The Voice - Knock Out Rounds

 

It has been a long time since we wrote a post about The Voice. Since we last did, it has changed channels, changed format and changed, coaches. But the hype remains the same, maybe it is even a little worse than it used to be.

The new format means that we see even fewer performances by the hopefuls and the public has no say in who gets through to the final rounds.

This week we saw some awful decisions made by the coaches in choosing the semi finalists. Where back stories were more more important than performances and, as previously, some of the best performers were eliminated, while the most ordinary were retained.

Let's Take a look at them team by team.

 

Team Keith

Arlo Sim

We'll start at the top. Arlo really deserved to go through. He is a really soulful performer and gets so much over in his 90 second performances, it will be great to see what he can do when he gets the chance to sing a whole song.

Jediael

 For me Jediael is the girl who should have progressed along with Arlo. She was so much better than Lau, who actually got the nod. Jediael is not polished, or the finished item, to the extent that Arlo is, but I think she has a great deal of potential and is capable of a wide repertoire.

Lozz Benson

Lozz is the singing drummer. She sees herself as more of a drummer and that is probably true and a few have stepped out from behind the kit to make a name for themselves in front of the mike. Phil Collins, Don Henley, Cram, to name a few. But I think Keith was right to cut her at this point, she was not quite as good as the other singers in this round.

Cassie McIvor

Cassie is technically a very good singer, but I really didn't enjoy her performance. It was just pleasant and clever noises, with no soul. Another good exit decision for me.

Lau Abend

This confused me. Until the following night I thought that Lau was Jordan Fuller's sister and that both siblings had gone though on the first night and that was the reason she had been given the the nod ahead of Jadiael. But no, she just looked similar. So there must have been some other scheme afoot. Lau is a good singer and performed well. I just thought Jadiael had more to offer.

Team Guy

Bella Taylor Smith

I must admit I never gave Bella a fair hearing. She is probably a very good singer and performs well. But there was so much sob story, there was no doubt that she was always going to go straight through and is probably going to be the series winner. The script appears to have been written. If the back story is true, then I have every sympathy for her and wish her the best, but I do wish that this show was about the singing and not the melodrama.

Chantel Cofie

 

Chantel was the one that was robbed from this group for me. Original or cover, she really has something to offer and I think that we will be seeing more of her in the future. Maybe a dodgy reality TV show is not the place for her, because she has some chops.

Adrian Hood

Adrian smartened himself up and gave a really good rendition of an old standard. But it did come over as a bit tired. So, as good as he was, it was probably the right stepping off point for him.

Penelope Pettigrew

I must admit it is a day later and I am struggling to remember Penelope's performance. Sorry.

Jordan Fuller

Jordan gave a nice performance and sang well. I thought the song was pretty blah. But mostly I was disappointed that he went through ahead of Chantel.

On night two of the knock outs we saw a pattern emerge. Only Rita and Jess's teams were performing, but Keith kept pretty quiet, contributing very little, Whereas Guy set the tone for how things would go, pretty much leading with who would go straight through and who would go home.

Team Rita

G-Nat!on

 

 

G-Nat!on were first out of the blocks and Rita put them straight through to the semi-finals. They are a talented group and very slick, so they probably deserve to be there. But this sort of move makes things very tight for everyone else that is yet to perform that night.

Rita, definitely had the most talented bunch of performers and it was a pity that so many of them had to go so quickly.

Halimah Kyrgios

Halimah is very good theatre style performer, guy pointed this out and this was given as the reason for letting her go right away. Although everyone knew this from her first audition.

Sofia Watt

Sofia gave another very good performance and one far more mature than her youthful years. But once again, that was the reason given for letting her go. Again, like Halimah, something everyone knew from her first audition.

Tanya George

 

Tanya performed without her loop machines or beat boxing and she sang really well. I would have liked to have seen her go through. But sadly she was eliminated. Tanya is another one who I believe will make it on her own.

Sian Fuller

Although Sian was not the girl that I thought went through on the first night of the knock outs, she still managed to get through, along with her brother, on the second. I am not taking anything away from Sian, she is very good and probably deserves to be there on her own merits. But I can't help but feel that there is an agenda here, in having her and her brother in the finals, which was decided very early on in the piece.

Team Jess

 

Ella Monnery

This was possibly the worst performance on Jess's team, but Ella was pushed straight through to the semi-finals. This was obviously pre-decided. It's not that Ella's performance was bad, it just wasn't exceptional and several of the others were much better.

Ella's back story is that she made it through the battle rounds last year, but got stuck in New Zealand, because of COVID-19 and the border closures. So obviously someone believes that she deserves a pass through to the finals this year.

Much of Jess's deliberations seemed to be predestined. With Guy chipping in with his view on what the outcome would inevitably turn out to be.

Seann Miley Moore

 

 

Seann is a TV talent show veteran, but he is an excellent singer and master showman. So it seems ridiculous that he should be exiting after only two on screen performances.

Jannaki Easwar

This one followed the familiar lines of telling Jannaki how good she was but she needs more experience, of course led by Guy. They were right in this instance and Jannaki will live to sing another day.

Evile Laloata

Evile was another robbed contestant in my opinion. He wasn't perfect, but there was a lot to like in his performance. Certainly enough to want to see more. Once again, Guy led the criticism and sealed his fate.

Mick Harrington

The singing lawnmower man was always going to go through. We always knew that, right from the early promos for the show and the onstage proposal. He's good singer, there's no question about that. Does he have a career as a singer? Somehow I suspect not. But these are the stories that The Voice likes to tell.

So next come the semi-finals and you can almost pick the finalists before it airs.