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Last week saw the start of the third series of 'The Voice Of Ireland' as Bressie, Kian, Jamelia and new coach Dolores got the show off to a solid start with some impressive singers including Caoin Fitzpatrick and Kellie Lewis joining the teams. Tonight will see even more talent attempting to persuade the coaches to turn their chairs, who will convince the four talent spotters to press their buttons?


Pauric McLoughlin - 3/4 - 'Feel So Close' by Calvin Harris - Joins Team Dolores
Pauric is currently working night shifts in a supermarket to get by but music is where he sees himself actually succeeding. He's playing the guitar himself and giving his own spin on this Calvin Harris track. I like his voice, he has a pretty disinctive indie voice which most definitely shows a lot of potential, his falsetto is particularly impressive and I love the intense style of his vocals. He manages to get three turns from Dolores, Jamelia and Kian with all three competing to win Pauric over. However, Pauric decides to go for the coach he feels most suits his style, unsurprisingly that person is Dolores who is proving popular so far with the coaches.


Kelly Hannon - 1/4 - 'Don't You Worry Child' by Swedish House Mafia - Joins Team Jamelia
Kelly has wanted to audition since the show came on the air in 2012 but it's only now that she has had the confidence to audition. I absolutely love her tone, it's very soulful and rich, particularly impressive for someone so young. This arrangement isn't particularly original, I think it's the same style as Joelle from The X Factor Australia but it's a great performance. It's pretty much pitch perfect, every note is brilliant and she really shows her range. It's clear that Jamelia is the best coach for Kelly and despite leaving it to the last minute, Jamelia does indeed press her button meaning Kelly joins her team.


Michéal Kavanagh - No Turn - 'You Make It Real' by James Morrison
Michéal is a trainee teacher whose claim to fame is being in the video of an Irish language cover of Avicii's 'Wake Me Up' which went viral over summer when it was recorded at the gaeltacht in Lurgan. He has a nice voice, I like his tone, it's perhaps a little bit too similar to James' tone in a copycat esque manner but I do enjoy listening to his voice. However, sadly he falters and goes off tune and when it gets to the chorus, it sort of falls apart. He has a lot of potential but nerves got the better of him and it's not a strong enough vocal to convince any of the judges to turn around. The best thing about the whole audition is Jamelia's attempts to say his name, it's pronounced Mee-hall but she pronounces it Me-hole to the hilarity of the audience and her fellow coaches.


Jamie Hartigan - 1/4 - 'RIP Thomas' (Original Rap) - Joins Team Kian
Jamie's short stature isn't something that he's going to let get in the way of his dreams of becoming a successful rapper. He has recorded his own rap in memory of his uncle Thomas who passed away and plans to impress the coaches with the emotive rap. I'm not a massive fan of rap music and it feels kind of strange hearing someone singing with absolutely no backing but there's no denying that the rap is powerful, he's not the best rapper in the world but he has potential and I think it'd be interesting to hear someone rapping on the show as the closest we had to it last year was Gina who was rejected at blind auditions. It appears that nobody is going to turn until Kian presses his button at the last minute. I'm intrigued to see how this partnership gets on!


Cassandra McElligiot - No Turn - 'The Only Exception' by Paramore
Student Cassandra is taking on a Paramore track in her effort to make it through to the Battle Rounds. She can sing, her lower range is decent but she doesn't sustain it when she goes into the upper range and hits bum notes in the song rather frequently. None of the coaches turn but all of them offer some really good advice to the young girl, targeting what she needs to do to improve her vocals, she has potential, she's not a bad singer by any means but she could definitely work on her upper range in particular. Cassandra goes home happy to have picked up some sound advice.


Kedar Friis-Lawrence - 2/4 - 'Don't Look Back In Anger' by Oasis - Joins Team Bressie
Kedar was born in England but moved over to Ireland a number of years ago. He's taking on the Oasis classic 'Don't Look Back In Anger' and playing the piano himself. This is a pretty impressive feat and I love Kedar's take on the classic track, his tone is really strong, very reminiscent of James Blunt but it's obviously not going to be for everyone, I myself love the light brit-pop feel of his voice and think he's the most impressive male we've seen tonight. Great performance, Bressie and Jamelia turn around for him. However, rather than the usual 'this is why you should pick me' fighting between the coaches, Kedar's indecisiveness leads to the rather strange decision to flip a coin to decide who will coach him. Bressie wins the coin toss but both him and Jamelia are annoyed that Kedar made his decision on the basis of a coin flip with Bressie saying that he won't be pulling any stunts like that now that he's on his team.


Jacob Cheikh - No Turn - 'At Last' by Etta James
Jacob is from North Africa but he lives in Benidorm and works there as an entertainer. He decided to audition after Irish tourists told him to audition so he got a plane over to Ireland for the auditions. Sadly, the risk doesn't work out, he puts way too much emphasis onto every note in the song and it ends up just being constant vibrato, he's very pitchy sadly and doesn't make it through to the next round.


Dagan Vickers - 1/4 - 'Love Me Again' by John Newman - Joins Team Kian
Former boxer Dagan is auditioning for The Voice in the hope of entering the music industry after hanging up the boxing gloves. He describes his style as encompassing pretty much every genre but after listening to his arrangement of the John Newman track, it's fair to pin him as a country/folk singer. He has a really strong country tone, very deep vocals which are impressive but don't work on this song. He's unique but I feel like this song doesn't work with his voice, it's an interesting risk but I would have preferred him to just pick a country or folk song to start with so we could familiarize ourselves with his quirky voice before he took major risks. However, it pays off with one coach as Kian turns around for him. Dagan has a very unique tone, I'm interested to see how he copes with the competition, he certainly has something.


Mariah Butler - 2/4 - 'Before He Cheats' by Carrie Underwood - Joins Team Dolores
Aspiring country singer Mariah is taking on a great country-pop track by Carrie Underwood, it's a pretty mainstream choice but it does the trick. I love Mariah's voice, I'm not usually a country music fan but her voice is perfect for the genre and she's easily the strongest country singer the show has seen so far, not only is her tone impressive but her voice is really powerful, she has a great range which definitely impresses me. Mariah manages to get two chair turns from the female coaches, Jamelia and Dolores. The girls fight it out with Jamelia fighting back at Dolores' claims to have got into music from a young age by reminding her that she was the same and she writes her own material, before admitting that she'll have to learn from Mariah as she's not massively knowledgable about country music. Dolores says that Jamelia is contradiciting herself but the R & B singer says she's willing to do work to familiarize herself with the genre in order to be a great coach for Mariah. Mariah picks Dolores.


Chantelle McNulty - No Turn - 'So Good To Me' by Chris Malinchak
This isn't Chantelle's first time in the Helix, having supported her sister Gina (who I mentioned earlier) when she unsuccessfully auditioned last year. Chantelle took a lot of convincing before she agreed to audition for the show but Gina and the rest of  Chantelle's family believe she has the talent to make it through. Chantelle's style is really reminiscent of Dolores right down to her voice and the way she sings the song. Her tone is definitely very unique and I absolutely love it, that said, the song choice is poor, she is such a good singer but the song goes nowhere so it doesn't show off her voice. The electronic background detracts from Chantelle's gorgeous tone which would have suited an acapella rendition of the song. However, I'm still disappointed that she hasn't managed to turn any chairs as her tone was amazing. Chantelle takes the judges' comments on board and says she might audition next year, I hope she does, she's really strong.


Rachael Farrell - No Turn - 'Lifted' by Naughty Boy feat. Emeli Sandé   
Rachael works part time in a chinese restaurant but obviously she hopes to be able to go further and make it as a singer instead. She's taking on this Emeli Sandé collaboration with Naughty Boy, she has a nice voice but the song doesn't work for her, it feels a bit karaoke if I'm being honest and her nerves kick in as she hits a few bum notes here and there. She doesn't really display anything unique or different about her voice and with the standard for the girls being so high this year, she isn't good enough for the coaches to press their buttons, instead leaving without a place in the next round. Rachael thinks she let her nerves get the better of her.


Ciara Donnelly - 3/4 - 'Lonely Boy' by The Black Keys - Joins Team  Bressie
Ciara is the second of five wildcards chosen by RTE 2FM to be entered into the blind auditions. We saw Caoin impressing last week so can Ciara follow suit? I absolutely love her voice, she reminds me a bit of Rebecca Ferguson at times but she is much quirkier so is probably more in the Kimbra vein of quirky blues artists. I love the way she interprets the song, the contrast between the subtle verses and the raspy choruses is executed perfectly. She has a haunting voice, it's easily the best blind audition so far and perhaps one of my favourite blind auditions of both the Irish and UK versions of the show. Ciara has so much potential, she has an awesome music taste, I love The Black Keys so much and I love the bluesy quality of her voice. She creates a slanging match between Bressie, Kian and Jamelia with Bressie accusing Jamelia and Kian of not understanding indie music, saying that they wouldn't be able to give her the sorts of songs he thinks she would like to be given. However, Jamelia says that Bressie chooses the worst songs for his artists. Whose team am I on? To be honest, Jamelia, yes she may not be familiar with indie music like Bressie is but he absolutely destroyed some of his strongest acts last year with horrific songs. However, Ciara decides to pick Bressie, I hope she doesn't let him give her awful songs like he did last year in the lives.

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