Second and final week of the live quarterfinals finds Team Adam and Team Cee Lo performing. While Adam’s team shows its overall weaker ability, Cee Lo’s eclectic team surprises with a series of strong performances this week, including their team rendition of “Dancing in the Street”. There’s also a fun reveal of just how much input into the actual performances the judges/coaches – Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, Cee Lo Green, and Christina Aguilera – have as Adam was completely unaware that an aerial silks (curtain dancing) artist was going to be performing during Mathai’s number. Christina suggested that she was intimately involved in the production design for each of her team members, so now there’s another layer to study in how well they serve their contestants.
Team Cee Lo
Jamar Rogers, Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life”
James Massone, Billy Joel’s “Just the Way You Are”
Cheesa, Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing”
Juliet Simms, Aerosmith’s “Crying”
Up first is Jamar Rogers, a powerful voice with a stirring soul who really connects on a human level with his story of survival as a recovering addict and being HIV positive. Cee Lo gives him a strong and poignant song in Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life” and Jamar can’t help but sing the hell out of it. Personally, I feel that it was bit too bombastic and stuck on one full-throated level, causing us to miss out on the full effect of the song and losing lyrics. Still, his energy and presence can’t be denied.
James Massone has been cast as the teen/YA heartthrob and in some regards it works for me, but it also does him a disservice. Cee Lo picking Billy Joel’s song is actually a great fit for James with the delicacy of his voice working very well with the theme of the song. He reminds one of the “young one” of a boy band, with a precious voice, but he has a very slight presence on stage and the song actually hinders him from breaking out. Blake and Christina both felt like the song just kind of “laid there” and while it did a bit better than that, it felt like a quiet, soft interlude in the middle of a concert rather than a setpiece.
Cheesa, who has a round accented voice that has often lost yours truly so far in the competition, takes a huge risk in singing a Whitney Houston song, a catalog that has been played to death on singing competition shows and yet often proves far too much for most attempting them. Surprisingly, Cheesa is able to mostly rise to the occasion here, singing the song big and well. Despite Christina’s assertion, there isn’t a strong departure from the original here and while it isn’t as memorable as Whitney’s it is Cheesa’s best performance and one of the strongest of the night.
The final performance for the team and of the evening goes to the young rocker with the “rugged leather” voice, as Cee Lo puts it, “built to last.” Given a song right up her alley and yet one that could easily get away from people without the voice to carry it, Juliet slays it from the broken voice during the open voice to the big final note amidst the sea of feathers. (Side note, the black angel wings were thoroughly unnecessary.) She has a way of just launching into a song and giving into it wholly, going along with the ride without thought until the song is finished, and while she might not hit every note, she owns songs thoroughly. She tore through the chorus, seared through the bridge, and ripped apart the final run all in fantastic fashion.
When it comes down to the choice of the instant elimination, Cee Lo makes the honest and most informed choice in letting go James, who has the weakest stage presence and color of voice of the four members of the team. James will find a contract and likely make a fair splash with a first record, but he can’t compete with the others left in the competition.
Team Adam
Katrina Parker, Christina Perri’s “Jar of Hearts”
Mathai, Nelly Furtado’s “I’m Like a Bird”
Tony Lucca, Britney Spears’ “… Baby One More Time”
Pip, Keane’s “Somewhere Only We Know”
Adam’s team kicks off the night right with a stunning performance by formerly “mousy” Katrina Parker. Decked in a rather fetching dress, it was easy to draw comparisons between her and Adele with her big voice. While she still has a little trouble fully giving into the emotion of a song, she did play the emotion and levels in this performance very well. Separating herself from others, there was a slight rasp and beautiful trills that gave highlights rather than overpowered the whole thing like other competitors, building to a gorgeous finish.
This was followed by Mathai’s version of Nelly Furtado’s signature song “I’m Like a Bird” and once again a contestant suffers from a too on-the-nose song selection. As result, Mathai’s distinct voice makes her come off like Furtado having an off-night on stage. Biggest thing is despite her over-smiling throughout the song, she really seemed very disconnected from it and was trying to force the whole song, leading to rather weak falsetto work toward the end of it.
Next up was Tony Lucca, who the show has made effort to stress the relationship between he and Christina as former members of the Mickey Mouse Club. Tony, of course, has been working to push past that image and association but was smacked in the face with it last time he performed when Christina called out his performances as “one-dimensional”. As sort of a middle finger to her and that perception, he and Adam cook up a performance of fellow MMC member Britney Spears’ hit that does an effective job of shaking up the image. It’s still not the strongest turn, with a bit of a stilted rendition and trying awful hard to push his voice and a “hard” tone throughout. His range and dynamism seemed limited but there are moments where his voice shines and he has fun throughout, creating great energy that ropes everyone – including Christina – in.
Pip, he of the bowtie, shuns the neck accoutrement this week in favor of a stripped down style. With his background in musical theatre and his penchant for falling back on that style, Adam coaches him to go after notes in a very simple, straightforward manner and hit them confidently to pull out a strong performance. For the most part, Pip accomplishes this in his song, starting out solo at the piano before opening himself up fully to the stage. Unfortunately, he was pitchy in a number of spots and had some trouble keeping a consistent tone through some of the sustained notes. Then, his falsetto moment at the end of the song completely failed, leading to a very shaky end.
It’s not a hard choice to make when Adam is called out for his instant elimination, though he could probably scrub three members of his team when stacked against the rest of the competition. Sending Pip home makes the most sense, as the limitations of his voice shone through in the last two performances. (Though, his voice actually sounded pretty well during the Team Adam performance of “Instant Karma”.)
With thoroughly non-controversial picks this week, it’s easier to get a view of how the vote will shake down this week.
Who Is Safe
Team Cee Lo: Juliet Simms
Team Adam: Katrina Parker
Who’s Singing to Remain
Team Cee Lo: Jamar Rogers, Cheesa
Team Adam: Mathai, Tony Lucca
Who Will Be Cut
Team Cee Lo: Cheesa
Team Adam: Tony Lucca
Who Should Be Cut
Team Cee Lo: Cheesa
Team Adam: Push, either one
