NBC’s “The Voice” first aired on April 26, 2011 and has been a hit for the network ever since. Although “The Voice” may seem like just another singing show to those who do not watch it, it is different than American Idol or America’s Got Talent. There are four judges. Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, Christina Aguilera, and Cee Lo Green were the original four, and for the past two seasons, Aguilera and Green have been replaced by Usher and Shakira.
The four judges sit in chairs that are faced in the opposite direction of the stage so they can’t see the performer. The performer goes on the stage and performs for ninety seconds and if the judges like what they hear, they hit a button and the chair spins around. If more than one chair turns around, the judges fight for the performer and in the end the performer gets to pick what team they want to be on. These are called the “Blind Auditions.”
After the blind auditions come the battle rounds, and this is when the show gets intense. Team Adam, Blake, Usher, and Shakira each pick two performers from their teams and have them battle against each other on stage and in the end pick a winner. During this process, each team has a guest celebrity to help them coach their performers. This season’s guests have included Miranda Lambert (who shockingly was helping Shakira and not her husband Blake Shelton), The Band Perry, Jill Scott, Aloe Black, and the lead singer of Coldplay, Chris Martin. It does not stop there though; each of the judges has steals that they can use to take the performer that their fellow judges did not choose.
Sneaky Blake was the last coach with a steal, and he used it in the last round of battles on Madilyn Paige. All the other coaches made great use of their steals as well, adding, in their opinions, great additions to their teams going into the playoffs.
Now that each team is narrowed down to 5 people, the playoffs begin. The playoffs narrow down each team to three people and those three people on each team go on to the live shows.
On April 8, Team Blake was the first coach to narrow down his team. Jake Worthington, Audra McLaughlin, Ryan White Maloney, Madilyn Paige, and Sisaundra Lewis all made their coach proud, but Blake had to make, as he said, an incredibly hard decision and cut two members of his team while the other three would be advancing to the live shows with him.
In the end, Blake chose to take his youngest girl, Audra, his country boy Jake, and his power house, Sisaundra, saying goodbye to Maloney and Paige.
On April 14, and April 15, Teams Adam, Shakira and Usher will have their turns to narrow down their teams and listen to the amazing talents they have chosen.
Keeley Gould is a second-year student majoring in English. She can be reached at KG787739@wcupa.edu.
“Although ‘The Voice’ may seem like just another singing show to those who do not watch it, it is different than American Idol or America’s Got Talent. There are four judges.”
Actually they aren’t judges, they’re coaches, That’s one of the ways it’s fundamentally different than American Idol or America’s Got Talent.