The Voice Semi-Finals – performance review

As we get closer to the end of the first season of NBC’s The Voice, more cuts are and will be made.

The night started with saying goodbye to four singers from Adam and Cee Lo’s groups. The show’s host Carson Daly would announce which singer from each group was chosen to move forward by votes, and then each coach was allowed to choose who they wanted to move forward in the show. The last remaining four(two from each group) would go home. The four singers that moved forward would compete with the other four from Blake’s and Christina’s groups. After the semi-finals show on Tuesday night, fans could vote (via cell phone, internet, or as a song download on iTunes) for their favorite singers up until 10:00 a.m. Pacific standard time on Wednesday. The results show will be live on Wednesday night and your votes will count as the final four (one singer from each team) are chosen to compete for the finale. Of course it’s important to note that the judges/coaches have already ranked the contestants, and those numbers are sealed up into an envelope. On Wednesday night their votes and yours will decide who stays and who goes. Now for the recap of Tuesday’s episode.

The show began with eliminations from Cee Lo’s group. The voting public chose Vicci Martinez, and Cee Lo chose Nakia. Next up was Adam’s group. Voters chose Javier Colon (one of my personal favorites!), and Adam chose Casey Weston.

The first performance of the night belonged to Frenchie Davis (Team Christina). She chose a classic 80′s hit “Like A Prayer,” which was originally performed by Madonna. I love this song, and I’m a big fan of Frenchie, but I wasn’t sure how this was going to work. Madonna is an extremely talented artist but vocally she just doesn’t have the range that Frenchie does; in other words, I think Frenchie could easily outshine Madonna, and she certainly did!

The second performance was Nakia (from Team Cee Lo), and he chose Adam Lambert’s “Whatya Want From Me.” I actually liked the original version better than Nakia’s, although he did make it his own.

The third performer was Dia Frampton (from Team Blake) with her rendition of R.E.M’s “Losing My Religon.” The all-out performance was enjoyable but nothing extraordinary.

Next up was Casey Weston (Team Adam), who chose “I Will Always Love You,” a song originally by country crooner Dolly Parton that made a comeback 20 years ago when Whitney Houston released a remake for the movie The Bodyguard. I am much more familiar with Houston’s version, so it’s hard for me to say whether Casey was basing her performance off Parton’s.

The second singer from Team Christina was Beverly McClellan. This week she took a different route with a bluesy track, “The Thrill Is Gone,, a song originally by Roy Hawkins. I loved the fact that Beverly proved that she can go way beyond classic rock music yet still rock the stage!

Adam’s second singer Javier Colon was the next to take the stage. The song he chose this week was Coldplay’s “Fix You,” and, once again, Javier brought it. Even Adam admitted that he thought Javier’s voice was one of the best he heard in his life.

The second to last singer to perform that night was Xenia from Team Blake. Her song for that night was “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved” by The Script. In all honesty, I do believe that Xenia has the talent and potential to go far, but she really needs to break out of her shell in order to actually win this competition.

The final performance was from Vicci Martinez (from Team Cee Lo), and she chose Florence and the Machine’s “Dog Days Are Over.” The judges seemed to be enamored by her performance, but I personally thought that the rendition was average. The only memorable factor about her performance was the six drummers in the background.