Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Well, I thought Christina Aguilera had the most talented final foursome on The Voice.

But then she eliminated Jesse Campbell, a contestant considered one of the show’s frontrunners, and failed to coax a sterling performance from anyone on her team.

Yep, last week’s quarterfinal episode of The Voice was pretty dismal.

This week, the remaining members of Team Cee Lo and Team Adam take the stage. Here’s hoping they do more with their talent than Blake and Christina. Here’s hoping they do a better job of matching performer to song.

Because if Juliet Simms sings a ballad tonight, if Jamar Rogers sings a country song and if Tony Lucca tries to rock Juliet Simms’ style … well, you know we’ll be in for a long night.

I’ll be live blogging throughout the show, grading each performance as it occurs. The link attached to each contestant’s name will take you to a profile of said contestand and pre-Voice videos.

Team Cee Lo

Jamar Rogers:   The guy who missed out on the voting rounds of Idol Season 8 will sing Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life.”  Jamar, who found out he was HIV positive six years ago says he didn’t think he’d live to see 30, but he’s 30 now and proclaims that he’s “proud of myself.”   It’s a Cee Lo contestant, so we’ll get a stage show with flames.  They really need to lower the volume of the background music on this show.  It drowns out the singer way too often.  Not thrilled with this rearrangement of the song.  You can’t fault Jamar for a lack of enthusiasm, and that was a high-energy performance to kick off the show.  But he seemed to be shouting as much as singing.  He gets high praise from the judges.  Christina says he’s one of the contestants she’s rooting for.  Grade: B-

Group performance:  Interesting.  We start off with Cee Lo, Juliet Simms, and Cheesa in a huge TV, singing “Dancing in the Streets.”  Well, this is better than either of last week’s group performances.  But if James Massone doesn’t go home this week, this show should surrender it’s name and find a new one.

James Massone:   This guy was absolutely horrible two weeks ago, and Cee Lo continues to push him as a ladies’ man.  He’ll sing “Just the Way You Are.”  OK, this isn’t as horrific as I thought it might be, but compared to Jamar and Katrina, it fell way short of special.  The guy just has no power to his voice.  He doesn’t get very good reviews from Blake or Christina.  Cee Lo says his voice is “sweet” and “soft spoken.”  Grade: C-

Cheesa:  She’s the gal from Hawaii.  Cee Lo thinks she’s “this generation’s power vocalist.”  She’s going to sing “I Who Have Nothing.”  Yep, the Whitney Houston song.  Yep, she has a big voice.  But the shouting will begin soon.  There we go.  I knew Cheesa wouldn’t disappoint.  Loud is good.  Good is better.  But she did deliver a very nice note at the end.  Cee Lo says it’s time for a real power vocalist and classifies it as “a great job.” Grade: C+

Juliet Simms: She’s gone back to blond, like she was when singing lead for Automatic Loveletter. And she’s toned down the hard-rock look just a little.  Cee Lo has picked “Cryin'” by Aerosmith for Juliet to sing.  This should be interesting.  With wings?  Oh, well, she’s on Team Cee Lo, What would you expect?  But this performance is borderline possessed.  In a good way.  Whoa!  Cee Lo calls her his “little electric guitar.”  Grade: A

Instant elimination:  Cee Lo has to read his message to his team. And Cee Lo sends James Massone home.  Wise decision, Cee Lo.

Team Adam:

Katrina Parker:   Looks like Katrina has gotten a bit of an Idol-style makeover.  The former insurance office worker who needed a mentor’s save to get this far will sing “Jar of Hearts.”  And she’s starting this song brilliantly.  No huge stage show needed with a vocal like this.  Katrina sounds better than we’ve ever heard from her.  In fact, that sounds better than anything we’ve heard in the past two weeks.  I mean, outstanding.  And I’m only tacking a minus behind this grade because someone might top it, like Juliet Simms or Tony Lucca. Grade: A-

Mathai:  The gal from a family of people in the medical field is going to sing “I’m Like a Bird.”  She looks the part of a star.  But I think we’re on the verge of our first clunker of the night.  If you want to call pitchy from start to finish  unique, then I suppose Mathai was unique.  Christina says she doesn’t think Mathai had a connection to the song.  I’m just not sure it was a good match for the teen’s ability.  Grade: D+.

Tony Lucca:  He’s going to ditch the big ballads and rock out to … get this … Britney Spears’  “Hit Me Baby One More Time.”  Yep, Britney was a former member of the Mickey Mouse Club, too.  Anyway, he switched up the song, made it work, sang it very well and it was a whole lot more interesting than anything he’d performed on the show to this point.  Now there was a surprising song that worked.  Grade: B+

Pip:  Look at this, Pip ditched the bow-tie.  He’ll sing “Somewhere Only We Know.”  Pip admits he’s messed around with lots of different genres, and isn’t sure how to nail one down.  Look at that, the suspenders and red pants are gone, too.  Like the new look for Pip.  Not thrilled with the vocal, though.  One good high note does not make for a stellar vocal. Just so-so.  “Where in the hell is the bow-tie?” Blake asks.  “That’s like me without alcohol.”  Grade: C.

Team Adam:  They’ll sing “Instant Karma (We All Shine On)” with Adam accompanying them on drums.  Mathai isn’t helping her case any with her vocals on this.  Katrina continues to sound very good.

Instant elimination:  Adam isn’t reading his message to his team.  Much cooler.  And Adam sends home Pip.  Another good choice.