Conference call with eliminated contestants:  http://starrymag.com/ali-caldwell-aaron-gibson-christian-cuevas-the-voice/

As far as song choice tidbits:

-Brendan said "Angel" was Adam's song choice but he was excited about it because they were hoping to recapture the success of "True Colors" from the prior week.  

-Ali said that "Sledgehammer" was actually a song that she had put on the top of her list to do for the regular performance shows.  She was a little upset when the producers chose it as her instant save song instead.

-Christian said that his instant save song was also on the top of his list for the regular performance shows.  

-Aaron said "Everything I Do, I Do it For You" was Miley's song choice and that he was happy to do it.  

[Noreaster]

2 hours ago, realdancemom said:

When talking about contestants with previous success, I found it interesting that Tim, Faith, and Garth met Billy before.  When they met, all three said something like nice to see you again.  I don't remember that with Alisan.  Although, Alisan was more an actress than a singer when she was younger.

Also, Alicia and Miley gave encouraging speeches to all three Twitter save contestants saying stuff like this isn't the end and you're already a success.  Adam gave his sales pitch by saying that Josh is different because he isn't a belter and doesn't need bells and whistles.  That's when Miley noticed and told Ali that she was a star.

I think most people in the country music industry would have remembered Billy Gilman.  His story was so unique with being a very young Grammy winner.  Also, his coming out of the closet was pretty newsworthy.  

I skipped all of the back stories in the blind auditions so I don't know if this was presented on TV, but based on some interviews, he had trouble re-entering the industry as an adult because of the rumors that he was gay. If true, it makes a lot of sense why he's trying to do pop music instead.  

Regarding the results episode, it sounds like Alicia and Miley didn't try to sell their own contestants at all?  

Edited December 9, 2016 by Noreaster

[bluepiano]

6 hours ago, JMarie99 said:

Just have to chime in and say I really miss Idol. A lot. I'm sick of these coaches overpraising everyone. Pitch can be all over the place and they can totally screw up the lyrics and nobody says anything. Simon could be cruel but he has been gone a long time. Harry and Keith and even J-Lo offered constructive criticism. And I don't get why they are letting the final contestants go in batches. If this show is so damn popular why are they ending it so quickly? I still don't get the whole "team" thing and why that matters. I don't even keep track of who is on whose team. I couldn't care less. I'm just interested in the singers themselves.

It does drive me nuts that The Voice coaches love and overpraise every performance. But on Idol it used to drive me nuts how inconsistent and biased the judges were with their criticism. Certain singers were considered fair game to criticize (their singing, their song choice, even their wardrobe), while the judge or producer pets could screw up and it wouldn't get mentioned. That's how the show tried to manipulate the voting. So I'm almost rather have everyone get praised, as boring as that is, than see some people singled out for criticism while others get a free pass. Or told how wonderfully they sang when everyone in America knows that's BS.

I agree with you that the format of this show makes no sense. It takes forever to go through all the blind auditions and battles and knock-outs, and when we're finally down to what are supposed to be the best eight singers, it's over in a flash. Blink and you missed it.

[Noreaster]

I don't mind the live rounds being this short.  Maybe another week or two would be better, but I usually find myself getting bored near the end.  Even in the higher-quality early seasons.  Also, ratings for the show are always highest in the blinds, then steadily fall as the season progresses.  

However, I do not like the current format with single eliminations, then a bloodbath in the semifinals.  I much prefer the older format with double eliminations, and then a single elimination towards the end (so for example, Top 12, Top 10, Top 8, Top 6, Top 4, then a final with Top 3).  This allowed the clear bottom few to be culled quickly.  Then we got to see the stronger remaining contestants do multiple solo performances, duets, and group performances.  I miss that.  

Edited December 9, 2016 by Noreaster

[realdancemom]

19 hours ago, Noreaster said:

I think most people in the country music industry would have remembered Billy Gilman.  His story was so unique with being a very young Grammy winner.  Also, his coming out of the closet was pretty newsworthy.  

I skipped all of the back stories in the blind auditions so I don't know if this was presented on TV, but based on some interviews, he had trouble re-entering the industry as an adult because of the rumors that he was gay. If true, it makes a lot of sense why he's trying to do pop music instead.  

Regarding the results episode, it sounds like Alicia and Miley didn't try to sell their own contestants at all?  

It's not just that the three mentors knew Billy, they also previously met him.  I figured it could be at the CMAs, Grammys, or other events like that.  So I think he was a bigger deal in the music industry than other contestants with previous experience.  However, he was really young and he's trying to do pop instead of country.

Alicia and Miley first gave praises to all the Twitter save contestants before saying nice things about their own contestant.  However, they weren't passively aggressively saying stuff about other coaches' contestants either. Alicia gave Ali a standing ovation after her Twitter performance.  The coaches are not required to be nice to other contestants.  I just think that's it's nice that through the whole season, it seemed like Alicia and Miley were really supportive of each other and their contestants.  Their steals mostly, if not all, came from the their teams.  Pharrell is another one that tried to help all contestants not just his own.   He was really supportive of Laith last season.    

[Noreaster]

I skip a lot of stuff these days.  The last season when I watched everything was season 7.  Since then, many times I just watch the performances on Youtube (so no back stories, no rehearsal footage, no post-performance coach commentary, and only sometimes the coach pitches).  I didn't even vote most episodes.  This season, I've been watching a little bit more because of the new coaches.  

[Noreaster]

34 minutes ago, realdancemom said:

Alicia and Miley first gave praises to all the Twitter save contestants before saying nice things about their own contestant.  However, they weren't passively aggressively saying stuff about other coaches' contestants either. Alicia gave Ali a standing ovation after her Twitter performance.  The coaches are not required to be nice to other contestants.  I just think that's it's nice that through the whole season, it seemed like Alicia and Miley were really supportive of each other and their contestants.  Their steals mostly, if not all, came from the their teams.  Pharrell is another one that tried to help all contestants not just his own.   He was really supportive of Laith last season.    

Adam is definitely more opinionated.  And when it comes to his own team, he is more salesman-like. He has also made positive comments on other contestants in the past.  He's more selective about it though, meaning he probably means it when he says it.  

I prefer to hear a coach's honest opinions instead of meaningless platitudes ala Pharrell/Alicia.  (For Laith specifically, I think Pharrell truly liked him and that's why he was so supportive.)

Edited December 9, 2016 by Noreaster

[realdancemom]

19 minutes ago, Noreaster said:

Adam is definitely more opinionated.  And when it comes to his own team, he is more salesman-like.  But he has voiced opinions on other contestants as well (especially when his own team isn't involved), but then, at least on these boards, some viewers say he's being "strategic".  Actually some have accused Adam of busing his own team.  But that's just the way it goes...

The argument about not needing "bells and whistles" by the way is one that Adam has employed in the past to describe his non-belters.  He could very well have used that for Brendan, and actually I think he preferred Brendan over Josh.  

Adam did say that Aaron was the best one last week.  But his team wasn't involved and he could have been trying to get rid of two of Blake's contestants.  Austin was a serious threat to Josh advancing.  Aaron was not a threat.

I preferred Brendan over Josh.  But Brendan did mess up Angel really badly.  It's too bad since True Colors was really good.

[Noreaster]

Fyi, I edited my prior post because upon re-reading, it felt like I was attacking other's opinions and I didn't mean that.

Agreed to disagree on Adam being strategic about the Aaron comment last week.  I think Adam just liked Aaron more but who knows.  

[adhoc]

As I said in a previous thread, it's possible that one reason coaches don't criticize the contestants outside of rehearsals is because they want to protect their own brand/product. Perhaps they think that if they come down too harshly on a contestant or two during the "lives", that will translate into a loss of fans/sales for their own stuff. It's safer to just be polite and say "good job".

Also, it's possible that during the live competition, a coach doesn't want to trigger "sympathy" voting for a contestant on another team by criticizing that contestant.

And finally, maybe The Voice just has a policy of "sportsman-like conduct," IOW "don't be mean like Simon Cowell".  

[Noreaster]

Sure, I understand why the coaches might not provide criticism.  But what do you think it means when a coach does provide an opinion?  

I mean, a lot of folks here have been complaining about the overpraising and I totally agree.  It's why I virtually stopped watching the post-performance feedback.  But then when a coach does openly support another contestant, it has to be strategic?  And when a coach tries to sell his own contestant in a twitter save, he's being passive aggressive toward the others?

[realdancemom]

1 hour ago, Noreaster said:

Fyi, I edited my prior post because upon re-reading, it felt like I was attacking other's opinions and I didn't mean that.

Agreed to disagree on Adam being strategic about the Aaron comment last week.  I think Adam just liked Aaron more but who knows.  

We don't have to disagree about Adam liking Aaron over the other two contestants.  That could be true.  I also preferred Aaron over Austin and Courtney.  I was just giving another scenario just in case Adam was being strategic.

25 minutes ago, Noreaster said:

Sure, I understand why the coaches might not provide criticism.  But what do you think it means when a coach does provide an opinion?  

I mean, a lot of folks here have been complaining about the overpraising and I totally agree.  It's why I virtually stopped watching the post-performance feedback.  But then when a coach does openly support another contestant, it has to be strategic?  And when a coach tries to sell his own contestant in a twitter save, he's being passive aggressive toward the others?

Of course, I expect the coaches to praise their own contestants during the Twitter save.  But they don't need to take a dig at the other team contestants at the same time.

[Noreaster]

Since I didn't watch the episode, I pulled it up to see what Adam said exactly.  He said that there were already powerhouses represented in the final and he felt there should be someone without bells and whistles as well and that would be Josh.  So to me, this doesn't sound like taking a dig at the others (because if so, that would basically be taking a dig at the already announced 3 finalists including Billy).   

[azshadowwalker]

Adam is a dick . I always assume his bullshit comments come down to that. He and Blake are why I watched the equivalent of 2-3 episodes this season, and have done so since the third or fourth season. So, yeah, there's no reason to say the others up for the save have too many "bells and whistles" except...he's a dick.