Bryce Leatherwood performs ‘The Finger’ Monday night on The Voice. (NBC Photo)
Tonight, when it’s Q&A time with the Top 5 on The Voice, take note of the number of times a coach predicts a magnificent musical future for his or her contestants.
And watch Carson Daly nod his head in agreement.
What you’ll never hear, is Carson Daly uttering the truth to those contestants.
It would go like this: “You’d best bust your butt for that musical future. And don’t expect much help from The Voice.”
Monday night, we witnessed a rare occurrence on the show. Season 23 champ Bryce Leatherwood returned to sing his first post-show single, “The Finger.”
At 5 p.m. Monday, “The Finger” was no where to be found on the Apple Music charts.
At midnight, about three hours after Bryce performed the song on The Voice, it was sitting at number 43 on the Apple Music Top 200. And at number 12 on the site’s country singles chart.
That’s a pretty impressive bump, right?
Keep that in mind tonight when you watch Jelly Roll, Tyla, AJR, Keith Urban and Earth, Wind and Fire take The Voice stage.
Ask yourself why you’re watching them. Ask yourself why, season after season, The Voice keeps doing this. Inviting guest stars to perform on the finale who have absolutely no connection to the show.
Ask yourself why you’re not watching a Voice alum instead. Especially when a bit of exposure on the show can do what it did for Bryce Leatherwood Monday night.
I’ve asked myself those questions countless times. I keep coming up with the same answers.
The Voice has little loyalty to past contestants. It doesn’t feel compelled to show gratitude once they’ve left the show. Or feel any sense of obligation to help them succeed in future endeavors.
Oh, an alum will appear on the show from time to time. But it certainly isn’t a priority.
Now if a coach has new music to hawk or an upcoming tour, that’s another issue entirely. You’d better bet they’ll be front and center on The Voice stage.
But the show’s alumni? Even the past winners? Well, a coach might be invested in helping them make it after the show. Blake Shelton and Kelly Clarkson deserve huge kudos on that count.
But The Voice producers don’t seem to care. The contestants helped attract viewers for a season. That’s what mattered.
Besides, those producers will be on to a new cast and a crowning new champ in six months anyway.
I glanced at Tuesday’s entertainment lineup when it was announced and shook my head. Talk about sheer stupidity.
If I’m a Voice producer, here’s my entertainment lineup for the guest spots in Monday’s finale.
First up is Jake Hoot. Because the episode is airing a week before Christmas and he has a light-hearted new Christmas song out called “It Wouldn’t Be Christmas.” Combine the lyrics with Jake’s personality, and he’s sure to have folks smiling.
Next up is Chevel Shepherd. Because if The Voice fans liked “The Finger,” they’d love her 2023 single “Looking for Loretta.” And it would give her a chance to talk about the movie she stars in that comes out next month.
In the third spot, I put Alisan Porter. Talk about an example of perseverance in the entertainment industry. And two weeks ago, she released a great new feel-good song called “Meant for Me.”
Next up: Brynn Cartelli, singing “Secondhand Smoke.” I mean, talk a great song. Featuring a great vocal. Easily one of the best post-Voice releases of 2023. Two million Spotify streams can’t be wrong, right?
I’d wrap up those guest appearances with another Christmas song. Perhaps from Girl Named Tom, which is wrapping up a holiday tour this week. Or maybe from Jordan Smith, who’s released a new version of “Joy to the World.”
Come to think of it, I’d just axe tonight’s planned performance by Dan + Shay and invite both to perform.
And, you know what? My guess is Voice fans would enjoy performances from those past champs a helluva lot more than they’ll enjoy the ones Voice producers have lined up for Tuesday’s season finale.
So tonight, celebrate the five finalists.
And, please, above all else, support them after the show.
Especially since The Voice doesn’t seem to care whether they succeed or not.
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8 Comments
I so agree 💯!!!!
It would be a much better show if the ones with real potential were guided better in how to make it in the business
The problem with promo after the show lies with the record label/labels the show uses. The record label/labels isn’t/aren’t following through. The music industry is not as lucrative as it once was. The pie has diminished since iTunes and the fading of selling highly profitable albums. The pie has also been severely and further diminished since the popularity of streaming services that pay less than a penny per stream.
First of all, do they even have a label, or is it just a cash prize now?
If there is still a label involved, there are a few factors for why the label isn’t interested in the winners. After listening to last night’s song choices, I can understand why.
Many of the Voice contestants are in their late 20s, 30s and some have even been in their 40s. That limits the interest from record companies and radio personnel, as pop music is usually a young person’s game.
These shows are selling music styles that people just aren’t buying anymore. Nobody on radio these days is singing like Whitney Houston, Pearl Jam, Janis Joplin, etc.
“The Voice” is about the coaches and the gimmicks.
Alisan Porter was already an established actress and singer when she won her season.
The other finalists have to fend for themselves.
It’s not a good sign that the producers announced that Dan + Shay were going to be coaches next season before this season began.
The Voice contestants struggling to find success afterwards is plaguing other versions of The Voice in other countries as well. For instance, Voice winners in the U.K. have underperformed compared to stars from the show’s rival The X Factor. In 2019, the Daily Mail released an article titled, “Why hasn’t The Voice Australia EVER produced a star?” suggesting the problem occurs Down Under too.
In that article, a music writer for Australian paper the Herald Sun notes that the Idol franchise (and The X Factor) was overseen by Simon Cowell, a record executive with experience finding marketable talent in the wider music industry. It was Cowell, for example, that put together One Direction after its members auditioned as solo artists. With no similar force behind The Voice, the show becomes more focused on making purely an entertaining show rather than an artist factory.
Season 10 winner Alisan Porter puts the show’s lack of music success stories down to filming two seasons a year, meaning the focus is on making a new season. The singer told New York Post: “It was sort of like, ‘I got this record deal, but what do I do now?…Once you win, they’re on to the next season within two months and you’re a has-been. And I was, like, terrified that I wasn’t gonna use this momentum to make it in the music business. It was definitely not what I had expected.”
The coaches have often blamed the record label for not helping the contestants afterwards. Former coach Adam Levine told Howard Stern: “We do so much great s*** for these singers, and then they go to a record label … that f***s it up.”
Social media seems to be where stars are becoming successful. Tori Kelly is an example of that. She paved her way to success through YouTube.
Mat and Savanna Shaw are a father-daughter duo who became popular on YouTube during the pandemic. They’re recording albums now.
Success rate of people from TV talent shows kind of reminds me of boy bands. I grew up on boy bands in the 90s. Very few former boy banders go on to become successful solo stars.
Also in the music biz, you have one hit wonders. They record a hit song, then you never hear from them again.