Mu$ic i$ the Door: The Voice Of Ireland: Top 10 - Quarter Final

Published by Kevin Mc Stravock

Another three contestants left last week when Roisin, Andy and Mark were all eliminated from the competition whilst Wayne, Sinead, Shannon, John and Ray made it through to the Top 10 of the competition. Tonight, the remaining eight contestants, Kelly and Shane from Team Kian, Aoife and Tammy from Team Sharon, Andrew and Katy-Anna from Team Bressie and Dylan and Keith from Team Jamelia will compete for the last five places in the Top 10.

Recap and videos after the JUMP....

Team Kian

Ray Scully

'I Will Wait' by Mumford and Sons - 7/10 - After his amazing performance last week, Ray is under pressure to keep the high standard up this week. Sadly, although this is good, it's definitely not on par with the last performance, for me the song choice just doesn't work for him. He's a good singer but I don't think that this is as well suited as it should be, for me, his voice feels a bit pitchy on the song tonight which is something that couldn't have been said about last week's performance, I feel like his husky tone was kind of lost during this performance somewhat, he sang well tonight but I don't think it was particularly memorable and considering the fact that he's first out, he might struggle with the votes tonight. It's a shame as I do like Ray but I feel like his vocals aren't quite as strong this week as they were last week. All the same, I think this is more a case of Kian's song not doing justice to his voice than Ray not delivering. - VIDEO

Kelly Mongan

'Clown' by Emeli Sandé - 9/10 - Kelly, like Ray was one of the best in her last live show so she has a really high standard to live up to this week. Thankfully, she doesn't disappoint, delivering a very strong performance, her vocals are on point and I love how her tone is beginning to come across extremely strongly during her performances now, she has a lot more confidence on stage now and seems more comfortable performing now than she ever has been. Her falsetto is really strong and she is able to comfortably switch from the big high notes to the much more subtle lower end of her voice really well, I'm seeing her get stronger with every performance and although she did slightly over-use her vibrato at times, as pointed out by Sharon, it's an amazing performance nonetheless. - VIDEO

Shane McLaughlin

'Wherever You Will Go' by The Calling - 7.5/10 - Shane has had a rough road in the competition so far with relatively mixed comments at every stage in the competition from coaches, mainly due to them not believing that he has shown enough vocal prowess, for me, the problem has been the song choices. I loved his first audition as it showed just how unique an artist he is but Kian has been giving him these really strange songs, they're more rock-pop than proper indie and they don't show off his unique tone whatsoever, instead making the focus on the points of his voice that aren't as strong, for example this performance has quite a few big notes and Shane's range is not the strongest thing about his voice whatsoever. That said, I think he does a really good job with this, the coaches are a bit negative and Jamelia accuses people of voting based on postcode but I think Shane has natural stage presence and a good voice, he just needs the right song choices. - VIDEO

Team Sharon

Aoife O'Loughlin

'Paint It Black' by The Rolling Stones - 9.5/10 - Finally Sharon makes the long awaited decision to embrace Aoife's dark, gritty side with a much better song choice than she has been given in recent weeks. Don't get me wrong, Aoife herself has been brilliant in the lives but her songs have been more R&B than they have been dark pop and this is the first sign of Sharon embracing the side of Aoife we saw in her atmospheric first audition with 'Bang Bang'. She's nowhere near as nervous this week as she has been in the past and it shows in her professional delivery of the performance, yes it's perhaps a bit more full of attitude than previous performances but the big notes are glorious and I just think she does an amazing job with the song. I might be overreacting here but I think that the coaches don't really 'get' performances that rely more on atmosphere, they seem to think that this was a step back for Aoife yet it's clear that she was far more at home singing this than singing the songs she did in previous week. I don't want safe renditions of pop songs, I want something with edge and spark and this was brilliant. - VIDEO

John Gaughan

'When I Was Your Man' by Bruno Mars - 9/10 - I like John, he's a good singer but I do think that he is a little overmarked at times because although he's a good vocalist, he doesn't offer anything that we haven't seen before and I find him just good, not exceptional. This week is definitely his best performance in the competition so far, he sounds far more confident this week and I think his tone is more distinctive on this song, I'm not a big fan of the track itself as I find it a little soppy but he delivers the emotion of the song well, and although I feel his voice straining a bit when he oversings slightly, it's still a really strong performance, perhaps not just as distinctive or stand-out as Aoife was but still really strong in my opinion, he's a good singer and he's showing for the first time tonight that he could win, though I do think he still needs to work on controlling his voice slightly in the powerful parts. - VIDEO

Team Bressie

Shannon Murphy

'Try' by Pink - 9.5/10 - Shannon suffered a setback in the last live show when her performance wasn't just as great as Shannon normally is, mainly due to an odd choice of song so she hopes to bounce back tonight with her arrangement of this Pink track. It actually takes me a while to work out what the song is that she's singing but I really enjoyed this arrangement, it's very emotive and taps into the whole atmosphere of the song. Her tone is gorgeous at the beginning and it's a really pure delivery of the song, then it switches about half way through the performance when she unleashes her raspy upper range and it's just fantastic, it's such a great delivery of this song, I didn't know how she would cope with this track but it's brilliant and she really delivers this week. Shannon is fast becoming a front-runner even when the song doesn't seem that well suited to her, she manages to do something with it and I loved this! - VIDEO

Katy Anna Mohan

'Thief of Your Heart' by Sinead O'Connor - 10/10 - Jeez Bressie loves his Sinead O'Connor songs, this seems like the 1000th Sinead song he has given one of his acts (it's probably only like his second but let's run with it). Anyway, I have really warmed to Katy Anna throughout the competition, to me she has became something of a cross between Aoife and Sinead, the dark, atmospheric style of Aoife's niche mixed with the poppy feel of Sinead's voice, I think her and Bressie are a superb combination as he has played a blinder with this performance. It really highlights how special a performer Katy Anna is as she takes the song and makes it her own and I'd be lying if I chose a fault in this performance as it was a totally flawless performance tonight. This is a bloody gorgeous performance, every adlib, every harmony, every note is amazing and I loved the dark feel of the song, it was amazing. I'm not even going to mention the coaches trying to go hammer and nails at Bressie for his song choice again as this song was bloody brilliant! - VIDEO

Sinead O'Brien

'Reach Out, I'll Be There' by The Four Tops - 7.5/10 - I've been humming 'Let Her Go' for the past two weeks after Sinead's brilliant performance a fortnight ago and tonight, I hope that she will go down a similar route as despite the lukewarm comments from the coaches, she did a great job on the song and I loved the way she performed it. This is a totally different style of performance for her, going down a Motown route is a confusing change of direction for Sinead, I can kind of see why Bressie would have picked this because her blind audition had a sort of modern Motown feel but I just don't enjoy this that much. I feel like Sinead has been treated a bit like a lab rat in the competition with Bressie's choices when really, the Passenger song last week showed exactly what route she should be taken down. Sinead says that she felt happier after that performance and the coaches were full of praise for her but personally, I thought it was a step back and Sinead's confidence was the only thing that made the performance better than her 'Moon River' in Live Show 2, I just feel like Bressie could have given her numerous better choices, I also thought the backing was quite poor. It wasn't bad, she did a great job vocally but I feel like Shannon and Katy Anna were given performances that played to their strengths and Sinead got lost in the crowd somewhat. - VIDEO

Team Jamelia

Wayne Beatty

'Take A Bow' by Rihanna - 6.5/10 - It's funny because I loved Wayne until the live shows but I haven't felt totally satisfied with his live show performances, there's something missing for me, I think he hasn't had the same stage presence when performing in front of a live crowd as he did in the pre-recorded stages, maybe it's nerves or maybe it's the song choices but I felt that he was very lucky that Roisin was basically thrown under a bus last week with unfairly harsh comments and marking from the coaches and an overriding feeling that Jamelia wasn't putting a lot of effort into Roisin's song choices as his performance was missing something. After last week, going downbeat again was a brave choice but one that didn't pay off for me, with nothing to help him, I feel that he gets lost on stage, he sings okay, not perfect but not bad but he just stands there, sings and gives nothing really. The performance leaves me cold, he has a few pitchy moments but nothing major but he just fades into the background, it's quite dull and I don't think it's the same Wayne that we saw in the battle rounds who really performed, it was lacking something and for me during the lives, Wayne has just lacked something that I can't quite put my finger on, he's a good singer but good isn't going to win him the competition. - VIDEO

Keith Hanley

'Get Here' by Oleta Adams - 7/10 - Keith was fantastic at 'Beggin' in the second live show, last week wasn't quite as good and I felt that his performance was a step back from the previous performance. He was saved mainly by the fact that he outperformed his team mate Dylan. This week, Jamelia has decided to strip him back and just let him sing which seems a sensible option but giving him this was putting him under a lot of pressure. This Oleta Adams song isn't the type of song that you can afford to miss even one note, you need to be perfect. Giving this song to a boy was definitely a big risk as boys tend to have lower pitched voices than girls and not many can reach the same notes that Oleta can, heck, most females can't either. It's all very nice, he performs it well and his voice is good but it's a bit musical theatre for me to be honest? His falsetto is good but slightly nasally, it's the delivery that knocks him back a few points, it's good but I feel like I'm watching a musical when he sings this song, I think he'll get through but without being cynical, I fear he peaked too early in the competition. - VIDEO

Rankings

1. Katy Anna Mohan

2. Shannon Murphy

3. Aoife O'Loughlin

4. John Gaughan

5. Kelly Mongan

6. Shane McLaughlin

7. Sinead O'Brien

8. Keith Hanley

9. Ray Scully

10. Wayne Beatty

Results

And the first artist to go through is from Team Bressie, it's Shannon Murphy! Next is from Team Sharon, John Gaughan is also through. From Team Kian, a shock for the coaches as Shane McLaughlin who they tore to shreds has been voted through, I so hope Kian gives him a great song next week just to stuff it to the coaches who I think have crossed the line with their comments to him, fair enough you don't think he deserved to go through but if the public vote for him, you can't try and debate why, maybe they like his voice? Anyway, another one for Team Bressie now, delighted that my top ranking tonight, Katy Anna Mohan has got through and another of my favourites Kelly Mongan from Team Kian is through now. Just one more so we know that at least three coaches will lose an act tonight and Jamelia could lose both of hers. Unsurprisingly, the final act comes from Team Jamelia and it's Keith Hanley! Not such a shocking result but devastating that Aoife has been sent home after what was for me, her best performance yet. Ray had also been great as had Sinead, both were let down by poor songs and Wayne was a very good singer but for me, lacked something. Next week is the semi-finals!

Eliminated:

Aoife O'Loughlin

Ray Scully

Sinead O'Brien

Wayne Beatty