Jordan Rainer, AZAN, Tanner Massey and Kara Tenae wound up competing for the instant save Tuesday on The Voice. (NBC Photo)
Team Niall had already made it to the semifinals intact when save time rolled around on The Voice Tuesday night.
Turned out everyone on Team Reba advanced as well when country singer Jordan Rainer nabbed that instant save.
The bottom four vote-getters following Monday’s live show — Jordan, Tanner Massey, Kara Tenae and AZAN — performed in hopes of becoming the ninth singer to advance to the semifinals next week.
By the time the night ended, Team Gwen was done to one performer and both female R&B singers in the Top 12 had been eliminated.
Kara’s elimination should have surprised no one once she landed in the bottom four. She’s from Riverside, Calif.
And West Coast contestants have been at a notorious disadvantage ever since The Voice started using the instant save on East Coast time.
Such a disadvantage that it’s absolutely shameful that producers insist on using the save, in essence redoing the outcome of overnight voting for a bit of result-night drama.
Anyway, here’s how I scored the instant save performances. I thought AZAN performed the best. But Jordan was solid enough to deserve save consideration.
Jordan Rainer (Team Reba), “Blame It On Your Heart” by Patti Loveless: Another solid, upbeat country performance, tinged with sass from Jordan. The biggest surprise came when she passed those dark glasses to someone in the crowd early in the performance. It’s not my cup of tea, but I’m sure it pleased The Voice’s country fans. Grade: B
AZAN (Team Legend), “No Tears Left to Cry” by Ariana Grande: Okay, AZAN is bringing some fire and some sultry to The Voice stage. The vocal wasn’t flawless, but it was fun performance in a high-pressure situation and showed off AZAN’s stage presence and versatility. Grade: B+
Tanner Massey (Team Gwen), “More Than Words” by Extreme: Wow, really rough opening for Tanner. Maybe a case of nerves. Problem is, the vocal never got much better. The passion was there, but that was not save worthy. Grade: D+
Kara Tenae (Team Gwen), “Love Takes Time” by Mariah Carey: Speaking of passion, Kara clearly poured her heart into this performance. Vocally, she started very strong, gave us a heartfelt ending, but might have gone big a little too soon to have the second half the song sparkle the way she wanted. Grade: B–
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Someone posted in another “Voice” recap that no Black woman has won “The Voice” and only in rare situations fare well on the show.
Country singers dominate and the coaches ultimately are the only true winners of the show.
Similar to American Idol. Ever since season 7, it’s mostly been a bunch of white guys with guitars winning, most of whom I found to be rather boring.
The main demographics for those shows are middle aged, middle American white women who hate stuff like hip hop.
I wonder if a lack of a more diverse coaching panel may be deterring some people of color from tuning into the show and voting for more diverse winners. There has been very rarely more than one coach of color at a time.
That, in addition to country music dominating the show, may be deterring Black viewers who yearn to listen to music that is a better representation of them.
More DIVERSE coaching panel? Not sure how The Voice can be more diverse. All genres have been covered on the coaching panel. There has always been a Black coach on the panel, as well as women coaches. There has been a Latina coach (Shakira) and numerous pop coaches (Ariana Grande the most surprising coach in that field).
Next year is double R&B and double country. We’ll see if that will help.
Glad Tanner didn’t make it. He was definitely pitchy.
So You Think You Can Dance start date has been announced.
https://www.mjsbigblog.com/so-you-think-you-can-dance-2024-judges-start-date-revealed.htm
Let’s face it. The final four from the round of 12 have almost zero chance of reaching the finale so the Instant Save is not what is ending their time on the show. And, at least by having the Instant Save, The Voice is allowing these four to sing one more full solo song. You may not like the Instant Save, but you are always criticizing The Voice for not giving their artists more opportunities to perform live on stage. The Instant Save gives you just that.
That’s the way I feel about the Instant Save as well. It gives them one more chance to perform once again.