I Love Music!

Even with Adam's moves like Jagger,
The Sing-Off managed to edge out
The Voice out as my favorite singing
competition.

As I prepare to watch The Voice tonight, I’m thinking about how much I love a good music competition. It started with American Idol and maybe because I’ve been with that one the longest, I’m beginning to feel that it’s run it’s course.

I mean, exactly how many country-crooning Carrie Underwood-wannabes can one Top 10 take! Jeez! Enough Already! Plus the bland and lackluster winners of the past few years haven’t helped. The most exciting thing to happen to AI in the past few years is Adam Lambert and he didn’t even win.

Oddly, I’m not missing Simon and I haven’t missed him since he left. I never watched AI for the judges, I have always watched for the talent and Jessica and Phillip notwithstanding, I just don’t have a lot to root for this season.

Where I am rooting is over at NBC at The Voice (and not just because Adam Levine is there). I just love the dynamic of the show: four chart-topping current artists mentoring and working with a group of singers. They get involved in a way that Idol could only hope.

I look forward to The Voice much more than I do Idol. The judges and contestants look like they are having fun. And, I’m having fun watching them.

I also have a lot of fun watching The Sing-Off. These are a capella groups that are solely in it because they love to sing. The talent and the enthusiasm is catching. Of course, by the time The Sing-Off started, they knew that having a good trio of judges was key. When Sara Bareillis replaced Nicole Scherzinger and joined the boys (Ben Folds and Shawn Stockman of Boys II Men fame), I had my doubts, but she pulled it off. Of all of the singing shows I think this would be my favorite.

New to the game this year was The X-Factor. Since I never really missed Simon, it’s no surprise that I wasn’t super-excited about seeing him back. After The Sing-Off and The Voice, I had gotten used to judges that were fun. The tension Simon brings is unnecessary, however, I actually did like the show. I didn’t have the same anticipation for it week-after-week, but I watched and will probably watch again this year.

So if I had to put my favorite singing competitions in order, I’d rate them…
1. The Sing-Off
2. The Voice
3. American Idol
4. X-Factor
(3 and 4 are virtually tied).