The Voice Recap: Oh Yes It's Ladies' Flight
It’s been a tough couple of weeks for women on The Voice — and not just because social media dingbat Christina Milian’s interview skills make DWTS timeslot competitor/world’s most curvaceous robot Brooke Burke look like Christiane Amanpour. Indeed, from the show’s two most recent results-show telecasts, we’ve seen America vote four consecutive men into the semifinal rounds, leaving eight individual ladies completely dependant on their mentors to help them find their way to the four remaining spots in the semifinals.
Which isn’t to imply that the ladies of Season 2 haven’t been primarily responsible for their own precarious fortunes. Despite being among their respective teams’ early front-runners, there’s no denying vocalists like Juliet Sims, Lindesy Pavao, Erin Willett, and Mathai all appreared to choke a little after cracking the Top 16. Yet while the fate of the show’s remaining female contestants is still cloudy, one thing is certain: The second Quarterfinal results show of the season wasn’t very suspenseful — no matter how many times Carson Daly barked and yipped about the “difficult decisions” facing Adam and Cee Lo, and no matter how many minutes it took Adam Levine to fall out of love with the enormous word salad he was making and just give us his damn decision already. (I’d guess somewhere in the vicinity of 33 minutes. Anyone got a stopwatch?)
But enough about the standard operating procedures for stretching a 2-minute announcement into a full hour of television! Let’s talk results:
TEAM ADAM
Voted Through by America
Tony “Never forget Malibu Shores” Lucca (Oops!…He did it again.)
Last-Chance Performances
Mathai: Carrie Underwood’s “Cowboy Cassanova” — I loved Mathai’s blind audition, but girlfriend has been in steady decline ever since. Tonight’s vocal, in particular, wouldn’t have been strong enough to blow out a match held directly in front of the mic. Plus, Mathai’s rogue arm flapping felt like an unfortunate nod to Monday night’s “I’m Like a Bird” cover.
Katrina Parker: Pink’s “Perfect” — No, the vocal didn’t quite live up to the song title, as the pressure of the moment percolated up through some excessive vibrato, but as Blake and Xtina pointed out, Katrina is undoubtedly the strongest singer on Team Adam. Plus, she captured the passion and ferocity behind the lyric, and gave Xtina one more chance to continue her war of muted words against Tony Lucca; surprise, Xtina is more excited to hear Katrina’s original material than anyone else on Team Adam.
Adam’s Save
Katrina Parker
TEAM CEE LO
Voted Through by America
Jamar Rogers (Monday night’s standout performer got what was coming to him!)
Last-Chance Performances
Cheesa: Kelly Clarkson’s “Already Gone” — Xtina was correct in pointing out that Cheesa was “a hair under pitch the entire time.” Still, even if the improving performer had delivered a vocal on par with Monday’s rock-solid “I Have Nothing,” I suspect Cheesa knew deep down there was no way Cee Lo could justify booting Juliet Sims. Maybe that refrain — “I’m already gone, already gone/ There’s no moving on,so I’m already gone” — was Cheesa’s way of coming to terms with her fate in the competition?
Juliet Sims: Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn” — Xtina, continuing her run as the most astute critic on an reality singing competition in the last 12 months (uh-huh, I said it!), made a good point that if Juliet wants to win the whole shebang, she needs to choose songs that allow her voice to veer into grittier, harder-edged territory than Imbruglia’s ear-candy confection. Still, note for note, Juliet had the night’s strongest performance, making it harder still to fathom a finale that doesn’t include both her and Jamar, no?
Cee Lo’s Save
Juliet Sims
What did you think of this week’s results? Sound off in the comments, and for all my reality TV news, interviews, and recaps, follow me on Twitter @MichaelSlezakTV!
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