Idol Chatter & Voice Views

If you like American Idol and haven’t watched The Voice yet, you really should give it a try.

I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

The show has become a hit in its own right.

And, if we’re lucky, it will drag Nigel Lythgoe and company kicking and screaming out of Idol’s dark ages and force them to freshen up their own show.

The Voice went live Tuesday night. Viewers were treated to 11 performances. The oldest song performed was “Lady Marmalade” (1974) by mentor Christina Aguilera and her four team members. The oldest song by an individual contestant was “I’m the Only One,” recorded in 1993 by Melissa Etheridge.  One contestant sang Keisha’s “Blow.” One sang Fergie’s “Big Girls Don’t Cry.” One sang Kings of Leon’s “Use Somebody.” Frank Sinatra’s name was not mentioned. Not once.

Idol has resisted fans’ demands that the voting system be changed so one person can’t cast hundreds upon hundreds of votes. The Voice opened its live shows with a vote limit already in place — 10 per device. That includes calls to a toll-free phone number, online votes at NBC.com, votes on the NBC Live iPad app, or downloads of performances from the show.

Idol wants you to frantically vote for the two hours after the show, which is pretty impractical for anyone with real-life responsibilities (like newspaper editors who have to be at work early in the morning). No such rush with The Voice. Voting opens after the show and doesn’t close until 10 a.m. EST Monday.  Every performance is online here so you can watch them repeatedly before deciding whom to support.

And, after watching Jennifer Lopez, Steven Tyler and Randy Jackson for months, this quartet — Christina, Blake Shelton, Adam Levine and Cee Lo Green — is downright refreshing.

OK, I wish they had been more critical during Tuesday’s first live show. I’m hoping that will come. The critiques came off as a little too much like an American Idol lovefest, circa Season 10, with some risque comments from Christina thrown in to spice things up.

But I was impressed with the way Blake put Dia Frampton behind a piano to perform to help her deal with stage fright. I liked the way he gave high school student Xenia simple choreography to combat the same problem, then rushed onstage to hug her when she completed her song.

For those who haven’t caught up yet, here’s how the quarterfinals will work.  The four remaining members of Team Christina and Team Blake performed last night. Two from each team will advance to the semifinals.

One of those contestants will advance based on viewer votes. One will be saved by his/her mentor, Christina or Blake in this case. The other contestants will be sent packing.  So in essence, the mentors are eliminating their own contestants.

Last night, I graded all the performances in a live blog.

Here’s my who-should-go and who-should-stay recap.

Team Christina

Who should stay: First and foremost, Beverly McClellan, who slayed Melissa Etheridge’s “I’m the Only One” in the best performance of the night. Tuesday’s show also featured the remaining contestants from each team singing a song with their judge. Silly filler, right? Not really. It’s a wonderful opportunity to see the four remaining contestants from each team singing on the same song, one after the other. Beverly sparkled on “Lady Marmalade” too.

Based on vocals alone, the second slot should go to Season Two Idol castoff Frenchie Davis, who certainly displayed her booming voice on “When Loves Takes Over.” But I’d almost like to see The Voice cut ties with this link to Idol. If that happens, Lilly Elise should be the pick for the second spot. She surprised me with a very solid vocal on “Big Girls Don’t Cry.”

Who should go: She’s a tiny dynamo, but 16-year-old Raquel Castro is over her head vocally on this team. That was apparent during the group number. And her version of “Blow” bordered on shouting.

Team Blake

Who should stay: After Christina’s critique, perhaps Patrick Thomas should sing the old Samantha Fox song “The Pants Stay On” next time he performs. Nah. That’s a dance tune. And Patrick is a country singer. And a darn good one. Not to mention the bright spot on Team Blake.

Because reality tells us this isn’t all about the voice, I’d give the second spot to Jared Blake, who shows absolutely no signs of the stage fright that plagues the female members of Team Blake.  If anything, he might have put a little too much of a rock edge into “Use Somebody.” Shyness is not going to be a problem for this guy.  I wish I could say the same for Dia Frampton.  She has an interesting tone to her voice.  I took a little flak on Twitter for giving her C- for her version of “Heartless.”  Sorry, I just wasn’t a fan of her version of that song.

Who should go: I’m glad Xenia got that big hug from Blake and the chance to flash a big smile after singing “Price Tag” last night. But that should be the end of Xenia’s journey on The Voice. This show has some very real talent. Getting through a song without succumbing to a bad case of nerves shouldn’t be enough to advance to the semifinals.