By Erica
I have a confession. I am having Voice fatigue, and have struggled with it this entire season for some reason. Sure I’m still having computer issues, but I’ve had those before. Same with allergies. I’m taking craft classes one day a week, but last season I raced home and stayed up because I was so excited to watch the show and write the blog.
Then this week. I am ROYALLY PISSED OFF.
If you read any of my Voice blogs in the past, you know that I hate the Twitter save as I find it vastly unfair to those who don’t get to watch the show live. But at least I get to have SOME influence over who stays that week as I can participate the overall voting process.
This week, they basically made ALL the voting one massive Twitter Save. On Monday, every artist sang, grouped by Team. (So, first all of Team Kelly sang, then Team Adam, Team Blake, Team Alicia). They did not have any time for coach comments, which may have been the only thing I liked about the new system. But voting for who you wanted to stay on the team was only open for a few minutes after the team finished their performances. So in essence, there was only a window of a half hour to vote. I still haven’t even learned everyone’s name, so I am supposed to remember who I want to stay even if I was ON fucking Twitter at the time? Hell, on Monday, I WAS STILL AT WORK when the show began. All of it is a big fuck you to literally half the population of the USA, those of us NOT in the East Coast time zone.
On Monday they announced ONE person from each team who was moving on. Then on Tuesday the remaining Team Blake and Team Alicia artists performed, with Team Kelly and Team Adam wrapping it up on Wednesday. Again, the voting period was limited. Fuckers.
This is a HORRID disadvantage to some of the singers. DID THEY NOT LEARN ANYTHING FROM JENNIFER HUDSON’S EXPERIENCE ON AMERICAN IDOL? The week Jennifer went home there was a massive storm and power outage in Chicago and most of Illinois. Back then, no social media and AI did all their voting by phone numbers, if I remember right. Jennifer went home, and there was massive outrage. I firmly believe this may have hurt some of the country artists and the two who sing in Spanish. The large Spanish speaking fanbase in places like California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Arizona didn’t get an opportunity to hear someone sing an entire song in Spanish. PLUS, we are still at the point where some of the people up for a vote didn’t have their all of their performances shown in the past weeks. If you are relying on HALF OF THE COUNTRY to vote on their favorites BASED ON PAST PERFORMANCES, this is distinctly unfair! Hell, there was one guy, Drew Cole, who did “Man in the Mirror” really well, and I didn’t remember him at all! (OK, to be fair? Today I experienced what I think was my first ocular migraine. So that might have had something to do with that.)
I’m sort of ok with who is on the teams. I would have gone on a complete Twitter rampage if my favorite Kyla Jade had been voted off. I love that woman. The growth she shows at every performance is palpable. I am clearly not alone in my fangirl status, as she was the Team Blake person who immediately moved on to next week on Monday. If you don’t watch any other performance, watch her this week. THE RANGE AND POWER SHE HAS IS INSANE. I can’t believe how low she can go. I am not that religious, but I’d go to church if she was the choir soloist.
I’m also thrilled that Britton Buchanan has moved on to the semi-finals. He too got the public’s vote on Monday. This time he played the guitar, and worked that stage like a pro singing Some Kind of Wonderful. I don’t think he’ll necessarily be the ultimate winner, but I want him to stay on as long as he can to show off his mad musical talent.
Oh, I think I forgot to mention that this entire week, the artists picked their own songs. I have no idea if the coaches were still allowed to coach them. I assume so. MAD, MAD PROPS to Pryor Baird. His second song choice? 9 to 5. It was awesome. I think that this is the first time I’ve heard a guy sing it. It is one of my favorite Dolly songs, and Blake was completely right to point out how it is pretty freaking amazing that he sang it in the same key as Dolly!
Looking at the teams now, I think Alicia’s team is the strongest, followed closely by Blake (of course. Seriously, the guy needs to start a record label. Both he and Alicia could have a full on record producing careers, in my opinion. They should start a company together). I think Kelly’s team is the weakest. She was an IDIOT and saved D.R. over Tish Haynes Keyes. Tish’s easy going hilarious stage presence, coupled with her amazing pipes deserved more. Her “At Last” on Wednesday’s episode gave me goosebumps, even though I was still ROYALLY PISSED OFF.
Oh, Adam DID get rid of the Draco Malfoy white hair, but it now looks like he’s in the early stages of growing a porn stache. OH THE HUMANITY!
Fantastic recap, Erica. You made some great points, especially about the slant towards the East Coast voters. Ocular migraines are weird and frightening – take care of yourself.
Thanks. I was freaking out a little, then I realized I had a slight headache and felt light sensitive (like I do with my regular migraines.) I try not to self diagnose via the Google, but when I googled ocular migraines, there was an image that was almost identical to what I was seeing. So similar it was weird. I turned off all screens, shut the curtains, took my migraine meds, and lied down for a while and it did go away.
Is it terrible I don’t want to go to the doctor so the nurse can tell me to lose weight again?
Yep, it majorly sucks when half the country basically have no input. Happens on show after show.
As a result, my level of caring has dropped to an all time low.
Thanks for helping me to pinpoint my waning interest in this show. I was unable to participate in any voting because 1. West coast 2. Late work hours. It was after 11pm eastern before I even got home. I’ll see if I’m able to get on board now that I can get home a couple hours earlier. If nothing else I’ll watch when I can and read your excellent recaps.
Incentive to keep recapping!!!
Just got home, and if the allergies don’t knock my ass out, I’m going to try to watch at least an hour. I am NOT letting myself watch Vanderpump Rules. No. I will not watch them. NO I TELL YOU.
VPR won for me last night lol. I’ll watch The Voice this morning and see if I made the right choice.
Shark
Just after I posted, ABC in Los Angeles announced that for American Idol, the next three Sundays everyone will see the live at the same time across the country.. And should we be home to watch at 5pm (earlier in Alaska and Hawai’i, we can vote live.
So American Idol is throwing down the gauntlet in terms of scheduling.
Yeah, TT messaged me about this earlier when I was at my pottery class.
This is pretty powerful, and The Voice better come up with something. My parents never vote, but they even said this may be their last season. 3 nights in a row is a LOT when you have other shows you watch, or fuckballs, a life. Plus, AI is past the part I fucking hate – the laughing at people who are terrible.
I might watch – but ::shudder:: Seacrest.
I will think about it.
They didn’t really do terrible people this season. They had some bad auditions but no William Hung or whatever his name was type stuff.
They cut to the final ten last night on AI and it was HARSH. There was a little 16 year old girl on there who was spunky and brave and fabulous and Katy was VERY hard on her. She would sing and be amazing and cry and Katy was all, “I just didn’t feel any emotion.” There had to be some personal reason why she rode this kid so hard because the biggest complaint about this season has been there is no Simon type judge. They are all very supportive and nice. Except Katy to this one girl.
There is an actual drag queen on this season that is amazing. He sings in drag but dresses a male the rest of the time. The heartbreaking thing is the kid has no one. Not one family member or friend has come to hear him sing. When he left the auditions after moving forward each time, only Ryan was there to hug him and congratulate him. At least he has an AI family now. The contestants are all very close.
Also AI is VERY WHITE. All of the people America voted in to the top ten were white. The judges chose four and put in people of color. Stark contrast when you watch The Voice right afterward and there are lots of POC.
I agree with you on all fronts! Why allow so many people to vote without first seeing performances? Hubby hate watches at this point because he can’t let anything go, but this season is so whack. I never really connected with this season and I’m not sure if it’s the artists, Adam, or Kelly’s non.stop.talking. We thought Miley was bad? I’ll keep reading your fantastic recaps and hope Kyla and Britton make it far. Thank you for tuning in and entertaining us!
Erica what a wonderful recap. I hate that they don’t give us numbers to call and vote. I’m older and don’t do twitter or voting apps or that crap, but I know how to punch in a number. I just have to pray my favorites get to move forward. I also suffer from Ocular migraines and have for years. My best advise, as soon as the symptoms start you need to take your migraine med. it will kick in and make the headache not so bad.
Did the Voice climb in business bed with Twitter? That’s the only thing I can come up with for this stupid format of voting. I too, am west coast and felt frustrated over the process. Thank God my two favorites Britton and Kayla are still in the mix or I would have probably quit watching as a personal protest.