I haven't blogged yet this season on one of my guilty pleasures - the TV singing talent shows. There are three of them running concurrently at present: The Voice, The X-Factor and Sing-Off. We are nearing musical indigestion, and, thank goodness, finales of the first two. Below is a sample of my favourites this season from The Voice and The X-Factor. Both singers have made it through to the final rounds coming up this week.
From The Voice (Adam Levine's team (he of Maroon5):
Tesanne Chin, a young lady from Kingston, Jamaica. (born 20 September 1985. Virgo Sun, probably Sagittarius Moon) She sang Bridge over Troubled Water last week, it took her into this week's final where she'll compete against 16-year old Jaquie Lee and Will Champlin, son of rock band artist Bill Champlin of the band Chicago.
From The X Factor (Kelly Rowland's Over-25s team):
Jeff Gutt from Detroit (born 2 May 1976. Sun and Jupiter in Taurus, Moon(probably) and Mercury in Gemini) He'll compete with an indie-pop duo Alex & Sierra currently based in Orlando, Florida, and Carlito Olivero, Latino lad from Chicago. Jeff Gutt is, at heart, rock artist but can sing anything - great voice! The performance immediately below got him into the finals. In the second video he sings Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. Both songs are, sadly, truncated to fit into the show's time allowance. I wish they'd allocate more time to the singing, making full versions of songs possible, and much less to judges' chat, manipulative "sob" stories, and general "padding". I realised long ago that it's not going to happen.
I feel more confident that Tesanne Chin will be this year's "Voice" winner than I do about Jeff Gutt winning X-Factor. Simon Cowell has been ramming Alex and Sierra down viewers' throats all season. They are good, if you like that kind of thing, but being of the generation able to recall Ike and Tina, Sonny and Cher.....do we really need a re-play of all that in 2013? Mr Cowell keeps saying, "there's a gap in the market for a duo". Yes - and there's a reason for that! We shall see.
From The Voice (Adam Levine's team (he of Maroon5):
Tesanne Chin, a young lady from Kingston, Jamaica. (born 20 September 1985. Virgo Sun, probably Sagittarius Moon) She sang Bridge over Troubled Water last week, it took her into this week's final where she'll compete against 16-year old Jaquie Lee and Will Champlin, son of rock band artist Bill Champlin of the band Chicago.
From The X Factor (Kelly Rowland's Over-25s team):
Jeff Gutt from Detroit (born 2 May 1976. Sun and Jupiter in Taurus, Moon(probably) and Mercury in Gemini) He'll compete with an indie-pop duo Alex & Sierra currently based in Orlando, Florida, and Carlito Olivero, Latino lad from Chicago. Jeff Gutt is, at heart, rock artist but can sing anything - great voice! The performance immediately below got him into the finals. In the second video he sings Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. Both songs are, sadly, truncated to fit into the show's time allowance. I wish they'd allocate more time to the singing, making full versions of songs possible, and much less to judges' chat, manipulative "sob" stories, and general "padding". I realised long ago that it's not going to happen.
I feel more confident that Tesanne Chin will be this year's "Voice" winner than I do about Jeff Gutt winning X-Factor. Simon Cowell has been ramming Alex and Sierra down viewers' throats all season. They are good, if you like that kind of thing, but being of the generation able to recall Ike and Tina, Sonny and Cher.....do we really need a re-play of all that in 2013? Mr Cowell keeps saying, "there's a gap in the market for a duo". Yes - and there's a reason for that! We shall see.
6 comments:
Fortunately, I'm not hooked on the talent shows, but one or other is often playing in the background while I wait for an anticipated program later in the evening...why turn-off the tube just to warm it up again an hour or two later?!
Probably the greatest reason I have for not particularly enjoying the shows is the panel of judges. A couple of the judges possess questionable talent, in my opinion, and have become more a celebrity on these shows than they were as musicians, when they appealed to a much smaller fan-base. Oh, well.
I am happy that the contestants have the TV platform to display their talents and possibly succeed in an arena not available to them otherwise.
mike ~ "Celebrity" judges are picked for their ability to draw in viewers rather than for any (questionable) skill they may have for discerning talent in others. "The Voice" judges are a tad better than "X-Factor" ones, and they also coach their teams. The judging panel of "Sing-Off"
is by far the most able and musically knowledgeable, I reckon.
In our case most of the judges tend to repel rather than to draw in - but I stick with these shows because there are so few musical shows on TV that I can stomach at all....and it's good to see some amateurs, or semi-professionals who somehow missed their way, get a chance of more success. Looking on the shows as a string of auditions upon which we're allowed to spy is more or less how we see it - I've only actually voted twice in 8 years - and neither person won. :-)
"Home Free" on the Sing Off (I think) performed in Duncan last year.
kaleymorris ~ Really? Hmmm. I can't bring them to mind. We've missed two episodes of Sing Off though - did see the first one. NBC put the show on in competition with The X-Factor for 2 weeks - not good business I'd have thought. ;-/
In particular, celebrity judges Simon and Howard have careers that I've never understood...they're both very successful at identifying a void and filling it. Too abrasive for me, but their public seems to adore them.
I hope you'll be able to pull yourself away from the singing tube and take a gaze at the incredible forming full moon in Gemini. We have a blue norther right now, which must be why the moon appears so bright as it rises in the east. Happy full moon, Twilight!
mike ~ I prefer Howard Stern (America's Got Talent) to Simon Cowell. I was warned by my husband that I wouldn't like him - but he has done the job well I think. I've never heard his radio show. He's always on point with his comments, always has something interesting to say, and isn't deliberately nasty or manipulative like Cowell.
Anyway - it's all just fluff and $$$$$$$$$$$$. Passes the long dark evenings - and a few long light ones too.
Yes, I saw the moon from the kitchen window as we were doing the dishes earlier. I remarked how bright it was. We've had the mildest day today (oh it was yesterday already!) for over a week, but still only 60-ish - it has been VERY cold here, unusually so. Supposed to go back to cold by the weekend again.
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