Notes

THE VOICE U.S ....SO BETWEEN THE LAST PERFORMANCES AND THE WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT - SOME THOUGHTS ON FINALISTS:

JulietSimms: kinda had her down for the winner since Roxanne. Great rasp always has instant impact and she can vary her drama, which works in the program format.
Weirdly enough I kinda I hope she doesn’t win (sorry!). Her progress seems to have been mostly about experimenting with style. For me, her most heartfelt piece is still her audition, which I think would be sad in the overall winner.

Could be my misgivings were also cemented by having I found her interpretation from last night particularly underwhelming. (I don’t it was just her flu, unfortunately. After the immediate impact of her ability to deliver drama I often find myself feeling its just theatre, like watching a rock musical). Channelling Florence and the Machine for the Bird, she suddenly seemed upstaged by her clothing.
But seems her heart draws her towards the strange and emotional - so can’t deny she is a deserving (and likely) winner.

Maybe me viewing her on youtube directly after watching the Jermaine Paul performances in a row, helped her to came across extra shrunk in size.

Which brings me to...

Jermaine Paul: a beautiful, beautiful presence in the last round. And ALL the Coaches seemed really genuinely affected. LOL. I was. His performances from the night that I can repeat watch. Even if I don’t find his voice really The Voice at all... but it says something I hate to say it. Because I think Christina was right: yesterday he shone like a super star, putting his heart on the line.

(A thought - outside those two performances, do think that too much sincerity alone can be limiting. Without some complexity/humour/irony/ugly people will come to a even a great performer for one kind of fix only.)

I hope Jermaine Paul will go on to do amazing things. That much soul should have its sunshine.

TonyLucca : only performer that to me didn’t really jump up a gear for the Final. Comes across warm, interesting guy off stage, bit arsey on stage....? Not sure which he is. Technically great, nice voice. Didn’t really get much sense of anything beyond that.
Sad to see his coach was the only one who closed himself off to his "protégée" in the duet though (not a giver, Adam, now, is he). Strange vibe there.

ChrisMann: undeniably a Voice. For me, You Raise Me Up was the first performance that I felt was actually just letting us get the song, the meaning. (If I don’t feel it, no vocal ornamentation or lung power can keep me interested). Voice Within went from Disney to somewhere interesting, then back again.

The most impressive bit was his duet. It came together beautifully, with two huge voices looking after each other. Both can have quite a hard, kinda competitive edge to their voices, but there was a sensitivity towards each other that allowed them to melt and blend.

Out of the two I think ARE in the running, Mann is the one I think I’d like to see win. Seems he is a very genuine performer and he already less into just enjoying the fact that he can finally do BIG (was understandable)... well, he has a HUGE voice, with more expressive colour to it than I had so far noticed.

Based on the last performances alone though, it would warm my heart if Jermaine Paul sprung forth in a surprise leap. ‘Cos what he did yesterday was emotionally fearless, and you never saw the strain on the stage. He just shook himself off and laid himself bare. No wonder Blake wants lessons... ;) Very glad he is taking home the memory of a four Coach standing ovation from the last show. It was his RIGHT after what he pulled out of the bag.

So what do you needed in order to succeed on The Voice, at least this year...?

To be fairly ready commercial package, it seems (like Juliet Simms – and seems NBC has pushed her to the fore accordingly, at least on youtube). To have an arresting voice with enough lungs behind it (Duh! ). To sell it safely and faultlessly in tiny window every week... (unless your coach is Xtina and you are Lindsay Pavao).

...And to be lucky enough to survive some of the most random, anti-talent-nurturing, gladiatorial Talent Program processes known in the TV-land.

Turns out I find The Voice, as a format, enormously flawed. It DOES find genuine talent, due to the blind auditions... but then does much less with it than most other talent programmes.

A real pity.