Idol Chatter & Voice Views

I had heard a little of the grumbling when Cassadee Pope showed up on Season 3 of The Voice.

The grumbling has grown louder now that she’s in the finals.

The grumbling goes something like this. Someone as accomplished as her has no business on The Voice.

She was, after all, front-woman for the pop-rock band “Hey Monday.” And they once had a record deal with Sony.

Hmm. I’m wondering how so many viewers of The Voice missed the flashing neon lights for three seasons.

You know. The neon lights that scream: This is not an amateur singing competition.

Fact: Season 1 winner Javier Colon released an album with Capital Records years before he was on the show.

Fact: Season 2 finalist Juliet Simms and her band Automatic Loveletter released an album called “Truth or Dare” with Sony in 2010.

Fact: That Scottish band Driveblind that Terry McDermott came to American with released a debut album with Geffen Records back in 2006.

Fact: Season 2 finalist Tony Lucca had more than 100 different tracks available on iTunes before competing on The Voice. That’s nearly five for every year of Cassadee’s life and more than four times the number of Hey, Monday tracks you can buy.

Fact: Every single finalist from the first three seasons of The Voice had already released music prior to the show.

So I’m not exactly going to cry a river of oh-isn’t-that-unfair tears between now and Monday night when Cassadee takes on two more seasoned singers in The Voice finale.

If I was going to feel bad for anyone, it would have been all those teenagers with minimal experience who won spots on Voice teams this season. Kids like Kayla Nevarez.

But, again, if they were paying any attention to the first two seasons of The Voice, they knew the odds they were facing. It’s an incredible compliment to Trevin Hunte’s talent that he made the final four with so little experience.

Back to the topic of the moment: Cassadee Pope.

The other bit of grumbling goes something like this: If she wins, it will be because of all her pre-Voice support, not because of what she’s done on the show.

Really?

Back when the teams were finalized for Season 3, I checked the number of Facebook likes and Twitter followers for each of the 48 contestants.

When the show cut to a top 8, I checked again. Cassadee had gained more Facebook likes and more Twitter followers than any of the other seven contestants left on the show.

I checked again late this week. Since Nov. 25, Cassadee has gained 40,000 Facebook likes. That’s more than Nicholas David and Terry McDermott currently have.

During the same period, she’s gained more than 60,000 Twitter followers. Nicholas has about 36,000. Total. Terry has about 63,000. Total.

Those numbers sure seem to indicate the former Hey Monday singer is winning over new fans with what she’s doing on The Voice. And at a pretty rapid pace.

Oh, and about that Hey Monday pre-Voice success. Let’s keep that in perspective.

The band had a 2010 album hit number 25 on the Billboard 200. A song called “How You Love Me Now” peaked at number 37 on the pop songs charts. That was back in 2009. The band never got a single on the Hot 100.

Cassadee has obviously heard the grumbling, too. She addressed it in a “My 2 Cents” blog back on Sept. 27.

Hey Monday had hit a ceiling, she wrote. She moved to L.A. to embark on a solo career, but really wasn’t getting anywhere. Then came The Voice.

“To say I should be happy with how far I’ve gotten is not fair, and unjustified,” she wrote. “I am extremely happy with every success story I have had, and even proud of some of my missteps. But I didn’t start singing at 4 years old to make it ‘relatively far’ in the music business.”

I’d encourage the doubters to check it out. She addresses the issue much more eloquently than I can.

And I’d encourage The Voice to keep doing what it’s doing, introducing us to new singers, up-and-coming singers and seasoned singers who have never quite made it big.

Thanks to the show I’ve discovered the music of Mycle Wastman and Lelia Broussard (great, great stuff!). A quirky album from Alexis Marceaux and a beautiful single from Lisa Scinta.

Oh, and you can count me among those who had never heard of Hey Monday before Season 3 of The Voice. Or of Cassadee Pope.

But I like what I’ve heard. Well enough, that I’ll be rooting very, very hard for her to become The Voice this week.