The Voice – Battle Rounds Week 2

Week two of the battle rounds have come to an end.  It looks like there will be just one more week of battles before we move on to the next round.  Although with the steals, I’m not entirely clear on what that will be.   They dragged some battles out again (I feel like Team Blake gets more airtime than any other team) and then gave us some really quick battles again.  You’d think I would have been more prepared since they sprung it on me last week too – but nope, missed out on picking a winner again.   (And a note… next weeks post may not come on Saturday, I’ll be on vacation but will catch up with the show and post ASAP when I return!)

Team Blake

“Conga”
Julio vs Terisa
My Pick: Terisa
Blakes Pick:  Julio

(CeeLo steals Terisa!)

Team Christina

“Just The Way You Are”
Dez vs Paulina
My Pick: Dez
Christina’s Pick: Dez

Team Adam

“You Give Love a Bad Name”
Benji vs Sam
My Pick: Benji
Adams Pick: Sam

Team CeeLo

“She’s Gone”
Nicholas vs Todd
My Pick: Nicholas
CeeLo’s Pick:  Nicholas

Team Blake

“Dog Days Are Over”
Lelia vs Suzanna
My Pick: Suzanna
Blake’s Pick: Suzanna

Team Christina

“Best Thing I Never Had”
Joselyn vs Sylvia
My Pick: Joselyn
Christina’s Pick: Sylvia

(Joselyn joins Team Adam with the steal!)

Team Blake

“Baggage Claim”
Liz vs Nicole
My Pick: Nicole
Blakes Pick: Liz

Team Adam

“Wide Awake”
Alessandra vs Kayla
My Pick: Kayla
Adams Pick: Kayla

(Christina steals Alessandra!)

Then we got another speed round… Which I wasn’t quite ready for (again!)

Team CeeLo

Mycle vs Ben
MY Pick: too quick!!!
CeeLos Pick: Mycle

Team Adam

Adanna vs Michelle
My Pick: Adanna
Adams Pick: Michelle

Team Christina

Beat Frequency vs Laura
My Pick:  Beat Frequency
Christina’s Pick: Laura

Team CeeLo

“Good Time”
Emily vs Mackenzie
My Pick: Mackenzie
CeeLo’s Pick: Mackenzie

The Voice – Battle Rounds 1


Finally, finally! The battle rounds! They are introducing “The Steal”, which will allow another coach to steal the losing battle round member for their team.  Each coach is allowed to steal 2 contestants.  This should hopefully make things more exciting!  How it works is, once the coach picks who they want to keep, Carson has the other contestant talk to his judge.  During this time, any of the other 3 judges can hit their red button.  The contestant then gets to choose from those who hit their buttons, or get placed on the team if only 1 judge tries to steal.  I’m not exactly sure what happens with those 2 stolen contestants later on down the line. I don’t know if I missed them explaining it or they haven’t said anything yet.

I was also going to complain that they completely DRAG out these battle rounds.  They fit in almost 4 in the first hour – but only 2 more in the second? They should be doing at least 8 in a 2 hour episode!  But then in the second episode, they buzzed through 2 battle rounds so quickly I couldn’t pick who I wanted to win for one before it was announced, and I barely had enough time to pick a winner for the second.  What the heck NBC? Can’t we have a happy medium?  Full battle songs but less rehearsal BS? (Although I guess they throw that in there so we can see how much they grow and get to know them a bit better…)

My plan for the season is to have Saturday re-caps.  But I also intend to blog XFactor (once we get FOX back.. if we ever get FOX back.. ugh!) so there might be a shake up with the actual day / time of the posts. But I do intend to have one weekly whenever possible!

Team Blake
Carry On My Wayward Son

Casey vs Terry
My Pick: Terry (but it was not an easy pick!)
Blake’s Pick:  Terry
Team Adam
Santeria

Bryan vs Colin
My Pick: Bryan
Adam’s Pick:   Bryan

(Colin is our first steal!)

Team CeeLo
Jessie’s Girl

Diego vs JR
My Pick: JR
CeeLo’s Pick: Diego

Team Christina
S.O.S

De’borah vs Nelly’s Echo
My Pick: Nelly’s Echo (another toughie!)
Christina’s Pick:  De’borah

Team Blake
Sin Wagon

2Steel Girls vs Gracia
My Pick: Gracia
Blake’s Pick:  Gracia

Team Cee Lo
Vision of Love

Amanda vs Trevin
My Pick: Amanda
CeeLo’s Pick: Trevin

(Amanda is our next steal!)

Team CeeLo
Telephone

Domo vs Cody
My Pick: Cody
CeeLo’s Pick: Cody

Team Christina
You Give Me Something

Nathalie vs Aquile
My Pick: Aquile
Christina’s Pick: Aquile

Team Christina
My Life Would Suck

Lisa vs Celica
My Pick: – went by too fast for me to pick!
Christina’s Pick: Celica

Team Blake
Bad Day

Charlie vs Rudy
My Pick: Rudy
Blake’s Pick: Rudy

Team Adam
Lights

Caitlin vs Melanie
My Pick: Caitlin
Adams Pick: Melanie

America’s Got Talent Result Show Taping

Last week I attended the first results show taping for America’s Got Talent at its new home in Newark, NJ.  Being as it was the first week, we had no idea what time we should arrive.  The night before they said 500-800 people who had vouchers for tickets were refused.  It was recommended to get there 1 hour early, but we ended up getting there 2 hours early.

Almost immediately after we arrived, they started giving out tickets.  We got tickets in the 3rd Tier (there are 4 total) in row F.   They told us that doors would not open until 7, so we had some time to kill.  There is a restaurant, Nico’s right in the same complex as the NJPAC, so we got in line there. (If you think you might be going to a taping – make reservations! You’ll get right in!)  It was an Italian restaurant and was really good (they had my favorite – Gnocchi!) and resaonably priced as well.

At 7 we got in line to go inside, but as soon as we got in the line, it stopped moving.  There was a mob of people waiting for the elevators, so we took the stairs up to the 3rd Tier and then had to wait for EIGHT when we could finally go to our seats!

Row F turned out to be the last row in the Tier and we couldn’t see Howie’s “X” on the stage because of the ribbon/rainbow/whatever that went around the stage.  That was ok though, since it was a result show they wouldn’t be using their X’s anyway.

Joey Kola was the warm up guy and he was AWFUL.  Apparently during the silence when Nick is trying to say who is going home/going through – we are supposed to cheer and yell out the name of who we want to go through.  We were never told this so no one did it. After the first one he told us we should have been doing it.  Well, we would have if we were instructed to! It came across quite awkward when watching it back on the TV although I guess if you weren’t there you might not have noticed it on the TV.

Cirque De Soleil Zarkana did a little bit from their show – they are just amazing.  They had 4 guys standing on top of each other! It was nuts. Fortunately the majority of their performance was further back on the stage so we could see. (If we stood up we could see almost everything but then you had to deal with seeing over the people in front of you who stood as well.)

Will I Am also did a song as well… we stood for him to be able to see because he really used the whole stage for the performance and had dancers and all sorts of stuff going on.

Overall, it was a fun experience, but it was a LOT of standing around and I am not sure I would do it again – if we did we’d have to take me in the wheelchair I think because it was just a bit too much.

(And for anyone wondering – the 4 we thought would go through did!)

 

The XFactor Auditions Providence

Friday, I headed up to Providence, RI to check out the XFactor auditions.  My friend Shea and I were mainly going to see Britney, but figured it would be a fun time.  We got there around 4:45, and the scheduled arrival time was 5:45.  We were told as long as we showed up by 5:45, our tickets were guaranteed.

We found the line to get in and they were already giving out tickets and then letting us wait inside where it was air conditioned rather than outside (very nice of them!)  We exchanged our voucher for tickets (except not really, they didn’t take the voucher) and the guy looked through the tickets to find 2 for us so we were hoping we had a good spot.  We ended up one section over from the stage and about 10 rows up from the floor.

The warmup guy was Frank the host of Street Smarts. He went over how the judges would be coming in and we could take all the photos and videos we wanted, but once the show started we had to put our cameras away. (This was pretty neat too.  I just wanted photos of the judges anyway!)  They played some One Direction for us to get us up and dancing and they filmed some reaction shots of us excited, confused, bored, etc.

Then they played a video and that meant when the video ended the judges would be coming out.  The video was a bit of a roller coaster ride – it had clips of One Direction (yay) but then it had then sending home Rachel Crow (boo!) and clips of the judges.  LA Reid came out first, then Demi, then Simon (who really took his time getting to the table and slapped five with tons and tons of people on his way there) and then of course Britney!  I’m pretty sure just about everyone (at least in our general area) was there to see her.

There were 3 sessions of auditions – each one was 5 contestants (I feel like the last session had more than 5 but I wasn’t exactly counting, it could have just been that it went on for far too long at that point).  The first 2 that auditioned they let through, though I didn’t particularly like either of them.  Demi voted no for both of them as well.  There was a girl who loved Demi and was a big fan (but didn’t know she had tattoos that said Stay Strong…) and went on about how she was bullied and broke down during her song and Demi went and gave her a hug and was crying… Her whole family ran out on stage when she got through and I’d be surprised if they didn’t put some of that on the show.  There was a rapping school nurse who was pretty good… and a 13 year old girl that was PHENOMENAL.  Simon didn’t believe she was singing and made her sing acapella because he thought someone was back stage singing for her. Then once she did amazing acapella he said he didn’t think she was 13 and she said “but I have a birth certificate!” Demi said she thinks that the girl could win it all, so hopefully we will be seeing some of her again as well.

Xander Alexander from last season was back… and a guy that auditioned for Idol was there too.  As well as a bunch of other bad singers as well.  One girl said she never really sang in front of anyone before and did I Gotta Feeling.  She spent about 5 minutes trying to get us to clap and then sucked so bad….

Demi had a lot of really bitchy comments too.  Some of them were hilarious but some of them ended up coming across as a bit much.  She and Simon would chit-chat a lot during the auditions too and at one point they were talking and LA actually had to repeat what a girl said so that Simon would hear it. (Her mother picked the song – Simon doesn’t like that)

When we left, we walked by where the trailers were parked for the stage and while waiting on the corner to cross, Simon drove by and had the window down and was waving and saying hello to everyone so we got to wave to him.  He seems like he is really nice!

I’m looking forward to seeing who ends up making it in to the show when it airs and maybe I’ll actually watch this season in its entirety if one of the contestants from our session makes it through!

(And Shea had no idea who One Direction was – on the way there I had to fill her in but by the time we were on the way home she was singing along to What Makes You Beautiful in the car with me! haha)

Idol Top 3!

 

We are down to the final 3 in American Idol!  Jessica, Joshua and Phillip.  Each sang 3 songs – the judges pick, the contestants pick and Jimmy Iovine’s pick.

 

Round 1 – Judges Pick

Joshua – Id Rather Go Blind – looooove him still. I dont think he has had a bad performance yet.

Jessica – My All  – Not a good performance at ALL.  They tell people never to do it and then they give it to people to sing. I don’t get it.

Phillip – Beggin – Good performance, but I think I have to give this round to Joshua.

Round 2 – Contestants Pick

Joshua – Imagine – Beautiful. (And I typed this before Steven said the same thing.  Jennifer’s seat at the judge’s table is open… maybe I can fill it?)

Jessica – I Dont Want To Miss a Thing –  Love this song. Hate this performance.

Phillip – Disease – Im kind of torn on this performance. It was good but not great.

Round 3 – Jimmy’s pick

Joshua – No More Drama – He kind of made me sea sick with the bouncing, but I still freaking love him.

Jessica – I’ll Be There – I thought the performance was weak. I also thought it was weird Randy said he didnt like when people sang Mariah, they gave her a Mariah song earlier and then he suggested she do the Mariah version. Huh?

Phillip – We’ve Got Tonight – I thought that this was one of the best performances of the night! Maybe Phillips best yet. WOW.

I dont get why Phillip is NEVER in the Ford commercials.  Is he sicker than they are leading on? Or does he just weasel his way out of them? It is like 4 or 5 weeks now that he has not been in them with no real explanation.  It was just incredibly obvious this week (and last week too).

The finale contestants are: Jessica (what?? she shouldn’t even BE there) and Phillip (again, whatt??)

Super, super, suuuuper bummed Joshua is not in it! But I guess I’m back on Team Phillip. (And it looks like we’re headed towards another white guy with a guitar winner…)

The Voice – Finale

Ah… the finale of the voice.  4 hours of TV and less than 30 minutes of actual content. But I loved every minute of it. Well, maybe.  Towards the end I was just getting a bit angry. And during the beginning of the Tuesday night show too.  The show now makes me rage now. Too much drama!

Monday performances:

Jermaine – I Believe I Can Fly – Jermaine is really good and I think that he is definitely up there to be in the top 2…

Juliet – Crazy – Missed half of this performance because I was out and came in in the middle of it… (then got kicked out of the TV room when tried to watch it back from the recording lol) but it was a solid performance from Juliet from what I heard

Chris & Christina – The Prayer – I wasn’t sure if Christina was going to try and out sing him in this, but it seemed like a decent match.

Tony – 99 Problems – Definitely an interesting twist on a song and of course I loved it. Way to go Tony!  (And eff you Christina. I love you but really… I don’t get it)

Chris – The Voice Within – Well, his coach completely ruined this for me. Gosh Christina. I’m sorry Tony didn’t want to date you TWENTY YEARS AGO (or whatever it is that is bugging your ass)

Juliet and CeeLo – Born To Be Wild – Really great song choice for the both of them!

Tony and Adam – Yesterday – I just love these two.

Jermaine – God Gave Me You – Great performance by Jermaine. (And I love Dave Barnes who wrote this song)

Chris – You Raise Me Up – Eh. I’m growing less and less tolerant of him as the night goes on, unfortunately due to his coach. I should keep the two separate but it’s getting to the point I can’t anymore.

Blake and Jermaine – Soul Man – I wasnt sure what these two were going to do together, but I think this worked out really, really well for the two of them and was a lot of fun!

Tony – Harder To Breathe – Oops. I dont really know the words to this one either and it is fast paced. He probably should have picked something different from the M5 catalog…

Juliet – Free Bird – Another interesting song choice from Juliet. I like her, but I think she is a bit too shouty/screachy at times to be ‘the voice’ (and im wicked biased because a guy Ive had a crush on for 20something years is in the competition, so ya know)

 

My predictions on winning:

Tony – Winner
Jermaine – 2nd
Juliet – Runner up
Chris – Runner Up

I Want You Back with Jermaine, Pip, Jamar and James was great. My mom wants them to form their own group and said “they can be a boyband!”  Eh, maybe. I guess if Jermaine doesn’t win then he can always fall back on that.

Chris, Lindsay and Katrina was a bit of a bust for me. Chris seems too shouty when he is singing non-opera songs.

Juliet Jamar Erin and RaeLyn – This group really sounded great together too! Although I think Jamar got louder cheers than Juliet!

Tony & Jordis – Awesome performance from Tony and Jordis. Now can we find out who wins? No.. another half an hour to go?

Well, I had 4th place right… but everything else was screwed up.  I’m totally cool with Jermaine winning though – if it couldn’t be Tony I’d have wanted it to be Jermaine.

 

Idol Top 5!

This week we have 2 themes – 60s and Brit Pop! Could turn out to be a pretty exciting week.  The mentor this week was Little Steven.

Hollie – River Deep Mountain High – A great performance from Hollie to start the night off!

Phillip – The Letter – I really didnt like this version at all. Once again he’s too Dave Matthews which is what is really turning me off to him.

Skylar – Fortunate Son – I wasn’t really into this performance either. Great energy, but I dont know, it seemed to be missing something,

Joshua & Phillip – You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling – Weird combo for a duet, but somehow it actually kind of worked.

Jessica – Proud Mary – Still not a fan of Jessica. Decent performance but im not sure why she had to wear shoes that she could barely walk in.

Joshua – Ain’t Too Proud to Beg – Still completely in love with Joshua. (PS Ryan its a daffodil not a tulip)

Hollie – Bleeding Love – Another great performance from Hollie. Good for her because I thought she might be in danger of going home before the show started.

Phillip – Time Of The Season – Decent performance but I feel like he is on his decline. Which is a shame because I thought he could have won it.

Jessica, Hollie & Skylar – Higher & Higher – Cute performance.

Skylar – You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me – Way better than her first performance. Great!  But I agree with Randy that the people on the bench were weird.

Jessica – You Are So Beautiful – We had 2 didn’t likes and 1 like in the living room  on this one.  I was in the dislike group and I am hoping Jessica is the one to go home…

Joshua – To Love Somebody – SO. AWE. SOME. Can we crown him the winner right now? I mean, really. He’s fantastic.

Bottom 3: Im not picking because I stink at this…

Going Home: Jessica

Well, Jessica sneaks by again… with Hollie and Skylar in the bottom 2.

And SKYLAR goes home. W. T. F.

The Voice Semi-Finals

We are down to the top 8! I can’t believe that the show is going to be over so soon – especially when earlier rounds were dragging and I thought the show would never end! After Tuesday night each team will have just ONE member left!

Tony (Team Adam) – How You Like Me Now – I looove this song. And I obviously love Tony and want him to win.

Erin (Team Blake)- Without You – Definitely an interesting take on this song but I really liked it.

Chris (Team Christina) – Ave Maria – Perfect song choice for him. Glad he is being true to himself and not conforming to popular stuff.

Jamar (Team CeeLo)-If You Dont Know Me By Now  – Not sure I liked the arrangement of this song

Jermaine (Team Blake) – Open Arms – Wasn’t totally into his performance, but it was good except for a few spots.

Katrina (Team Adam) – Killing Me Softly – Great performance (though her wardrobe choices are questionable. Not so much on this performance but on the group number…)

Lindsay (Team Christina) – Skinny Love –  I couldn’t really get into this at all…

Juliet – (Team CeeLo) – Its a Mans World – Juliet is good. This is probably one of the harder choices for who will go through on a team!

Who I think will make it to the finals:

Team Adam: Tony
Team Blake: Jermaine
Team Christina: Chris
Team CeeLo: Juliet

Finalists advancing:

Team Christina – 104 to 96 – Chris

Team Adam – 108 to 92 – Tony

Team Blake – 123 to 77 – Jermaine

Team CeeLo – 121 to 79 Juliet

 

And yes… I will be gifting 9 copies of Tony’s song next week so be sure to keep an eye on my twitter and facebook accounts on Monday night where I’ll let you know where to send the email and what the subject should be to get gifted a copy!

Idol Top 6

Wednesday night’s theme was Queen / Contestant’s Choice. But first we were treated to a medley by the Top 6 and the remaining members of Queen!   Queen is definitely not easy to replicate so it will be interesting to see how they do this week!

Jessica – Bohemian Rhapsody – Another good performance but I still don’t feel anything with her performances. She doesn’t put any personality in her song, or something. There is something missing for me with her performances.

Skylar – The Show Must Go On – Love Skylar. Another great performance from her. And comments from my dad: “She puts her heart and soul into every song”

Joshua – Crazy Little Thing Called Loved – Can you expect anything less than amazing from Joshua? Love love love him!

Elise – I Want It All – Queen is right up her ally. She really excels with the classic rock songs

Phillip – Fat Bottomed Girls – Great performance from Phillip. Nice to see im without the guitar and not looking as awkward as usual.

Hollie – Save Me – She’s really only a step up from Jessica. Another good singer but nothing that I can really get into.

Jessica – Dance With My Father – Robot. Robot. Not a fan.

Skylar – Tattoos on the Town – another great performance from Skylar.

Joshua – Ready For Love – I’m not sure what to say about him anymore. He’s just so good. (And yes, I typed this out before Randy and JLo said basically the same thing…)

Elise – Bold As Love – I… am not sure about this song for her. (And I did know this song because John Mayer covers it. But my parents did not know it…)

Phillip – The Stone – This was on the cheat set list as The ___ – ____ ____ Band.  Figured it would be Dave Matthews Band and be done by Phillip because – hello, duh? What could be more obvious?  (And didn’t JLo say something in his first song about how it DIDNT sound Dave Matthews?)  But it was really weird performance and  I didn’t much like it.

Hollie – The Climb – I’m glad they addressed her weird accent 😉 This song is my karaoke jam, so I’m not sure I can really take it seriously.  Hollie did well with it, but I’m not sure it’ll keep her out of the bottom 3.  Although, Bottom 3 is half of them… so…

My pick for bottom 3: Elise, Hollie, Jessica

Going Home: Jessica

Well, first up was Elise and Jessica and we find out that it is Jessica in the Top 3 and Elise in the Bottom 3.  Once again, my picks are a fail.  Good thing I’m not betting on them.

Then it was time for my favorite from last season – STEFANO!

Then between Joshua and Hollie, Hollie was in the Bottom 3.  So I got 2/3 right but of course the one I get wrong is the one I thought would go home.

Then we had to suffer through some Katy Perry…

We find out that of Skylar and Phillip, Skylar is in the bottom but then two seconds later she is safe.

Elise ends up leaving the competition. 🙁

The Voice – Quarterfinals Part 2

Ahh the quarterfinals. Team Adam and Team CeeLo battled it out on Monday night.  With 2 being immediately eliminated by the judges at the end of the show.  America will put 1 through to the next round and the coaches will send one through on Tuesday night. Who will it be?

Jamar – It’s My Life – I thought that it was a great performance from Jamar. I’d love to see him through to the next round, but these teams this week are stacked so we’ll have to see how I feel at the end of the episode if I think he’ll make it through!

Katrina – Jar of Hearts – Another good performance… once again, will it be good enough? we’ll have to wait and see.

Mathai – I Am Like a Bird – I liked her in the beginning but I just did not like this performance from her.

James – Just The Way You Are – Aww great performance from James

Tony – Baby One More Time – OH. MY. GOD.  amazing. love love love it. Take that Christina!!!  Best of the freaking night, I can not get over it.

Cheesa – I Have Nothing – A big song for her to sing and I just didn’t like it…

Pip – Somewhere Only We Know – Another good performance! Pip is so cute.

Juliet – Cryin – Usually I think Juliet is pretty good, but she really got off to rough start on this one. I dont think it will be enough to send her home though

My pick to leave team Adam: Mathai
My Pick to leave team CeeLo: Cheesa

Adam’s pick to leave: Pip
CeeLo’s pick to leave: James

Ok well that picking didn’t go so well….

My picks to go through on Tuesday
Team Adam: Tony and Katrina
Team CeeLo: Juliet and Jamar

America’s choices to go through to the next round are Tony Lucca (yay!) and Jamar Rogers. While I figured Jamar would be through I thought that it would be Juliet that America chose. (Which I thought all the more when it was mentioned that Juliet and Tony had top songs on iTunes)

I wasn’t that into Katrina’s second performance, but I do still believe that it should be Mathai going home.  Adam seemed to agree with me and saved Katrina.

With Team CeeLo I am going to stick with my instinct from last night as well and say that Juliet will make it through and Cheesa will be going home.  And CeeLo agreed!

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