Tuesday, April 30, 2013

The Voice: Knock Out Round No. 1 Teams Adam & Shakira





The Same Page is a blog; currently dedicated to reviewing Season 4 of NBC’s The Voice. Written by friends for life Giselle Carrington and Tonia Holder, this blog puts together all their thoughts while watching episodes of The Voice. This Blog is a bit different from your average review blog between friends, mainly because Giselle is in Grenada and Tonia is in Trinidad! They converse over Whatsapp on Mondays and Tuesdays and DRAMATICALLY express their views on the happenings of the episodes. They now wish to share their comical analyses with the world at large!




The Voice: The Knockout Rounds – Part 1 (Team Adam & Team Shakira)


Tonz: Now I was anxiously awaiting these rounds ‘cause I mean, we are down to the best of the best now and really; who do you want to see go home?
So for team Adam there were the following 8 persons from which 4 would make it to the live rounds, they are: Amber, Miades Wales, Amy, Caroline, Judith, Orlando, Warren and Sarah. My choices of who I believe would make the strongest team for Adam are: Judith, Sasha, Amber and Caroline.
The 8 persons from team Shakira are: Garrett, Tonya, Kris, Mary, Karina, Monique, Sasha and Shauna. My choices for the strongest team for Shakira are: Monique, Karina, Sasha and Kris.
Let’s see how good I am *wiggles eyebrows*.

Giz: My choices for Team Adam are: Judith, Amber, Warren and Sarah. For Team Shakira I choose: Kris, Karina, Sasha and Shawna. I’m hardly ever wrong! But sometimes I have illusions of grandeur sooooooo…lol. Anywhoozle, I’ll be reviewing the first 4 battles. Here goes it!!!

*Please click the battle headers to view video clips of each battle*

It’s no secret that Amber and I share the same last name. But, unlike TONIA, though I can be biased, when it comes to it, I judge based on what I hear and see on stage. I love Amber though.
Amber sang I’m With You, a passionate, strong song for a passionate strong individual. She came out and did what she had to do. I loved her dynamics, from soft and gentle to loud and uninhibited. Powerful!!! Tonz and I both agreed that she was wonderful. I mean, seriously, SAME PAGE.
Maidas Wale came out and did a good performance of Stevie Wonder’s Higher Ground. Personally, I didn’t get the usual Maidas feeling, but as the coaches rightly said afterward, they took a more serious approach. Maybe, the harmonies sounded a bit off to me, but that could just be me. I still enjoyed them to the max. (Max is the name of Tonia’s dog btw, for all the internet stalkers! Bahaha). Tonia doesn’t like Maidas Wale too much. She can be a hater at times you know. I had to tell her to “learn to go outside the box”. She does not listen to me at allllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll.
In the end, it was Amber who came out victorious! It’s obvious why she would be the winner, but it was also because she sounded awesome. See what I did there?! Lol. Anyway, congrats to Ms. Carrington on a job well done and we look forward to seeing you in the LIVE SHOWS! Yay! Maidas Wale, you guys are awesome, keep being different. Abresos y besos! J xoxo

Next up: Team Shakira: Garrett Gardener – Too Close vs Tawnya Reynolds – Hell on Heels
I still had no idea who Tawnya was, up to this point. *Shrugs* Tonia didn’t know either. Oh well. She was up against Garrett, who I didn’t think would have made it past the battle rounds, but did!
Garrett was up first with his rendition of Too Close, which, I will admit, surprised THE HELL out of me. I loved his performance. He sounded GREAT! #thatisall!
Tawnya came up to do her rendition of Hell on Heels. *shakes head* I have nothing against her, but her performance lacked the energy and most everything I’d be looking for at this stage of the competition. I was not impressed. In my passionate state, I may have used the word horrid, but that does not reflect how I think of her as an artiste, just the performance itself. Tonia defended her, but I was already on Garrett’s side. I did love her yodel though. Blake didn’t see the need for there to be so much.
Well, Garrett was the winner! I was right!!! Lol! But nice attempt by Tawnya. Maybe it wasn’t the best song choice by her for this round. Maybe Garrett was just better. Either way, good luck to Garrett, because next week is BOUND to be tough. I sincerely wish Tawnya the best too. :D

I did not know who Amy was. I swear I missed WEEKS! Anywho, she was against Caroline, who both Tonz and I love. She’s Tonia’s Nerd. She’s adorable and I love her weird voice. So unique.
Amy did her rendition. She started off VERY shaky. That put off the entire performance for me. Even though she landed an almost perfect note at the end, it didn’t quite make up for the beginning for me. As far as I’m concerned if you don’t save yourself very quickly after a shaky start, then in these competitions its EXTREMELY hard to come back. I know it was just nerves, but, still.
Caroline came really reserved and stuck with what she knew. It was really nice. There was nothing EPIC about it, but there was also nothing wrong with it and I liked it. I’m always afraid though, that when a gentle singer goes up against a more powerhouse singer, people get so caught up with the power that they overlook the potential of the gentle singer. Amy made a note at the end of her song that made even Caroline say wow.
When time for the results, Caroline pulled through. YAY! Tonia was VERY glad! So was I. I look forward to seeing how she fairs in the live shows. I wish the best of luck to Amy though.

I love Kris, if you’ve read previous reviews you’d know that. I just love his voice and the miraculous things he can do with it. I like Mary Miranda as well; she’s a strong Latina Singer.
Kris came on stage to sing What a Wonderful World and he did not over do it. I saw his wonderful world when he sang. His vibrato is so, smooth…Jesus! There’s not much I can say. He just did so well.
Mary Miranda chose The Police’s Every Step You Take. Her rendition was ok, but it still had that Latin vibe to it that I don’t even think she was going for. As Shakira said, the song wasn’t what she was accustomed to. She did try her best and owned the bridge of the song. Unfortunately, she did not do well enough for me. To come against Kris, you would have to come really good.                                                  
In the end, Kris was the winner, moving on, as we all knew he would. Mary, we love you and wish you the best!!!!          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Tonz: So I’m going to be reviewing the last four battles of the night, beginning with one of my personal, all-time favorites, Judith and one of the stolen artists Orlando.

First off let me just say I love Judith, from the very beginning! Her voice is the bomb and I want to see her win this entire thing. Ok now that that is out of my system, on to the battle. Judith started us off and she was smooth and perfect. Her presence on stage was so awe inspiring, she had her soft smooth moments and she had her nice high ones. Never once did she lose her pitch. She stayed true to herself, her voice and I could honestly not find one thing wrong with that performance. Judith for the win for me! Giselle and I were totally on the same page with Judith, she said and I quote ‘her voice is sik’.
Orlando came out and at first he started pretty ok for me, but kind of got pitchy after a while; I think maybe he got nervous after watching Judith perform. As the band started to power up, he lost some of his power, because I began to struggle to hear him a bit. He got a lot more pitchy and I was wondering what in the name of music was going on with him. Giz didn’t like his performance at all, she said it was horrible, he was all over the place (again I think it was nerves).
In the end there was no need for a long deliberation, I think Adam did that just to be nice to Orlando, because all the coaches called it, Giselle and I called it and Adam knew it to be true as well Judith for the win, punto finale.

Giz: I just need to point out…I like Orlando. I don’t think he’s horrid at all, just this one performance. Maybe horrid is a harsh word to use, HOWEVER, it’s the word I used while watching.

Well this paring kind of took me for a loop; I was not expecting Shakira to pair these two ladies together because basically they are two of her strongest singers. But maybe it is because of this exact reason she did.
Karina came out rough and gritty, real rock and roll. She has a beautiful strong voice, and I loved her stage presence, totally showing the rock genre. Giz even had to comment here that ‘ rock really is her thing’, she believed that Karina stayed true to herself which is always kind of hard. But for me I think she kind of pigeon holed herself into being a rock and roll artist alone, she didn’t really show a different appreciation for the other genres. But she did rock that performance.
Monique looked so pretty but as Giselle likes to point out, this is the voice and not a beauty contest. I love Monique (sings ‘loca loca loca’) and I love her voice. She was admittedly kind of pitchy at the beginning but she got stronger, however there were times when she fell flat. I think it’s because of the latin accent that the Latinas have, that impedes their vocal ability a little bit. The last high note was not as strong as I would have liked it to be, because I know how strong she can hit those kinds of notes. Giselle felt she sounded tired lol. I think she did well though and I wasn’t sure who Shakira was going to choose as I like both these artists. In the end she chose to keep Karina and while I was sad to see Monique go I was glad Karina stayed.

Giz: Singing a Celine Deon song can be tiring. I mean, it’s frickin’ CELINE DEON!

Back to Team Adam: Warren – I just Died in your Arms vs Sarah – Wild Horses
I am totally biased in this competition, I am all for team Sarah, sorry Warren but I love Sarah’s voice. Now not to say Warren didn’t come out with his guns blazing. He started off a little low and a little flat but as the chorus kicked in, he found his footing and I was forced to say ‘Wow Warren’. He did great as his confidence (not that he needed a boost in that direction) soured. Giselle loved the choice of song and was equally astounded by Warren as her comment to his performance was ‘Jesus’.
Sarah saw what Warren did and wasn’t backing down at all. She hopped off that stool, took to centre stage and let loose the power of her voice. She lost some power in her low parts and I couldn’t hear her properly at some points but I blame it on nerves. She came out strong and in her element during the chorus. I totally love her ability to go from rock to falsetto in a heartbeat and so smoothly. I was firmly behind my girl and as it turns out so were all the other judges including Adam. Sarah smashed this round and took home the win. Adam rightfully said ‘Sarah is just so good, it’s amazing’. Giz agreed with her fully, same page all the way, top marks for Sarah.

On to the final battle of the night, it was here that Giselle tried to pull a, me. She wanted to go and sleep, well obviously I was not having it because there was only one battle left. Stay up Dammit!

Now anyone who has read my previous posts will know how passionate I was/am about Sasha. I was devastated when Adam didn’t choose her, totally devastated. But Shakira claimed her, dusted her off and gave her a new shine.
She came out strong, guns drawn and blazing. Through and through she showed her powerful voice and range and I was proud! It was a perfect rendition of ‘At Last’ even my dad who never really watches the show had to agree. To me she totally showed Adam what a fool he was for not choosing her and put him in his place, ‘suck it Adam’ (I still love you though).
Shawna sang a song completely out of her genre. I know her to be hardcore and rough and gritty with a growl of a mama bear. But she came out somewhat soft, with a low growl that I hardly distinguished. She makes a lot of funny faces while she sings and this distracted me a bit during her performance. Although it lacked what she was known for and what got her through all the other rounds, it was a pleasant change of pace for Shauna.
The judges were blown away with Sasha’s performance, with Adam admitting that he was a fool for letting her go and totally regrets it *duh*. Blake commented that she had positioned herself as a front runner in the competition and Usher stated that he hated that he hadn’t fought harder to steal her. They all felt that even though Shauna’s performance was good, it wasn’t as great as it could have been, as they were all waiting for her fire to come out. No surprise her Sasha wins this knockout rounds.

Tonz: That’s how we end it for the first Knockout Rounds. Here are the artistes left standing, for Team Adam: Amber, Caroline, Judith and Sarah (please note ALL of my choices made it through!) Adam we are so winning this thing!!
And for Team Shakira: Garrett (not one of my choices), Kris, Karina and Sasha (3 out of 4 isn’t bad, really thought Monique would have made it to though *tear*).

Giz: Sooooooooooooo, three of mine from each team made it. I think I did alright!!! J

We can’t wait to see what Team Blake and Team Usher have in store for us. Until then, *clears throat and sings* “This is the Voiceeeee”

Continue to look out for our reviews. Comment, like, share and follow us on twitter: @shiversniffles and @tonzmarie. We look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Till Next time!
Giz & Tonz

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