Mu$ic i$ the Door: The Voice Of Ireland: Series 3: Top 16 Perform

The Voice Of Ireland: Series 3: Top 16 Perform - Part 1!

04 April, 2014 4:39 PM

Published by Kevin Mc Stravock

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Last week saw four more acts leave as Peter, Martin, Padraig and Craig were eliminated. This week, half of the Top 16 performs and each team will lose one act, well apart from one team who manage to get the lifeline. After one act from each team is voted through, the act with the most votes will get through to the quarter final. Who will make it?

Recap and videos after the JUMP...

Team Jamelia

Gavin Murray

'Show Me Love' by Robin. S - 6.5/10 - Gavin is a very likeable person, he's not the best singer in the competition but he has a quite good voice but my main issue with him is that his performances never really make any sort of impression on me. He reminds me a little bit too much of Keith Hanley who won last series and unfortunately, considering the lack of success that has befallen Keith, I fail to see how he will be any different. This performance was no better or worse than the last performance, the song was alright, his vocals were a little pitchy but it was okay overall. I don't think his opponent has much to worry about though, it was a fairly mediocre performance.

Gavin gets 19 out of 30 (7,6,6)

Aisling Connolly

'Free' by Rudimental feat. Emeli Sandé - 8/10 - Aisling was one of the strongest in last week's performances, she gave a fantastic, unique performance of a brilliant song by London Grammar. The song choice isn't an indie one but again, Jamelia proves that she's the only coach who pretty much consistently gives her acts songs that suit them. This was a great performance, I preferred last week but it was still vocally really special. I hate how they have begun to style Aisling, I think she should sack her stylist really but I'm a man so what do I know really? Vocally, there's no faulting her really, she has a good range, good control of her voice and overall, I'm really impressed. Good performance, Aisling will destroy Gavin in the voting surely?

Aisling gets 23 out of 30 (8,7,8)

Team Bressie

Brendan McCahey

'She's A Mystery To Me' by Roy Orbison - 9/10 - This is pretty fantastic, I must admit. I don't particularly want Brendan to win, not because I don't think he would deserve it, quite frankly I think he definitely would but because I think he would be far better having creative control over what he does because I think Universal would turn him into an artist that he isn't. This is a song that never really registered with me before but there's something about Brendan's style of singing that really grabs my attention. He's a bit like Sally Barker from The Voice UK, he might not be the most modern artist but he's one of the best.

Brendan gets 25 out of 30 (8,8,9)

Ciara Donnelly

'I Bet That You Look Good On The Dancefloor' by The Kaiser Chiefs - 9.5/10 - Ciara is literally my single favourite Voice contestant, potentially ever. I absolutely love her voice, it's so unique and fresh, she adds a bluesy spin to every song she takes on. She's like Kimbra but even quirkier and this is just a work of pure genius. She says that people will probably either love it or hate it and she's not lying, it's a totally different take on the song, nothing like the original version at all but that's why I love it so much. Ciara has had problems with her voice this week but even with a bad throat, she sounds fantastic, she herself isn't really happy with the performance but I genuinely think she nailed it. It was great that she took a risk with the song and arranged it totally differently to the original. It annoys me that the coaches slate her for doing this, they tell people off for playing it safe then tell Ciara her version sounded too different. No, it was a unique take on the song that totally showed off her brilliant bluesy voice, I would rather that than someone singing a like for like version of 'Someone Like You'. Also, why is Dolores still giving everyone 6's? I swear, someone could fart into the microphone and she would still smile and say 'It's a 6'.

Ciara gets 20 out of 30 (6,7,7)

Team Kian

Laura O'Connor

'Dirty Diana' by Michael Jackson - 7.5/10 - This song is no better suited to Laura than last week's performance was, Kian still isn't learning from his mistakes. He did the same to Shane every week last series, pick songs that fit her not Michael Jackson songs that are totally random fits for her voice. She does the best that she can with it and her vocals are actually pretty good but I'm being 100% honest when I say that she looks totally uncomfortable on stage. Kian's constant attempts to vamp her up are falling flat because she isn't comfortable doing big performances, the choreography is just too much and I'm left feeling bemused. Kian really appears to be concentrating more on dancing than he is song choice if the bizarre choreography for Danica last week is anything to go by. Not a bad performance but song choice let her down.

Laura gets 20 out of 30 (7,6,7)

Jay Boland

'Say Something' by A Great Big World feat. Christina Aguilera - 7.5/10 - First of all, vocally this is in a different league to his last performance which was a lazy song choice and totally wrong for him resulting in disappointing vocals. I really like this song and it's good to see him playing to his strengths. However, comparing him to the likes of Brendan who have performed emotional songs, Jay's big problem is his delivery. I'm not convinced by his delivery of this song at all, for me the emotional connection with the song is non-existent. It's just a nice vocal performance of the song, I get no feeling from it and don't really think he delivered the emotion of the original. Towards the end, when he goes into falsetto, I feel it's all a bit much, simplicity is key on emotional songs not throwing in 1000 vocal tricks. It's nice to see him doing a song that is more his style but he needs to work on connecting with the song.

Jay gets 23 out of 30 (8,7,8)

Team Dolores

Emma Walsh

'Go Your Own Way' by Fleetwood Mac - 5.5/10 - Emma was incredibly lucky to make it through last week, I wasn't a big fan of Peter either but she was definitely weaker in her performance. This is actually probably worse to begin, she sounds incredibly pitchy and to be honest, it doesn't improve much although I suppose towards the end, it sounds a little better. I don't know if it's inexperience, nerves, song choice or something else but Emma just hasn't ever really found herself in the competition. This is an incredibly average performance. Jamelia says pretty much what everyone is thinking, Emma has no star quality, she describes her as looking like she could be on stage doing the hoovering whilst she sings. Emma argues back and says that it's a singing competition not a dancing competition. Well yes, it is a singing competition but you also need to have stage presence and even basing it on vocals alone, it was still a pretty poor performance. There's definitely no love lost between Jamelia and Emma but I personally agree with Jamelia, it wasn't great.

Emma gets 19 out of 30 (7,6,6)

Mariah Butler

'Crazy' by Aerosmith - 9/10 - I'm glad Mariah is taking another risk, her battle round performance when she did a country spin on a non-country song was exceptional. This is absolutely brilliant, I mentioned Jay not really connecting emotionally with his song and this is an example of how to connect with the emotion of the song, she's absolutely brilliant and really blows me away with her mature take on the classic Aerosmith song. Mariah has a very strong country tone and a really good voice overall, her control is impressive, she doesn't miss a note and she really knows what she's doing but it doesn't sound so polished that it detracts from the emotion of the song. Great performance, Mariah has to be in the quarter-finals after that surely.

Mariah gets 26 out of 30 (8,9,9)

Results

Through to the Top 10: