The Voice Season 11 Episode 3 of the Blind Auditions – So Much Good!

The Voice season 11 Episode 3 of the blind auditions has added so many more awesome singers I’m already getting anxious about who we might lose via the battle rounds!  Also, I am completely in love with having Alicia Keys and Miley Cyrus on as new coaches! Their non-competitive competing has veteran coaches Blake Shelton and Adam Levine them completely off balance!  Blake in particular seems totally puzzled by Alicia and keeps poking at her to see if she’ll react. She just laughs. (Her laugh is becoming one of my favorite things!)

In other good news, Adam does much better than he did in the official premiere of The Voice season 11. This episode of The Voice has upped the ante.  Several of this singers already feel like they’ll be the winners! (I’m glad the Olympics is only every 4 years because it plays havoc with the numbering of episodes for The Voice.   This is this physically the third episode, but since the first was a preview, some would say this is episode 2….)

The Voice Season 11 Episode 3 Recap: The Performers

Sa’Rayah: age 28

Another opening act from Chicago, Illinois. Sa’Rayah’s story is seriously one of finding victory from tragedy though. Like, the producers didn’t to stretch to make this one stick. She’s a single mother who has grew up in a notorious project called Carni Greene. Her mom was a crack addict who has since cleaned up her act and become Sa’Rayah’s rock and support. As for her voice and performance, she is “Diva fierce!” Watching her I got that same of feeling I had the first time I heard Jennifer Hudson sing. Yeah, she didn’t win American Idol – but she didn’t need to. Everyone already knew. Still, between Sa’Rayah’s voice. style, and her inspiring messages as an artist, if she doesn’t make it to the lives there’s a problem!

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Adam and Blake didn’t turn for her, but Adam, in his own rambling way says he thought she’d be better served by Alicia. On one level he’s right. Except…Alicia is in no way a diva persona. Miley hooked right into that part of Sa’Rayah. Like, she just got her.

The way this opening went down is a perfect example about what’s different about this year’s dynamic. Miley and Alicia’s chemistry is it’s own dynamic, and it’s a completely new ingredient to the show’s usual comic bickering between the coaches.
The differences aren’t just about having two female coaches. It’s having these two female coaches. I know some were concerned about how Miley Cyrus would fit it, but her working with Alicia has created something that’s kind of perfect.
It’s like Alicia’s found the little sister she’s never had.

When Adam said he was going to get some popcorn to watch Alicia and Miley fight over Sa’Rayah he may have been disappointed. Miley and Alicia both argued passionately for the singer, but they never go after each other. Yet, seeing these two together is just as engaging as watching Adam and Blake trying to one-up each other. It definitely gives more to watch!

Ethan Tucker: age 26

Ethan hails from Washington state and already makes his living as a professional musician touring and playing out. His story tells about a lot of drive…and driving. It takes a minute to realize that he’s a reggae artist, but when mentions opening for Jimmy Cliff & Ziggy Marley you get it.

The fact that he’s been the opening act for some of the best in the genre says a lot about his talent. Then comes the heart part. When he’s not on the road he lives with and helps out his sweet 85-year-old grandma! Awww….

His song choice is equally impressive, at least to me. He’s doing “Roxanne” by The Police – but he’s doing a reggae version. Why is this cool? Because the original is already infused with reggae sensibilities. Billboaard calls it a “reggee-rock” classic. Nevertheless, Adam and Blake are at first a little confused by it. At one point Adam looks over at Alicia to get her opinion!

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Miley, and interestingly enough, Alicia, stay out of this one. Even though she knows the genre, my thought is that perhaps she’s thinking he’d be better served learning to work outside of it. Reggae is cool, but there’s no way pure reggae could win The Voice. However, you can hear Ethan’s unstylized singing voice in parts of the song and he is jamming on that guitar. There’s a lot of talent to work with.

Can you believe Blake played the Gwen Stefani card? That totally cracked me up! Mainly because when it comes to that “reggae/ska world” this guy has already opened up for the best of the best. Of course, Blake at this point doesn’t know that. Ethan picks Blake – but it has nothing to do with Gwen Stefani. He says he picked Blake because he thinks Blake will “challenge him to go to new realms” he hasn’t been to yet. Given all the influences Ethan listed, I’d say that realm is country music! As Blake later points out, it’s the one type of musical influence Ethan never mentions!

Katie Colosimo: age 22

Katie’s from Nashville, Tennessee. (She went to music school there for college.) In Nashville she works at a dog grooming salon and boarding place and her parents are very supportive of her music.

Unfortunately, Katie but she put way too much pressure on herself. Her nerves have her off pitch in a number of places. Adam attributed the shakiness and off-pitch moments to her being “too emotional.” Luckily, Miley came in right after.

“For me, just focus on your pitch, but don’t worry too much. Don’t ever try to harden up or lose your emotion. ’cause that’s what made me really enjoy listening to you.”

Alicia spoke next and noted it was a hard song, but that doing challenging things is what pushes an artist forward. Blake rounded out the commentary by saying it was “probably nerves” that had Kaitie losing control vocally, but then he also went with her needing to control her emotions!

Maybe Blake meant her nervousness there too. I hope so because the worst thing to tell a woman is that she’s being “too emotional.” Adam was trying to be nice and not directly address the pitch issue, and I think Blake was also. However, the way Katie lit up at Miley’s words spoke volume.

There’s nothing wrong with feeling the meaning of a song – just learn to control her pitch while doing it. It’s a great critique. Blake said if she worked on the nerves she’d likely get a button push if she came back. Even though she was very upset about not making it (she bursts into tears backstage) I think she’ll try again. It was hard to get a full sense of her voice, but I did detect a touch of Bette Midler to her sound. I bet she’d do a killer version of “The Rose.”

W̩ McDonald Р17

This teen sensation was a four-chair turning sneak peek. She’s the young lady with the super-high speaking voice but sings with a deep husky jazz-like voice. If you missed it, you can see her audition here.

What we didn’t have much of was her background. Wé is from Patterson, New Jersey. She’d been bullied in middle school, but her father then sent her to The Harlem School of the Arts. She’s had some stage experience – Carnegie Hall – twice – and the Apollo Theatre in New York City. She says the Apollo was the hardest thing she’s ever done – until The Voice.

Truthfully, I think the Apollo is harder. At The Voice if they don’t like you people will at least be polite. The Apollo is not kind if they don’t like you! That audience makes Simon Cowell seem like a sweetheart!

Wé picked Alicia, and that seems like a perfect fit. (Plus, I’m glad she and Sa’Rayah are not on the same team!)

Seeing Wé with Alicia highlighted for me why Sa’Rayah is better off on team Miley. Wé needs a gentler touch, while Sa’Rayah just needs permission to be as big and bold as she wants to be!

The Coaches have a sidebar

Before the next artist Alicia and Blake try giving Adam a pep talk. The difference in approach is hilarious!

Alicia: You really need to exercise some patience, babe. Your patience is real low.
Blake: I think you just need to take a minute and realize that you say a lot of stupid stuff.

After Adam leaves, Alicia tells Blake she thinks they need to give Adam a break. He only has one artist on his team! Blake isn’t hearing it though!

Andrew DeMuro: age 25

He’s a former special education teacher who quit teaching when he realized his heart wasn’t in it. His favorite singer is Billy Joel. Andrew is also from Chicago, Illinois. Chicago is definitely in the house so far. There’s been a number of people from there. The song Andrew does is “Vienna” by Billy Joel and he gets Adam and Blake to turn.

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Andrew sounds a lot like Billy Joel. He gets Blake and Adam to play students for a little bit before choosing Adam. That wasn’t surprising.

Billy Gilman: age 28

Now, this is an interesting one. Billy Gilman is from Rhode Island. At ten years old he had a record deal. He was a country music singer with his album hitting number two on the country music charts and a single from the album was nominated for two Grammys! He even opened up for Billy Ray Cyrus! Then his voice changed and it all went away.

The Voice is no stranger to having people who’ve had record deals or been in the spotlight before. Remember when the former Mouseketeer Tony Lucca was on when Christina Aguilera was a coach? Heck, last season’s winner Alison Porter was a child actress. She went to Team Christina, which was the best decision. They had so much in common! However, that early success is no guarantee that they’ll win. In fact, I think Alison’s the first to do so.

The other part of Billy’s story adds to his appeal. Aside from having to teach himself to sing again, Billy had to come out to himself and then to his family. They are, thank goodness, completely supportive. He’s interested in pursuing a career in pop music now – not country. The song he does is “When We Were Young” – by Adele!

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Whoa! It takes a lot of confidence to redo an Adele song, but his was not misplaced. His version is unique and gorgeous. Before he went on stage he said that he was interested in having Miley as his coach, but he ends up picking Adam. I think he made a good decision. Not that Miley wouldn’t be good, but in terms of crafting his image, Adam makes more sense.

Nathalie Vincent: age 18

Nathalie is from Connecticut. Her story is sad but inspiring. Her sister Chelsea died at seventeen from Sickle Cell Anemia. The first time she overcame her shyness and sang in front of people was at her sister’s funeral.

Nathalie’s raw talent shines through, but she doesn’t make it onto the show. After all, she’s following Sa’Rayah and Wé – both who have real polish and understanding on how to sing on stage. Even before she says it, all four coaches seemed to know she was a real newbie. Nathalie has an excellent attitude about not getting a chair to turn.

Adam and Miley both came up and hugged her! Adam tells her to come back when she’s got more experience.

It’s Alicia’s words that really got to me though:

I just want to tell you that I’m so proud of you. There are so many people that live their life so afraid to try anything for the first time. By stepping out on this stage today, you have grown exponentially right now…by testing yourself and telling yourself “I am great and I can do it.” So congratulations for an incredible accomplishment

What great encouragement to get at eighteen from someone like Alicia Keys! I’m pretty sure Nathalie will be back!

Sophia Urista: age 31

New York, NY is in the house! Sophia was pre-med until the performance bug hit her in college. This did not thrill her parents, but she went for it anyway. Currently she works as the MC of an old-fashion dinner theatre burlesque show in New York City. She goes out and does her version of the Beatles classic, “Come Together.”

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Whoa! That was awesome! Alicia named Janis Joplin and Tina Turner as influences. Those are definitely there. However, Miley picked up on a more subtle influence – Dolly Parton! (It’s in some of the tonality and phrasing.)

I love that Miley called Blake on the idea that Sophia would only work with a “girl coach.”

Well, you didn’t give her much option.

Miley was spot with the Dolly influence! Sophia says, “That’s her girl!” So when Miley plays the “Dolly Parton is my Godmother” card, it’s over. Truthfully though, I think Miley had her before that. Sophia likes rock music and costumes and the whole performance aspect of singing. That’s far more Miley’s wheelhouse than Alicia’s. My only concern is that now Sophia and Sa’Rayah are on the same team! Even though the former is rock and the latter is gospel/R&B they could end up battling each other. There’s enough about them that is similar. Both have major intensity, stage presence and volume. If they do get paired, hopefully someone will pick up the loser in a steal!

Blake tries to goad Alicia about losing to Miley…he really doesn’t get it. Alicia just laughs him off. In her paradigm, Miley getting good people doesn’t mean she won’t get good people as well.

Brendan Fletcher: age 26

Born in New Jersey, but hailing from Brooklyn, New York, this bartender is a heartbreaker! He gets three chairs to turn doing a smoothed out, slowed down, emotional version of the country song “Jolene.”

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Brendan chooses Adam as his coach. Now Adam has a problem. He has four great guys on his team: Brendan, Billy, Andrew and from Monday’s episode, Riley. Knowing Adam he’s probably going to pair Riley with Billy and Brendan with Andrew, thus losing two of them. That’s what hard about these competitions – sometimes the ones you like end up going home early on….

Dan Shafer: age 56

That’s right! Dan is 56 years old! His story is one that – just by getting the chance to audition on the show is inspiring! It’s one that many people will connect with. Dan started out in music, First it was singing in bands and doing clubs. Then he started doing commercial jingles. Somewhere in there he got married, had a kid…

It’s not until his son was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease that he quit music and got a regular job for the insurance. Before he knew it…he was 56. He doesn’t sound 56 when he sings though!

 

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trong>Train’s “Marry Me” is so sweet and longing. I’m curious to see his take on other songs.

Lauren Diaz: age 24

Lauren Diaz is another singer that’s a former kid performer. Currently she resides in Apple Valley, with her boyfriend and their son. However at 13 she won a episode of another NBC talent show, “America’s Most Talented Kid.” Then, (like she will now) she sang the Alicia Key’s song “If I Ain’t Got You.” She’s a huge fan of Alicia!

After that brief moment though life moved on. Here’s the rest of her bio:

At 19, Lauren got pregnant and, at the same time, her mom was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and was going through a divorce. Because of her son and her mom, Lauren decided to put music on hold and go to school. Lauren is now a vocal coach at a studio and is trying to save up enough money to get married. Alicia inspired her to become a musician and play the piano.

Obviously, getting to sing in front of your inspiration is a huge deal! Lauren’s blind audition closes out the show!

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The fact that Lauren held it together when Alicia turned around shows just how pro she is! It’s a four chair turn. All the coaches know she’s going to Alicia’s team. Miley says she “just turned for fun.” Adam does a turn even better!

“The sky is blue, the grass is green, and Lauren is on Alicia’s team.”

It’s a banner day for Lauren. After getting on her idol’s team, she walks backstage with Alicia and her boyfriend (his name is Randy) is down on one knee with a ring! Best ending of an episode of The Voice ever!

The Wrap Up

Believe it or not, The Voice season 11 episode 3 is only day two of the blind auditions! Monday will bring even more great singers! Because of this I don’t want to say that we’ve probably already seen the winner. It it sure feels like it, though. Certainly a good chunk of the top twelve is going to come from this batch! Still, in the past there have been some great singers that have an off night and get eliminated – as well as those who step up and surprise everyone. We’ll just have to stay tuned and see how this season goes!