NBC’s ‘The Voice’ review: Alisan Porter, Emily Keener, Paxton Ingram kick off Battle Rounds
Great news, folks: The Knockout Round is here on “The Voice“! It’s our favorite of the two middle portions of the competition, since contestants get to choose their own songs, and also are not burdened by having to do a duet and fit into the style of someone else. We expect a number of great performances as a result of this over the two hours.
As with every other review for the show, we’re doing this live! Buckle in and stay tuned for more updates.
Paxton Ingram defeats Angie Keilhauer, Team Blake – This was an interesting way to start off the proceedings, mostly because it was as lopsided a victory as we’ve heard. We were super-worried when Paxton claimed he was doing Adele, but he completely nailed some of the range of the song and proved that he can tackle almost everything. Meanwhile, Angie’s nerves simply got the better of her as her intonation was all over the place. No steal this time.
Owen Danoff defeats Ryan Quinn, Team Adam – We don’t know quite what Adam was thinking in pairing up these two. We imagine that this was in some ways an upset, mostly because of Owen’s excellent and heartfelt Billy Joel cover. Ryan was strong, but we think that there’s only so much you can do with “Drops of Jupiter.” Luckily, Christina stole him and added to what is already a beast of a team.
Hannah Huston defeats Malik Heard, Team Pharrell – We thought that Malik was solid until this point in the season, but to us this one was really a slam-dunk. The moment that we heard Hannah’s performance of “House of the Rising Sun” in a preview, we knew what was going to happen on the show, and the end result really was not even that close.
Katie Basden defeats Lacy Mandigo, Team Blake – This was really good on all fronts. Both ladies really brought it, and this was strong on all parties. We’re not sure we enjoyed Lacy’s as much as the cover of “Zombie” we had on the show a few seasons ago during the blind auditions, but we don’t fault it. Plus, a STEAL! Lacy is now on Team Pharrell.
Alisan Porter defeats Daniel Passino, Team Christina – We feel for Daniel right now, given that we really do think that he did his best, all things considered, with his performance. He was just up against a vocal monster in Alisan who we think is probably going to win the whole season. He had his work cut out for him having even a remote chance of sticking around.
Emily Keener defeats Shalyah Fearing, Team Pharrell – Our final battle, and really strong overall. What’s a little crazy about this overall is that Shalyah may be one of the best contestants to lose / be stolen twice. We actually thought she was outstanding here, but to be fair, so was Emily. Luckily, she’s now a part of Team Adam.
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