The Voice: Let the Battles Begin

Sexy stubble beats full-on beard
every time!

Since the blind auditions are over. I was curious to see if The Voice would be able to keep my attention with the next phase – the battle rounds. Each judge had to pick two of his (or her) teammates to go head-to-head against each other singing the same song. After getting some coaching, the judge would decide after the performance, who would make it into the final four and who wouldn’t.

Team Christina
It was ladies' first last night and Christina pitted two of her most formidable talents against each other gospel singer Tarralyn Ramsey and Broadway diva (and former disqualified American Idol contestant) Frenchie Davis. Christina challenged them to perform Beyonce’s Single Ladies. She knew both could belt out a ballad easily and might have more challenge and more fun with an up-tempo number. She was assisted in her coaching by by Australian singer Sia (never heard of her). It was a battle of the divas with both hitting (and missing) the big notes. I thought Tarralyn was a little more screechy and maybe Christina did too because she went with Frenchie.

Team Blake
With Reba McIntyre to back him up, Blake pitted cute ol’ country crooner Patrick Thomas against bespectacled pop singer Tyler Robinson. The song? Elvis’s Hunk of Burning Love. Blake wanted them to feel like a slab of incendiary passion-filled flesh and I’m not sure I brought it from either of them. Ultimately, Blake followed his country sensibilities and went with Patrick.

Team Adam
Adam was the only one to go with a male-female duet. He chose teenager Casey Weston to battle against Tim Mahoney (the one he thought was a woman during the blind auditions). He selected the Don Henley/Stevie Nicks ballad, Leather and Lace for their song. They did the original justice. Although there is a vibrato in Casey’s voice that I didn’t really enjoy, Adam chose her over Tim.

Team Cee-Lo
In the final battle, it was Nicki Dawson vs Vicci Martinez. Their duet of Pink’s Perfect has been in all of the promos for this week’s episode. Both sang well and with passion but Vicci did this sumo wrestler stomp that just took me out of the whole song making me ask, “What in the hell?” Apparently Cee-lo liked it well enough because Vicci beat out Nicki.

Next week: More battles to come!