We all know how widely popular and how successful The Voice has been, both for NBC and the community of fellow reality TV singing competition lovers. It's a great concept, especially with it's initial blind audition process where the show takes it back to basics, so to speak. While the show has made big bucks from some serious star-power from all the four coaches (Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine, and Blake Shelton), the network also makes the show credible by inviting some of the best artists in the country.
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| Lindsey Pavao singing Gotye's 'Somebody That I Used To Know' |
This season, while I favour Team Xtina greatly with all the bias in the world, I have to say that I do have favourites from the other teams as well. Katrina Parker and Tony Lucca from Team Adam are two of ones I look forward to listening, alongside Jamar Rogers from Team RedZone (a.k.a Cee Lo) and Erin Willett from Team Blake. The diversity in talent this season has been incredible. I like the fact that it is not just a competition full of big voices with four octave ranges- case in point, Lindsey Pavao's indie-ness and haunting vocals have been refreshing and modern. Her sound is always a breath of fresh air! I personally cannot see her on stage at the 'other' TV competitions because of this fact alone. Idol and X Factor, while they are improving in terms of catching up with talent, are still prejudiced towards artists from alternative genres. If you can sing Whitney decently, you get a trophy. If you can rap like Eminem, you too can win a trophy! It's ridiculous. God knows it is not the sort of music that this generation has grown up listening too. The beauty of The Voice is that it combines modern sound with the singer's flexibility in wielding their artistic creativity, and it return they offer us music that isn't just a carbon copy of the greats. Plus. can I just point out how fabulous it is to know that sob stories don't matter until after the blind auditions? No teary coaches to be found on The Voice, because the process levels out the playing field. So you were homeless, big deal. Jesse Campbell had to BRING it at his audition without the coaches' awareness of his situation. Their life stories are irrelevant in the audition process, which ultimately makes the competition fair and square.
Now on to my beaming review of Christina's progress as the queen of NBC.
She may be ditzy sometimes, and her jokes and digs may be a bit obtuse. Her wardrobe may have had a horrific track record, although her recent live show get-ups have been nothing short of beautiful. She may exude extreme bias towards her team.
HOWEVER.
Christina has been the single, most honest coach in the competition thus far. She says what's on her mind, and if she didn't like a performance, she says it but not without good criticism. Now, readers may hate me for saying this but it's the truth. Naia Kete was the perfect example last week with her blah performance of Adele's 'Turning Tables'. It was a huge miscalculation on Blake's part and Christina called them out on it. It was boring and pitchy and very amateurish. That's what everyone watching thought, or at least those who have good working ears. She's a great artist and I would definitely listen to an album if she ever releases one, but Naia's performance was a huge downer. Sure Christina could have sugar-coated her critique but that would have done Naia a great disservice because it is what she needed to hear. When I read the reviews and blogs the day of the results show, everyone has gone to chastise the lady coach for being a bit too 'harsh' and bitchy. Obviously people have become sensitive. Shouldn't they realise that actually, if the average Joe and Jane were to listen to Naia and not like it, they would say harsher things? To me, Xtina has been The Voice (duh!) of the people. She definitely says whats on my mind.
Tony Lucca is another example. After last night's performance of 'In Your Eyes', everyone was beaming and impressed. He has a great voice that is reminiscent of David Gray and Ray LaMontagne, but that's just it. When he sang Ray's 'Trouble' at his audition I thought he sounded EXACTLY like the original record. Perhaps Christina did hit the nail on the head with her 'one-dimensional' comment, because Tony has been predictable thus far. His style is singularly focused on that folksy-indie-rocky niche and he could do with being a bit more than a one trick pony. After all, one can only listen to your signature sound many a time before they stop buying your records (look up, Madonna, Gwen, Xtina, Michael Jackson...the list goes on). Ashley de la Rosa in comparison has done just that, for nobody thought that she was a pop-rock girl until last week. To pull off an Alanis Morisette number at 17 is a feat on its own. That's the sort of challenge Tony has to face. Then came the 'Mouseketeer' comment. As it turns out, Justin Timberlake has been tweeting his support of Tony for being good friends. So far, I've realised that NBC, Tony and the rest of America have capitalised majorly on his past as a Mouseketeer. And while that joy and nostalgia on TV, it hinders him as an artist because everyone who talks about him always bring up the whole Disney thing. That may have been where Xtina was coming from when she brought it up and told Tony of his unfair advantage because he has a celebrity following. I see it, and I get it. Now obviously, reading up on the reports, once again Xtina was the evil stepmother for saying such controversial things!
Whatever. I give up. As she has said in the past, you cannot please everyone. Christina Aguilera has been the most honest and constructive (it could be a bit more refined...but I'll take it.) coach on the show. The only other one I find who's on par is Blake but whenever Adam agrees, so does he. That bromance thing does get a bit annoying sometimes. Poor Cee Lo. I always want to hear what he has to say, but they seem to not give him enough air time to ramble on as much as Adam. Nevetheless, I think the other three coaches need to be a bit more sensible with their advice and not just compliment everything. Otherwise, they will turn into a much pretty version of Randy-JLo-and-Steven who wants to give the title to everyone for simply, performing.
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