The Voice of Ireland is back for a third series, with new coach Dolores O'Riordan joining Jamelia, Bressie and Kian in place of Sharon Corr who quit earlier this year after two series. With Keith Hanley winning for Team Jamelia last year, this series the competition will be even more fierce. Expect plenty of drama, plenty of tears and plenty of laughter...and that's just amongst the coaches.

Recap and videos after the jump ...


Gavin Murray - 2/4 - 'Cheating' by John Newman - Joins Team Jamelia
Gavin has a pretty decent voice, I like his tone, it's pretty fresh although it does sound very similar to John Mayer if I'm being honest. Gavin is very flamboyant and has a strong personality so I'd love to see him doing songs that compliment that, songs that require the showmanship skills Gavin has in bucketloads. Jamelia and Kian both turn around, Bressie and Dolores don't turn around.


Ruth McSweeney - No Turn - 'Turn My Swag On' by Soulja Boy
Ruth is a sean-nos dancer, for those not in the know, that's a type of traditional Irish dancing. I like that Ruth is playing the guitar to accompany her voice but her vocals are nothing special, she has a nice tone at times but the nice parts of the song are sadly outweighed by parts of the song that aren't just as impressive, she needs to work on her vocals.


Danica Holland - 2/4 - 'Do It Like A Dude' by Jessie J - Joins Team Kian
Danica comes from a musical family, her father was in a band and her mother is also musical. Shhe used to play drums but she wants to step away from behind the drum kit and step in front of the microphone. She's also a master baker and bakes for Eoghan. She's doing a jazzy take on Jessie J's breakout hit, she has a really nice voice, I love the layers to her voice. It's not just the song choice, she does remind me a bit of Leah McFall from The Voice UK actually. Her upper range is exquisite. She picks Kian.


Kellie Lewis - 3/4 - 'Running Up That Hill' by Kate Bush - Joins Team Dolores
Kellie is a big fan of Dolores, she's one of her biggest influences so she's incredibly nervous about singing in front of Dolores, well behind her to be honest. I love her voice, it's really refreshing, she has a very quirky tone, it's not your standard quirky girl voice either, there's something very unique about her stage manner also, she's very good already. Jamelia and Dolores clash over Kellie but it's fairly obvious who she's going with, she picks Dolores.

Thomas Kinney - 2/4 - 'Can't Help Falling In Love' by Elvis Presley - Joins Team Dolores
Thomas is a busker, he says that he sings with pain in his voice. He arranges the song himself, wherever the pain and sorrow comes from, he really channels it into the song. The only thing I would say is that he has a really strong tone, he's very unique and reminds me of Elliot Canavan-Doyle from Series 1. I don't think he's as strong vocally as the aforementioned, the song isn't vocally perfect but he does a good job. Kian and Dolores fight it out to get Thomas to join their team. Dolores is successful as he becomes the second act in a row to join her team.


Sharon Osigwe - No Turn - 'Heard It Through The Grapevine' by Marvin Gaye
Sharon auditioned last year and was criticized for not inserting any emotion or personality into the song. She has returned this year and hopes to be able to make it second time lucky. This time she doesn't really sound a lot better to be honest. Maybe it's the arrangement of the song but I'm not keen on the song being sung in this way. I'm not sure if she has really improved on what the coaches asked her to last year, I'm still not feeling an awful lot of emotion in this performance. She's good but she's still not good enough.


Lynette Rooney - No Turn - 'Redneck Woman' by Gretchen Wilson
Lynette decided to audition after her daughter was fed up of her singing around the house and not doing anything about it. She has a decent country voice but it's certainly nothing special. I don't like the song choice and she goes out of tune from time to time. Nobody turns around for her, potentially she lost her nerves as Eoghan mentions that she had bad news about a family member before her audition so perhaps that's why she wasn't as good as she could have  been.


Caoin Fitzpatrick - 3/4 - 'Made Of Stone' by Matt Corby - Joins Team Bressie
Caoin is the first of five Radio 2FM wildcards to audition for the show. After the normal entry deadline, contestants had the option of applying to be a wildcard and went through an audition in front of DJ's from the station who also listened to the artists with their backs turned. Caoin is taking on a Matt Corby song, I love Matt's back catalogue so I'm excited for this. He has a really strong voice, he's very much a Bressie artist, if that makes sense. It doesn't but let's roll with it. The banter between the judges is great, Dolores reminds Bressie that she has sold 35 million records worldwide, Bressie says that's usually Kian's line. Caoin doesn't opt for his namesake or Dolores, instead picking Bressie.


Jay Boland - 4/4 - 'All I Want' by Kodaline - Joins Team Kian
I love this song, it's easily one of my favourites of 2013. Jay auditioned for Louis Walsh's boyband earlier this year and made the Top 20, I bet he's glad he opted for a show with spinning chairs as opposed to having to master his stool standing techniques. He has a really good voice actually, I was a bit unsure when I heard that he had auditioned for a boyband but he's thankfully so much better than your typical boyband member. Jamelia was very quick to hit her button but was joined by Dolores, Bressie and Kian, he has a class tone and really connects to the emotion of the song. He doesn't know who to go for, he says he had an idea in his head of who he'd go for however and is going to stick with that. He picks Kian. Wrong decision in my opinion, Kian's choices are largely kinda dire and he has previously done a disservice to indie guys such as Ray Scully and Shane McLaughlin but perhaps he'll learn this year?


Davina Brady - No Turn - 'Piece Of My Heart' by Janis Joplin
Davina decided to audition after her boss at work encouraged her to go for it. She wants to do it for her family. I love this song but I'm not sure that I like her voice, her upper range is pretty pitchy, she oversings it and doesn't really have any sort of build up to the high notes, it's like someone suddenly boosted the volume with no warning. The judges don't turn with Dolores telling her that the song lacked light and shade. That's an understatement. Davina has an alright voice which could definitely get better but she seriously needs to learn to use it better, shouting for 90 seconds isn't going to do it any favours.


Sean Sunderland - 2/4 - 'Express Yourself' by Labrinth - Joins Team Dolores
Sean applied for the show after he saw that his girlfriend had auditioned as well. His girlfriend didn't make it so he's hoping she's jealous now. I'm really surprised that Kian and Dolores turn for him, it's not a great song choice for me and I don't think he has a great voice either. He certainly has the ability to perform but vocally, I don't think he has anything that makes him stand out. Hopefully he can impress me more in the next round as at the moment, he strikes me as Battle Round fodder. There's no denying that he sings the song well, it's in tune and he hits every note but there's nothing special about the performance, it's like really good karaoke, I'm very much a tone guy and I didn't think his tone was particularly impressive. Aah well, different strokes for different folks I suppose.