If there’s one criticism that all talent shows are subject to, then it’s the age old allegation that celebrity mentors fail to live up to their duties, and instead the contestants are largely left to their own devices in their attempts for fame and glory.
This week’s episode of The Voice seemingly dispelled such criticisms as both the contestants of Team Tom and Team Will joined their respective mentors for a group duet. 'Silver Bear' Tom Jones and his team joined forces on a performance of Ray Charles classic 'Hit The Road Jack', whilst the modern stylings of will.i.am were only too evident in his group’s performance of Kanye West hit 'Gold Digger'.
As exciting as these performances were, it was the individual improvements that really stood out on tonight’s show. Tyler James’ performance of ‘Sign Your Name' by Terence Trent D’Arby seemed to effortlessly showcase his vast vocal range, something that he’d evidently struggled to display only a fortnight ago.
Leanne Mitchell also seemed to have improved massively, with her soulful performance of 'Put A Spell On You' by Nina Simone seeming a world away from her holiday park entertainer background.
In the first live show, Adam Isaac’s performance of 'All My Life' by Foo Fighters introduced us to his faux rock vocals, which sounded increasingly strained on his performance of Radiohead’s 'High and Dry' with rival team coach Danny O’ Donoghue rightly commenting on his inability to reach the high falsettos achieved by Thom Yorke in the original incarnation of the song.
Similarly, Matt and Sueleen did little to escape the possibility of a second week in the bottom two with a performance of 'Missing' by Everything But The Girl, the title of the song being a possible prediction of where they’ll be in the competition come the end of tomorrow evening.
But, as was the case with the first show, it was 20 year old Londoner Ruth Brown who blew all competition out of the water with her performance of Emeli Sande’s 'Next To Me', which was an arguable improvement on the original. High praise indeed given that Sande is one of the UK’s strongest voices in 2012. Her gospel soul inspired voice has an unbelievable range, paired with a vulnerability that suggested that she doesn’t quite realise just how fantastic her voice really is.
What did you think of tonight's show?
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