The Voice Of Ireland: Season 1: Top 20 - Part 1 - Perform!
20 March, 2012 3:14 PM
After the not so shocking exits of Ryan and Gavin two weeks ago, Bressie and Brian's teams of each are now readying themselves for another performance infront of the live audience at The Helix as they try desperately to get through to yet another week of the competition. Standouts from the last Bressie/Brian performances were Claire and Kiera/Connor for Teams Brian and Bressie respectively so let's hope those three and the rest of the acts can keep up that high standard for tonight's performances.
Recap and videos after the JUMP ...
Pat Byrne
'Are You Gonna Be My Girl' (Jet) - 6/10 - Sorry but this was a very cheesy and almost cringeworthy performance due to the poor staging. The song itself comes across as something of a karaoke classic and this just came across as being an average pub rock performance. The whole skimpy female dancers thing has been done many times on 'The X Factor' before and whilst it wasn't necessarily a bad thing for us male viewers, it did come across as very 80's and almost quite Eurovision? I just don't think that this particular song really showcased his vocal talent at all which is a shame as he is actually really quite talented.
Gari Deegan
'Next To Me' (Emeli Sandé) - 6.5/10 - This was a lot better than the frankly pretty rubbish performance last show and I'm glad that Gari is actually letting himself get lost in the performance as it really works well for his soulful, bluesy voice. With that said, his pronunciation is slightly Britney Spears esque bizarre as he seems to pronounce me as 'may' which makes the performance a little bit weird. However, fair play to him for clearly taking the weaker aspects of last week's performance and working on them, this was a million miles away from that.
Jessica Pritzel
'Walking On Broken Glass' (Annie Lennox) - 5/10 - Argh, I know that she had the best Battle Round performance of the series arguably but she can't continue to fall back on it and she was completely lost by that performance, the song just didn't work whatsoever for her, she seemed a little bit intimidated by the song and overall, despite landing in the bottom two last week, it was a lot weaker than last week. Unfortunately, as the mainly female voting public generally value male acts more than female acts, Jessica will be lucky if she makes it through tonight.
Kiera Byrne
'Stay' (Shakespeare's Sister) - 7.5/10 - This was fantastic vocally once again, really quirky and unique as always with Kiera who in my opinion is one of the best performers in the competition in terms of consistency and originality and deserves to go really far in the competition. Although it was vocally fantastic, I think I preferred her more low-key performance last week as opposed to this mainly as her outfit was quite distracting and whilst I liked that she got into the performance, some people may have been a bit unnerved by the way she got into the performance. With that said, it's still the best performance so far from Bressie's team.
Conor Quinn
'Lonely Boy' (The Black Keys) - 7/10 - This is quite a nice performance from Conor, it's nice to see him doing something more uptempo and actually seeming to shed the weird facial expressions and bizarre stage posture in favour of a more relaxed stage persona. With that said, I'm not sure if the funkiness and fast pace of the song suited Conor as at times, he was quite hard to make out although it didn't stop the performance from being one of my favourites of the night, a really cool performance that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Brendan Keeley
'You Are So Beautiful' (Joe Cocker) - 5/10 - I know I haven't ever been a massive fan of Brendan but tonight was pushing it even more. Last week, I thought that he gave a competent if slightly dull and safe performance and tonight was dreary as anything, there was no spark to the performance, it was far too tame and it definitely isn't what the spirit of the competition is about. That song is good but it's not the most contemporary of songs and for me, at least, it just doesn't work on the stage. Maybe it's because everytime I think of the song I think of 'that scene' from The Little Rascals but the song just doesn't fit him that well, it's all a little bit pub rocker.
Alan Fitzsimons
'Edge Of Glory' (Lady Gaga) - 4.5/10 - Edge Of Glory, really? This is a very weird song choice for Alan and coupled with some questionable stage set-up involving half naked dancers circling him, it's like watching some weird sleazy Las Vegas show. Alan has a nice if slightly unspectacular voice and for me, it just doesn't really come across very well in this performance, I don't like the fact that he seems to be singing a song that is well out of his comfort zone and I agree with the judges on this one, it's a poor fit for him. I hate being so negative but tonight hasn't been a great night performance wise, another below par vocal and disappointing performance.
Claire O'Loughlin
'Love Is A Battlefield' (Pat Benatar) - 8/10 - Ooh, this is a really good fit for her voice, I love a bit of Pat Benatar and I have to hand it to Claire or whoever it is choosing her songs, they know what they're doing, she seems right at home with this performance and shows that she can do uptempo every bit as well as she can do downtempo ballads like Show 1's 'Unbreak My Heart'. The only slight irk of mine is that I think that her range was more stilted today, it lacked the same wow factor that last week had maybe because last week was a lower vocal range overall during the song. In addition, she probably could have danced a bit more but that's really all just me nitpicking as it was a really good performance. I fully expect her to be here next week.
Sinead Fox
'Beautiful' (Christina Aguilera) - 9/10 - Wow, I absolutely love Sinead, I think that she has an adorable personality, a lovely voice and an endearing shyness which has made her one of my favourites in the competition. However, last week, a slightly questionable song choice paired with a rubbish band backing nearly sent her home as she was in the bottom two. This song is perfect for her, it may be quite a daunting song choice as Christina cannot be bettered vocally by many people but Sinead doesn't try to do this, instead singing it in a beautiful mid-range tone that once again draws comparisons to the likes of Lucie Silvas and surprisingly in this performance at least, Cher Lloyd. Sinead is so utterly loveable that I don't want her to go anywhere quickly and really hope she makes the final because she is a popstar, that's something I will say right now.
Richie Hayes
'Kiss' (Prince) - 4.5/10 - Another really odd song choice there, this song is not meant for someone like Richie who has a sort of crooner style voice, this song needs a certain amount of grit in the voice and Richie doesn't have a gritty voice. It all came across as very cabaret and not very professional and although I liked Richie last week, I do have to say that this week, he wasn't up to scratch, it just fell a bit flat overall and I have a feeling it may not have been enough to see him into next week but we'll see.
Results
Eliminated Contestants:
Jessica Pritzel
Claire O'Loughlin
I don't know what the public are voting on because it definitely isn't on the voice. Jessica isn't a surprise at all as although I did like her, tonight wasn't a great night for her but I'm really disappointed at Kiera Byrne, the act who stood out the most in Bressie's category for me, landing in the bottom two alongside her. I say I'm surprised but considering how nearly all talent shows are notorious for female acts struggling to get votes even if they're better than their male counterparts, it's not that unexpected. However, Claire going is crazy, she was brilliant throughout the competition and I loved her unique tone and Brian and the public have a lot to answer for especially as she was in the bottom two with Alan who wasn't good tonight. If this is how the voting is going to go from now on, the show may not be producing too many stars, I really hope Claire gets signed because right now, it's maybe advisable for the public to turn away from the televisions when they're watching the show.
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