‘The Voice’ UK review: Meet Ragsy, Liam Tamne, Alys Williams, and Nadeem Leigh
Week 2 of “The Voice” UK is here, and there was yet again a plethora of interesting performers on the show this year. We particularly enjoyed some of the stories: there weren’t many of the “boo hoo” variety, and instead just some pretty tales about singing with Michael Buble, recording one of Meat Loaf’s biggest hits, and being a rock n’ roll chef. We’ll take these over yet another story manipulated for years any day of the week.
Who was your favorite singer of the bunch? Be sure to share some of your thoughts in the comment below; and without further ado, let’s get to what our impressions are for all of the individual singers.
Trevor Francis – The first singer of the night has spent years doing background vocals, and while some of these artists have not in the past really amounted to much through this show, he has a super-soulful voice that got all four coaches to turn for him. Luckily, he also now has one he’s working with in Jessie J who will work to keep him current.
Emma Jade Garbutt – Look at that: two straight weeks with a country singer on this show. It’s amazing how country music stereotypes (i.e. “yeehaw”) are even more prominent over in Britain, but the reality is that these sort of singers are rare. She looks a little bit like Carrie Underwood, and with the right coaching we think this could really happen for him. Tom Jones was the only person who turned around, but he’s probably the best choice for her, anyway.
Sam Hollyman – They didn’t pick the Michael Buble guy! This is the first time ever that we actually knew a singer on this show well before they auditioned, mostly because we watched that video of Buble freaking out after Sam’s mother forced him to go on stage to sing with him. If only Buble had been a judge! But Alas, Sam now has to hope for another viral video.
Alex Buchanan – Alex is of the vein of the guy who performs in some sort of tribute act, having worked in a Michael Jackson stage show. Personally, we thought his vocals were a little bit all over the place, but he did still manage to get everyone to flip their chairs around. Everyone turned around, and he picked Jessie. Was it the right choice? We don’t know, since will.i.am had a bond with Michael already, and would be perfect for his style of music.
Lorraine Crosby – She was the woman in the Meat Loaf hit “I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That),” but she has never received any recognition or money for it. Sad, but she had a good attitude about it. What happened? We don’t know how a single coach turned around for it, since it was pretty darn fantastic. Are these judges operating based on what they think will be good in the market more so than the voice? That’s what we are wondering based on the performance.
Ragsy – Brilliant. The rockin’ chef was by far our favorite audition of the night, since he found a way to make Coldplay’s “The Scientist” haunting, but in a completely different way than we’ve heard it before. We would’ve thought that all four coaches would turn around, if Danny O’Donoghue did not make it so obvious that he was the frontrunner from the get-go. We were stunned to see hum pick Tom, mostly because we really think that Danny would have been such a better fit for what he does.
Smith & Jones – Aww. Isn’t young love so sweet? We find it pretty funny that BBC One is playing One Direction music in their introduction, since they’re really giving Simon Cowell royalty money. These two do not necessarily have huge voices, but they do now have Danny on their side, who at least knows a thing or two about performing in a group.
Liam Tamne – Really? You’re singing “A Woman’s Worth”? This song is next to impossible to sing correctly thanks to the falsetto and some of the big moments that happen throughout. This was nonetheless a beautiful, haunting performance of the Kate Bush and Maxwell song, and it nearly brought us to tears. This was actually a time when Jessie probably would have been the best choice, mostly because she seemed ready to marry him on the spot. However, he end up picking will.i.am.
Kym Mazelle – Oh boy. Good luck to anyone who tries to work with this huge personality. She is extremely experienced, but this show is developing a habit of taking people who were once famous, using them to hype up the show, and then not actually getting them on a team. Sorry, Kim.
Nadeem Leigh – All right, here’s our first real sad story of the night. Nadeem lost his mother and struggled with addiction for many years, but now he’s trying to use music as a form of healing. The only reason that nobody else turned their chair around save for Danny is merely because the guy was willing to threaten them if they even thought about it. On a different note, Danny has Bono’s phone number?! Apparently, since he was going to text the U2 guys about this performance.
Nick Dixon – A good singer, but that mustache first of all has to go. He has a pretty good voice, but we personally think that he was just too nervous and green to succeed on a show on this. He didn’t get any chairs to turn, mostly because he was so young.
Alys Williams – This was a big gamble, since it was her second time on the show. If you choke two years in a row, how embarrassing does that have to feel? Our answer: very. You’re basically meeting her again, but you may not even recognize her voice if you are sitting with your chair facing the audience. Now, we have to talk about the fact that she spent nearly half an hour in order to make her decision. How crazy is that? There needs to be a time limit on that, since at a certain point it gets a little disrespectful to the people who are taking their time to be there for you. In the end, though, she did choose Tom.
If you want to read some more news pertaining to “The Voice” UK’s premiere week, all you have to do is visit the story over at the link here.
Photo: BBC One