My favorite part of this episode did not actually stem from anything that happened on screen, but the press release that NBC sent me the next day with links to all the performances with its usual positive adjectives for all the singers like “aggressive and commanding,” “booming vocals,” and “stirring” with one exception that simply read, “Curtis Grimes performs the ‘80s hit “Addicted to Love.” Naturally that was the first one I had to watch and to NBC’s PR team credit, it was one of the few performances that lived up to its description. With Cee Lo and Adam’s teams not being finalized until right before the final eight are set to perform, I wonder if all their team members will get to rehearse a song this week or are they just going to say to Curtis (and the Chicken Little dude) not to bother to show up to practice this week. I would have included the sisters to this list but I do not want to underestimate the pervyness of Cee-Lo.
As for the eliminations, I was a little shocked that everyone was so shocked that Blake Shelton picked Xenia including Carson Daly. Have they not been paying attention last week? (Of course the answer for Carson is probably yes.) For those that have not been able to depicter the coach’s comments here it is: if they speak in superlatives, they thought the performance was okay. If they sexually harass the singer they did not like the performance. And if they speak in hyperbole, they loved it (except for Christina Aguilera who instead gets a befuddled look on her face as if she cannot comprehend how anyone could be a better performer than her and tries to hide her jealousy by deflecting attention away from the performance). So if you watched last week, Patrick Thomas was sexually harassed, Jared Blake just received superlatives, while Blake said of Xenia, “America is watching a star being born” and actually went on stage to give her a hug. It also did not hurt that going into the show, she had two of the five most popular songs from The Voice on iTunes (Team Black actually accounted for four of the top six). Considering she was one of my three favorite voices from the blind audition, I was glad that she is advancing.
As for the other remaining member of Blake’s team it was refreshing to see Dia Frampton actually get the America Save (you can read my lengthy analysis of her performance here: (You Got a New Friends, I Got Homies) because whenever America is left up to voting for something, they get it wrong ninety-five percent of the time. It may be because of The Voice’s voting system, where other things that have internet voting throw integrity out of the window by encourage losers to sit in front of their computers for hours on end to increase ad click thru rates, The Voice limits ten votes per person but more importantly includes iTunes downloads as a vote, which is the true sign of the support if you are willing to drop $1.29 to buy the song, I just wished The Voice would weigh iTunes download more because of that. And even though she is safely through and no longer count as votes, Dia has been neck and neck earlier this week on the iTunes charts with early front runner Javier Colon and has started to pull away this weekend (as I write this she has a twenty-five spot lead on him. Xenia is managing some staying power too with the fourth most popular download from The Voice). Though I do not fully understand the love of his performance, sure Javier has the best pure voice in the competition, but the guy adds so many vocal gymnastics (really how is not on Christina’s team) it just ruins the song. But I wonder of all the other contestants ran out to take piano lessons this week considering the two most popular performances of the round used the instrument.
Now that the final sixteen have perform it is clear to me with these performances it is like Dia is playing in the major league while everyone else in the competition is still playing tee ball except for Javier and Nakia who are trolling around the minors. Speaking of Nakia, his was my favorite performance of the week. I’m feeling the burn big guy.
For those that have not checked your local television listings, The Voice is changing its rules once again, and having a results show Wednesday at 8:00, so instead of a full week of voting it will be less than twenty-four hours. I do not know why NBC could not keep the full week voting in tack for this next round and have a results show on next Monday when they are airing nothing but reruns. Giving people a full week to vote allows performance to go viral and bring in new fans, and their buying dollars to iTunes. Sure Dia has shown that people are still willing to buy truly brilliant performance a week later, but I bet more people are willing to part with $1.29 if they think it means something. So if you are a fan of any of the elite eight, be sure to get your votes in after the show because you will not have a full week to do so. Hopefully this gets ironed out better next season. One change I would like to see is the contestants go against each other, not just their team in this round because no one on Team Bald deserved to be in the final eight let alone the final four. It would be a shame if someone from Blake or Cee-Lo’s teams (assuming he does not choose the sisters) not make the finals just so Christina is represented.
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