‘The Voice UK’ review: Classical Reflection, Emmanuel Nwamadi, Karis Thomas, Daniel Duke battle it out
Good news for those who love the battle rounds on “The Voice” UK: You got a ton of them tonight. Seriously. There were so many battles in this episode, writing this article felt almost like a marathon race for our fingers.
For those of you who hate them, especially when many of the steals have already happened, take solace in that they are over now. The Knockout Rounds will be next week, and after that, we should be at the point where the shows are live. At this point, we really just want to get to know the remaining singers, and not struggle to figure out who everyone is out of the billion people who are still left.
Letitia George d. Vikesh Champaneri, “Under Pressure” (Team Ricky) – Great song choice. There have been a few different occasions this season where it feels almost as though coaches are decided before the contestants even perform. Vikesh doubted himself before going on stage, and if you have confidence issues now, where will they be weeks down the road? He was still good enough in the performance to earn a steal from Will.
Jake Shakeshaft d. Stephen Cornwell, “Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall” (Team Will) – Is it wrong to say that we somewhat enjoyed Stephen calling out Rita Ora using her past critique against her? We liked that move for him, but we also liked her explanation on timing. The performances were similar, and the only thing we really didn’t like was Will trying to shirk his duties by taking a poll of the audience before picking Jake, who was better by a hair.
Liss Jones d. Vanessa Hunt, “Straight Up” (Team Rita) – “It wasn’t an annoying scream. It was an exciting scream to me.” Sage wisdom from Sir Tom Jones. Really, it was an annoying scream. Both of them tried way too hard, though we really loved the fact that it seemed in confessionals like these two really didn’t like each other very much. We would’ve picked Vanessa, if only because her job was kind of hilarious to hear about.
Daniel Duke d. Cai Williams, “Am I Wrong?” (Team Tom Jones) – We still love how Daniel looks like the last possible person you would ever expect to be on the show performing. He looks like more of an accountant than a singer, whereas Cai is like a wild jungle tour guide. It’s almost the same thing when it comes to Cai’s voice. It was swinging all over the place, and it smacked into a tree once or twice. He has probably more potential, but this isn’t “how good of a singer you can be.”
Sheena McHugh d. Hollie Berry, “Sisters are Doin’ It for Themselves” (Team Will) – We have seriously not thought about this song in forever. Our favorite part of this was Hollie telling Will during rehearsals that she left her husband for him … and the look on his face was priceless. Yep, the performance wasn’t great. Even Will criticized it for there being too much in the wail department. Hey, at least he didn’t ask the audience.
Autumn Sharif d. Hannah Wildes, “If I Ain’t Got You” (Team Rita) – We are so tired of this song on reality competitions. It is more of a rinse-and-repeat song for American singing shows than in Britain. This was lovely, and far and away a better vocal than in either one of the past performances. The show built this tremendous narrative tonight of Rita not wanting to press her button to steal someone … until now. Rita steals Hannah.
Esmee Denters d. Andrew Marc, “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” (Team Will) – What a bizarre hot mess of a performance this was. Andrew seems better for “Celebrity Big Brother” than this show; he’s not a bad singer, but more of the “David Walliams is your biggest fan variety.” They could have just told us Esmee won to save us some time. Also, was Andrew’s post-battle hug and kiss the most awkward moment in “Voice” UK history?
DTwinz d. The Mac Brothers, “Maps” (Team Rita) – Did Rita really say that a Maroon 5 record is somehow “indie”? We don’t buy that. Also, we don’t think that the brothers ever had that much of a chance of getting through to the Knockouts here. They just couldn’t compare to the energy and even the style that the twins have. It’s great when you have a nifty little gimmick like this.
Sasha Simone d. Lisa Ward, “Tracks of My Tears” (Team Tom) – Yes, it is rather hysterical when the show tries to make a big story out of Tom Jones knowing someone famous, like it is something new. The same goes for listening to contestants cry constantly. Seriously, we get it, “The Voice.” There are no more steals, but this wasn’t really a close battle anyway.
Karis Thomas d. NK, “Don’t Speak” (Team Rita) – Did Will throw some shade at Rita for choosing Karis? Maybe. This is the part of the show where we start to get exhausted as a viewer, since there are a billion different battles that take place over the course of a couple of hours with zero commercials. Neither one of them made us particularly speechless (terrible joke, we know), but we don’t begrudge Rita for picking a teenager with plenty of room to grow.
Lara Lee d. Kim Alvord, “My Kind of Love” (Team Tom) – Pretty dull, honestly. We wanted something exciting at this point in the show! After watching this battle play out to an overdone song, we really wanted something great with the last one of the night.
Emmanuel Nwamadi d. Classical Reflection, “The Living Years” (Team Ricky) – We finish with a battle that did not entirely disappoint. We love the song, and we loved both interpretations of it. There was no reason whatsoever for these two to perform together (far too different), but the individual moments were breathtaking. Picking Emmanuel is probably Ricky picking based on versatility. Classical Reflection would most likely be perfect for “Britain’s Got Talent” or a show that better showcases their skills.
Who was your favorite on tonight’s battle rounds episode? Share with a comment, and head over to get some other updates worth a song or two, courtesy of our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: BBC.)