‘The Voice’ UK review: Meet Cleo Higgins, Mitchel Emms, Barry James Thomas

The blind auditions were once again under way on “The Voice” UK Saturday evening, and with the blind auditions coming to a close soon, now really is the time for some of these contestants to come into their own and shine.

Thanks to the lineup Saturday night being a little bit more competitive than usual (blame the spitting contest between the BBC and the ITV over their singing shows), we’re going to be updating this list a little bit later on in the night with some of the notable singers from this week’s auditions. For now, we’ll focus mostly on a trio of highlights from earlier on in the show.

Cleo Higgins – Remember the former Cleopatra singer? It’s been years since she was in the spotlight, but this was one of the rare “second chance” auditions this season that was actually good. Jessie J literally turned around about 1.5 seconds into this fantastic “Love On Top” performance, which is why she had to be the go-to choice for her out of the four who turned around. Right? She tried to relate to her through being a female, while will.i.am tried to explain that his performance in a group gives him a unique perspective.  She shockingly picked will.i.am, and this may be the first time we’ve literally seen a coach heartbroken over a move. Jessie looked like someone just told her Christmas was canceled.

Barry James Thomas – A rocker who has lived largely in the shadow of his brother, Barry made a big mistake during his audition in focusing more on the performance than the actual vocals. Once again, the over-40 set on the show ends up getting shunned. We don’t know why; maybe the coaches are able to recognize this age range vocally, and are afraid it won’t translate into sales.

Mitchel Emms – This was a rare move by the show, almost one designed by the BBC to make sure viewers stayed on the network rather than “Britain’s Got Talent.” We were introduced to him at the same time as Barry, and they didn’t perform for a few more minutes. After Barry left empty-handed, Mitchel apparently was the example of “cool young people” on the show. He did sing a personal favorite song in the Foo Fighters’ “Best of You.” He only got one turn in Danny O’Donoghue, but considering the genre of music, this really was the best choice for him.

Who was your favorite act on “the Voice” UK this weekend? Be sure to share some of your thoughts below, and you can also check out some other highlights from this season of the singing competition over at the link here.

Photo: BBC One