Mu$ic i$ the Door: The Voice Australia Season 1: Top 24 - Part 1

The Voice Australia Season 1: Top 24 - Part 1 - Perform!

30 May, 2012 6:03 PM

Published by MDS

The three battle rounds ended with a bang, with their ratings all topping their respective nights. We lost some great voices such as Casey Withoos, Peta Jeffres, Yshrael Pascaul, Mahalia Barnes and Kelsie Rimmer, who all had great potential and terrific voices and would've been outstanding contestants. Now, only 24 remain but come June 18, only one will take the crown. Will it be frontrunner Karise Eden, blind darling Rachael Leahcar, ex pro skater Lakyn Heperi, bubbly Brittany Cairns or a darkhorse such as Emma Louise Birdsall, Carmen Smith, Viktoria Bolonina and Adam Martin? ... This is The Voice!

Recap after the JUMP ...

Watch all the performances at The Voice AU Official Site
Btw, sorry for the delay.

Team Seal

Fatai Veamatahau

"Empire State Of Mind" (Jay-Z featuring Alicia Keys) - 8,5/10 - 16 y/o church singer is up first. Seems they changed her name to Fatai V, guess her surname was way too complicated. Seal says he'll never forget the first time hearing her voice, he says it was something special. He loves her voice's maturity. Everything Seal said about her is true. She's got a fantastic distinctive tone which makes it easy for her to totally nail this Alicia Keys's classic, sounding as good as it's original artist. It doesn't sound choppy at all to me, I don't know what Seal was talking about during the rehersal. She needs to learn some stage attitude though, the hand was too much but she got me from the first note.

Karise Eden

"Nothing's Real But Love" (Rebecca Ferguson) - 9,5/10 - Karise is the obvious frontrunner at this stage. If the show was ending today, she'll be crowned the winner. I really don't see any other outcome. She's taking on the beautiful "Nothing's Real But Love", XF S7 runner up Rebecca Ferguson's original. Seal tells Karise to sing in a more softer and accessible voice, he wanted her to be more vulnerable. When she does that, Seal starts crying. He tells her she can win in life. I don't know why Seal told her to make it softer, Karise is a beast, and beasts can't be truly tamed. Tamed beast or not, that was dope, I honestly have not much to say, she's amazing and if she continues to be amazing, she has this on the bag.

Michael Duchesne

"Got To Get You Into My Life" (The Beatles) - 8/10 - Black Johnny Ruffo minus the moves. Michael was a bit iffy with the key Seal wanted him to sing the song, then he heard it and understood why Seal wanted him to do that. There's a lot of soul in his voice, I'm loving what I'm hearing. He seems to be much more confident than in his audition, adding a lot of sass and attitude to his performace. He's definitely shown improvement but will it be enough?

Sam Ludeman

"Summer Paradise" (Simple Plan featuring Sean Paul) - 7/10 - Seal was tough on him during the battles. He said to him he didn't belive him. Sam felt he connected with Seal during the rehearsals. This is right in his wheelhouse so I expected much more from him. It does sound good but the start was rough and it wasn't as an exciting performance as I was hoping for. There was a little scat that reminded me to Ed Sheeran but apart from that, the performance was forgettable.

Chris Sebastian

"Without You" (David Guetta featuring Usher) - 7,5/10 - Guy's brother. Seal says he's in a tough position cause he's brother is successful and he wants to make a name for himself. Chris says he got more out of his session with Seal than what he got from the entire competition. He's playing piano at first. The performance sounded great until he stood up. I wish he had stayed in the piano, the slowed down cover was more interesting than him trying to sing the original. It was quite karaoke to me.

Emma Louise Birdsall

"Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)" (Aretha Franklin) - 9/10 - I was honestly shocked when Emma sent Casey Withoos home but she's impressed me more and more since her audition. Seal picked this song cause it'll make her feel uncomfortable. Emma feels she's been flying under the radar (true), so this liveshow will be the place to let Australia know who she is. And what a better way of doing that than by delivering a pitch perfect Aretha Franklin cover? Her soulish tone was in full display and I loved how sexy she sounded why singing this. Was she feeling uncomfortable? If so, I couldn't tell, she sounded like a sassy jazz pro to me.

Team Delta

Matt Hetherington

"White Noise" (The Living End) - 6/10 - Matt's still about to become a dad. Delta seems in him a phenomenal singer who's about to tap in his artistry. I'm not confident this was the right song for him. He tends to be shouty, like in his audition, so giving him this rock song was not clever, I would've picked a more soft number, maybe something alternative. I liked his raspiness and he worked the stage like a pro but sorry, that wasn't enough. Prepare your bags.

Ben Bennett

"One Thing" (One Direction) - 2/10 - Delta picked Ben cause she heard something really exciting. She chose 1D cause they are really hot right now. This won't do any favours to him. I compared him to Niall Horan during the blind auditions, guess I wasn't that wrong. As I suspected, Ben is bombing badly during the performance. The outfit doesn't help either, who's the stylist? She deserves to be sacked just because of Ben's pink sweater. His lower register is awful, his upper register is awful too. The notes in between as well. I don't have nothing possitive on him, sorry.

Danni Da Ros

"Alone" (Heart) - 6,5/10 - Probably the only dive left in the competition, it's obvious they won't let her go easily. She sometimes think she won't succeed, she says she's got to stop listening to her head and start listening to her heart. Danni thinks she can connect to the audience cause she's a real woman. So what is Viktoria then? A russian doll? Did they electrocute her to get that hairstyle? Another diva song for Danni. I hope Delta stopped picking this predictable songs for her. She needs to do something contemporary and unique to stop being a diva.

Viktoria Bolonina

"Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" (Cher) - 9/10 - Delta turned around cause she was intrigued with Viktoria. She loves Viktoria's voice and that she wants to go off meoldy. Viktoria says that's her personality. This could've been a boring performance but Viktoria delivered greatly with it. The artistic liberties she took made it almost magical. I can't say I've never heard this sang like this before, cause I've had, but Viktoria sang it with so much passion and sultriness that I couldn't care less. She looked wonderfull too, like Delta said, she looked like a star.

Glenn Cunningham

"Heaven Knows" (Rick Price) - 7/10 - Glenn was Delta's backing singer, so they've been friends for a while. Delta says it's harder mentoring Glenn than she thought cause they already have a friendship, she has to learn to separate that when working with him. Are they actually friends or does Delta secretly hates him? The song she picked for him is a sleepy ballad, which does no favours to his voice. Why not giving him a Jason Mraz, James Blunt song? That would've been better than this, I still like his mellow tone, at least he was better than Ben and Matt.

Rachael Leahcar

"Hands" (Jewel) - 9/10 - Delta felt the electricity from the moment Rachael started singing, she's not sure from where that voice comes from, only angels know. Delta tells her she has to remember that nobody turned around because of her sight but because of her voice. The preassure really got to Rachael but it wasn't showing much during her performance. She sounded lovely though I hope Delta picks something more contemporary for her the next time. It's quite obvious she'll be the last member remaining from Team Delta and with a voice like that, I won't be angry at all.

Other Thoughts

*Was the coaches performance really neccessary? Focus on the contestants, not on the judges. It was ok, but nothing remarkable.
*Was Joel drunk or he's just hilarious? His comment, the way he was sitting, his faces, all pointed to a drunk coach. Or maybe he's just too excentric.
*The V Room is awful. Everyone hates it, why is this thing still on the show? By the way, are the contestants forced to tweet while on the V Room or they just pretend they are?
*What was Joel thinking when saying to Sam: "If you ever had problems getting laid, you won't have after tonight"? He keeps proving he was drunk. Haha.
*The women really brought it tonight, the guys, not so much. May I start dreaming of an all girl finale?

Predictions

With almost a week to vote for your faves, it's time to make some little predictions based on the iTunes charts. As proved by The Voice US, these are no indication of the actual results, which include phone, text and Facebook votes. Only difference is that buying iTunes singles count as two votes, so we'll see next Monday 21 if they actually make an effort on the votes. (iTunes positions as of May 15, 2012)

Team Delta

#3 Rachael Leahcar - "Hands" (Jewel)

#5 Viktoria Bolonina - "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" (Cher)

#16 Glenn Cunninham - "Heaven Knows" (Rick Price)

#20 Danni Da Ros - "Alone" (Heart)

#86 Ben Bennett - "One Thing" (One Direction)

#119 Matt Hetherington - "White Noise" (The Living End)

Rachael is Delta's highest act and adding to that the pimp slot and her frontrunner status, she'll definitely go through to the next round. Viktoria will probably join her after an exceptional rendition of Cher. Glenn and Danni are right behind the girls, with Ben and Matt way below their fellow team members. To me, this iTunes rankings look lik the actual results, so I belive Ben Bennett and Matt Hetherington will be going home.

Team Seal

#1 Karise Eden - "Nothing's Real But Love" (Rebecca Ferguson)

#8 Emma Louise Birdsall - "Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)" (Aretha Franklin)

#14 Fatai Veamatahau - "Empire State Of Mind" (Jay-Z featuring Alicia Keys)

#36 Chris Sebastian - "Without You" (David Guetta featuring Usher)

#67 Sam Ludeman - "Summer Paradise" (Simple Plan featuring Sean Paul)

#77 Michael Duchesne - "Got To Get You Into My Life" (The Beatles)

Karise's support has been huge since day 1, so it's no wonder she's topping the charts after an emotional performance of Rebecca Ferguson's first single. Emma Louise managed to crack the top 10 with a beautiful Aretha rendition and Seal's pimp slot. That's why both girls will sail through to the next phase. Fatai came at a surprising #14, showing the Australian public is supporting, or just buying, feamale contestants more. Chris is right after her while Sam and Michael are much below them. Again, this charts look very accurate, so I'll go with Sam Ludeman and Michael Duchesne being eliminated.

Results

Eliminated Contestants:

Ben Bennett

Matt Hetherington

Sam Ludeman

Michael Duchesne

As expected, Karise and Emma Louise, and Rachael and Viktoria got the most votes in their respective teams. Seal made the right decision to save Fatai and though I thought Michael sounded better than Chris, Chris's got Guy's support, which is always a plus. Delta decided to save her former backing singer Glenn and diva Danni, which was no surprise given that Matt and Ben where the worst of the night. Great results so far, no girl eliminated!