The Voice Recap: Night 2 of the Battles Cues Up a Devastating Letdown
If only we’d known that it was foreshadowing! After The Voice coaches Gwen Stefani, Reba McEntire, “Uncle Snoop” Dogg and Michael Bublé performed the Eagles’ “Heartache Tonight” at the top of Tuesday’s episode, they proceeded to give us exactly that, holding back their Battle-rounds Steals when we — or was it just me? — really, really, really wanted them to use one. Read on, and we’ll discuss the crushing blow that they dealt out and review all of the performances along the way.
Team Reba: Adam Bohanan (Grade: A) defeated Kevin James Graham (Grade: B) on “Lose Control” | Kevin gave it his all, bringing to Teddy Swims’ smash a rockin’ edge and a flair for showmanship that included a well-timed whipping off of his sunglasses. (You could tell he’d practiced that move!) But he nonetheless felt for the most part like a supporting player on this Battle. Start to finish, Adam owned it. The song was perfect for his “dirty soul” voice — and, on top of that, he was no slouch in the stage-presence department, either.
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Team Snoop: ChrisDeo (Grade: C) defeated MisterMoon (Grade: B+) on “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?” | As lovely as ChrisDeo’s voice is, especially when she is belting, she was kinda superfluous on this duet. (Three-ette since she was performing with a twosome?) Though the youngster got over her initial nerves and actually started to look like she might be enjoying herself, she was no match for MisterMoon’s confidence and harmonies — to my ears, anyway.
Team Bublé: Edward Preble (Grade: A) defeated Mark Shiiba (Grade: A+) on “What a Wonderful World” | OMG! This Battle was all kinds of amazing — and also almost like two different songs. On one hand, we had Edward, whose traditional take on Louis Armstrong’s classic was flat-out gorgeous. On the other, we had Mark, whose vocal is so unique — and, here, so vulnerable — he made me cry. And I’m so cold-hearted, I just gave that sweet ChrisDeo a “C”! Utterly gutted that Mark wasn’t stolen! (Listen below.)
Team Gwen: Gabrielle Zabosky (Grade: A) defeated Frankie Torres (Grade: A-) on “Never Tear Us Apart” — Frankie stolen by Reba | At first, I thought that this Battle was Frankie’s to lose — and she was terrific. Charisma for days and a voice that doesn’t quit. But Gabrielle… da-amn! She twisted notes like she was making pretzels and unleashed a vocal that was so big, they could probably hear it all the way in Season 27. And that her polish matched her power really surprised me — in a good way!
In abbreviated Battles, Jeremy Beloate defeated Torion Sellers on “Just the Way You Are” to remain on Team Bublé, and Torre Blake defeated Suede Lacy on “What You Won’t Do for Love” to keep being coached by Uncle Snoop.
So, was I the only one devastated that Mark didn’t get stolen? Surprised that Snoop kept ChrisDeo over MisterMoon? Play favorites in the poll below, then hit the comments.
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