The Voice Recap: On Night 5 of the Blinds, the Teams Are Filling Up — and Not With Filler, Either
Season 26 of The Voice continued shaping up to be a goodun on Monday, the fifth night of Blind Auditions. As Gwen Stefani, Reba McEntire, “Uncle Snoop” Dogg and Michael Bublé’s teams came ever close to filling up, I was moved to hand out “A” grades like they were going out of style. Read on, and then we can discuss whether I was being overly generous or the contestants really were just. That. Good.
Cameron Wright (Team Michael), “The Way We Were” — Grade: A | As per tradition, the evening started out with a four-chair turn, this one courtesy of a 34-year-old who hoped to inspire others by appearing on the show as a “queer, fem, Black” contestant. They certainly inspired with their Streisand cover, a showstopper that prompted Gwen to exclaim, “There wasn’t one moment of that that wasn’t perfect!” What magnificent spin Cameron put on every note!
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Eliza Pryor (Team Snoop), “Linger” — Grade: C | A native of Dallas, Eliza now resides in L.A., where she’s making inroads as an actress. Sadly, her Blind wasn’t exactly a knockout. Her vocal was lifeless and flat — to the point that she looked likely to be a no-chair turn. Snoop, who swiveled only at the last second, said that he was impressed with the places that the “blossoming flower” could take her vocal. Methinks where she’ll be taking it is home during the Battles.
Kay Sibal (Team Gwen), “From the Start” — Grade: A | Automatically, I knew that I was gonna love this Filipino-American musical-theater major: She chose to perform Laufey’s infectiously jazzy hit! Moreover, the three-chair turn performed the number with dazzling control and an out-and-out joy that warmed even my cold, cold heart. “You’ve got a lightness to your voice,” marveled holdout Reba. One-hundred percent. Can’t wait to hear Kay again.
Mary McAvoy (Team Snoop), “Say You Love Me” — Grade: A | Wowza! This 35-year-old Bostonian knocked me outta my chair with what I thought was a pretty flawless performance: beautiful, controlled, even finessed. But Mary only earned a two-chair turn, perhaps owing to tuning issues that both Gwen and Michael noted. (Guess it goes to show what I know; I thought she slayed and could turn out to be another Maelyn Jarmon.)
Lauren-Michael Sellers (Team Reba), “Oceans (Where My Feet My Fail)” — Grade: A+ | A special-education teacher, this 35-year-old used music as a safe haven growing up while dealing with her mentally ill mother. On stage, she delivered an impassioned rendition of Hillsong UNITED’s smash that only grew in power as she went along. If ever a four-chair turn was earned, this was it! (Four A’s, and we were just halfway through the episode; helluva night!)
Mark Shiiba (Team Michael), “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” — Grade: B | Inspired by Jason Mraz and Jack Johnson, this former Naval officer turned out an altogether memorable rendition of Dylan’s classic. Mark’s vocal was so cool, so unusual, I couldn’t believe that none of the coaches turned around if only to see who was making that unique sound. It was raspy, forceful and supremely quirktastic. Not sure he’ll make it far on a show with tastes as mainstream as The Voice’s, but I was elated that Michael used his Replay to save him!
Beya (Team Gwen), “Our Day Will Come” — Grade: B+ | I would’ve turned my chair from the first note I heard from this native of Hawaii, whose cover of Ruby & the Romantics’ classic started off nothing short of sumptuous. The rendition meandered a little from there, but Beya still demonstrated a wicked vibrato and a vocal that was almost impossibly lush. Michael explained that he’d only refrained from turning his chair along with Gwen because he’d had doubts about the contestant’s versatility.
Brad Sample (Team Snoop), “The Letter” — Grade: B- | This pal of Colbie Caillat’s viewed his Blind as his last chance, explained his wife before the audition started. Early on, Brad prompted a chair turn from Reba, but only when he let loose a raspy “Yeeeeah!” did the 37-year-old win over Uncle Snoop. Professional and proficient, he was good but not necessarily all that memorable. Side note: Did anyone get from Brad the Fiona Apple vibes that Gwen did?
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Camryn Brooks (Team Gwen), “Light On” — Grade: B | After getting no chair turns in Season 21, this Katharine McPhee lookalike, who since her last audition was diagnosed with myocarditis, returned with a spirited take on Maggie Rogers that moved all four coaches’ chairs to turn around for her. And the twentysomething’s performance was quite good — lovely and appropriately soaring — it just didn’t come together for me. (And no, I didn’t ding her for getting emotional when chairs started turning.)
Given short shrift in mini-Blinds were Tsola and Deon Jones, both one-chair turns who were added to Team Reba.
Hit the comments with your reviews of Monday’s performances after voting for your favorite singer in the poll below.
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