NBC’s ‘The Voice’ review: Did Sisaundra Lewis, Audra McLaughlin, Ryan Maloney advance?
After weeks of auditions and battles, we’re not at the next stage of “The Voice” … but it’s still not live. The playoffs this season were pre-recorded, and that took some of the fun away for us. Instead, it allowed for more edited packages and opportunities for Blake Shelton to plan his hootin’ and hollerin’ while his team performed.
As we’re going to do with all of the performance shows the rest of the way, we’re ranking here from least-favorite to favorite performance. Then, we’re sharing the big results at the very end.
Madilyn Paige, “Clarity” – Anytime that a coach tells you that they don’t know what’s going to happen at the end of the night, it’s a sign that you are probably going to go home. Madilyn is a good singer for her age, but she’s not ready. This performance was littered with all sorts of bad notes, and it was the wrong song. People need to stop singing this Zedd hit like it is something easy to take on.
Audra McLaughlin, “Broken Wing” – If you really love hearing someone try to pack hundreds of runs into a single performance, this is for you! This sort of “singing show performance” is so frustrating to watch. There’s so much talent here, but rather than diving into the emotion of the song, it instead felt like a lecture … a “see what I can do moment.”
Jake Worthington, “Anywhere With You” – This is exactly what you are going to get from Jake all season long if he stays: Serviceable but boring country performances. He’s a good singer and there were few mistakes in here. It’s just not special, and there are not enough country singers out there who realize how important it is to be original.
Ryan Maloney, “Second Chance” – We are about 85% show at the moment of this performance that Ryan was put into this stage as complete fodder. He’s actually a very good rock singer, but Blake didn’t seem to have much more confidence in him than he would a beer that would get him drunk after the show.
Sisaundra Lewis, “New York State of Mind” – Of course, Sisaundra slayed it. She’s an unlikely contestant for Blake, but a very good one. If we just wanted to listen to someone sing for an hour out of anyone this season, it’s her without a doubt. She knows when to hit runs, and when to sing from the heart.
Results – Remember, Blake loves his country artist. So of course he picked Jake, and of course he picked Audra to advance to the next round. We know that he wins the season a lot, but if we were a contestant on the show, we’d never pick him to be a coach if we were a singer of any other genre other than country. Episode grade: B-.
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Photo: NBC