The Voice: Stephanie Rice, Troy Ramey’s Knockout Round performances
Stephanie Rice, “Safe and Sound” – Love the song choice here, since it shows so much as to what she can do. There are obvious country notes within this song, but there is also something more folksy and haunting about the melody. It’s a fantastic choice for a singing show, largely because there are so many different things that you can do with it. One of our favorite Knockout Round performances we’ve seen.
Troy Ramey, “Chandelier” – This is where things get so interesting. This is an impossibly-tough song, and we like that Troy is not the sort of guy you would think would perform this song. Yet, at the same time he does show a lot of interesting vulnerability in it. We’re not one of those people who will ultimately compare him to Jordan Smith, Sia, or anyone else who’s done the song. He gets the emotional connection, and that’s what matters here.
In the end, though, we’d pretty go with Stephanie as the winner of the Knockouts just based on our own preference and the sort of artists we want to see in the next round of the show. We’re also looking beyond the competition to who we think could be more memorable after the fact in the music business — after all, this is something that the show’s also got to think about.
We’ll see what happens when the show airs shortly, but we are at the point in the contest where we’re gearing up to the live shows, which is when we think everything gets so much more interesting. That’s why we remain very much in favor of figuring out a way to condense these middle rounds to get another live show or two — that way, we get a chance to play around with song choices, playing to the public, and watching iTunes sales charts. These are the sort of things that excite us.
Who do you think should win this battle? Sound off now in the comments! (Photo: NBC.)