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Showing posts with label BATTLE ROUNDS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BATTLE ROUNDS. Show all posts
Thursday, October 24, 2013
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Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Monday, October 22, 2012
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Monday, October 1, 2012
Friday, September 7, 2012
[NEWS] CHRISTINA AGUILERA TALKS 'THE VOICE', 'YOUR BODY', AND HER NEW ALBUM
Are you ready for Round 3? We are. We’ve been missing those spinning chairs.Emmy-nominated “The Voice” returns with a new season this month. Soon, you will be seeing host Carson Daly and coaches Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera, Blake Shelton and Cee Lo Green back on your TV screen for an even bigger dose of musical talent and intense competition.
In this e-mail interview with Super, Christina Aguilera dishes on her hit talent show, her new album and the changes this new season will bring.
What do you love about being on “The Voice”?
I am really drawn to the concept behind the show. We are here to help talent learn and grow. The show celebrates just the voice and the talent behind it and I feel it is a positive and uplifting experience for us all.There are a number of other talent shows on TV—why do you think your show is such a huge hit?
“The Voice” is really judging people based only on their voice and it was a concept I hadn’t seen before. It also presents the chance for us to lift up new talents rather than tear them down. I knew I wanted to be part of something so positive. Our concepts and format are different so I see room for us all. We are a very different show.What can fans expect from this new season?
This season will NOT disappoint. First the blind auditions will be longer, teams will be bigger AND we have added the surprise of a steal, so coaches can take a member from another team that gets kicked out in battle. And the performances are going to be amazing. We have an opening coach’s performance AND I will debut my new single, “Your Body,” on the show.What’s it like working with Cee Lo Green, Blake Shelton and Adam Levine? How has your relationship with them changed over the seasons?
They are like the brothers that I have always wanted. We are a big family and we have really grown close over the seasons. I have so much respect for all three of them.How do you feel about the format changes for Season 3?
It’s a great idea that keeps the show fresh and also keeps us coaches on our feet. Now with the steals we have to know our team and all three other teams as well so we can be strategic.Do you think being allowed to steal contestants will have an impact on your coaching/judging style?
Absolutely. It really requires us to know not only our teams but everyone else’s as well, which changes the dynamic. It is going to be a lot of fun.You’ll be working with Billie Joe Armstrong this season—how do you feel about that? You and Billie have different musical styles, do you think that would be beneficial to the show and the contestants?
I am so excited to be working with Billy Joe. He made me laugh for hours and brought such positive energy to the set. It’s also a great mix as his style is so different than mine and it allows the team to learn from so many perspectives. We are lucky to have him as a member of “Team Xtina.”You’re working on a new album now—how’s it going? When can we expect to hear it?
The new album is almost done and I am so excited to share it with fans. My new single, “Your Body,” will premiere on “The Voice” this season. A lot of the album is light and fun. Great dance and pop tracks. Others are really raw and intimate. I am so excited for the album.How do you feel about the “Sesame Street” spoof of “The Voice”?
I love it! When I saw it I couldn’t stop laughing. I even tweeted. My son loves the show and I told him now mommy really made it.“The Voice” Season 3 premieres on AXN on Sept. 16. Watch it every Sunday at 8 p.m.
Source: Inquirer Entertainment
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Monday, March 26, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Friday, March 16, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
Saturday, March 10, 2012
[NEWS] WHY 'THE VOICE' IS HITTING THE HIGH NOTES
The Voice is suddenly on a hot streak - the kind of streak reserved for lightning-in-a-bottle pop-cultural phenoms that elevate hope and talent over hype and humiliation. The kind of streak that suddenly threatens to cast American Idol in the shade.How is The Voice better than American Idol? Let me count the ways.
. The Voice has coaches, not judges. Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine, and country vocalist Blake Shelton have a vested interest in the success of their 12 chosen team members.
. The Voice auditions focus on performing ability; American Idol auditions focus, as often as not, on humiliation and the vocal train wreck. The Voice's contestants are chosen in advance, based on their singing ability; Idol's contestants are chosen from whoever walks in the door.
. The Voice is tailored to the individual performer's chosen field of singing. American Idol forces contestants into a box. This week, disco, next week, power ballads, the week after that, duets with Pauly Shore. The Voice simply asks: Do you have a good voice? Good. Now show us how good. And do it your way.
. The Voice's coaches are singers themselves. They're working in the industry now, and their music is contemporary, relevant and on the song charts. Shelton is on tour now, with his finalist from The Voice last season, Dia Frampton.
. The Voice is changeable and adaptable to shifts in musical tastes and tracking trends. American Idol is locked into more of a stiff format. The Voice bends and moves with the times; American Idol is trapped in the past. The Voice is karmic; American Idol is dogmatic.
. The Voice is inclusive. Last season, two of the four finalists were openly gay, and no one cared. American Idol appears uncomfortable with the subject, at least during the competition phase. (One theory holds that, because Idol's core fan base lies in the conservative, U.S. red states, alternative lifestyles are deliberately downplayed on the show.)
. The Voice makes no secret of the fact that many of its contestants have previous experience in the recording industry. In some cases, they've had record deals, only to be dropped by their label over time. American Idol, on the other hand, likes to pretend its contestants fell off the back of a turnip truck, even though some of them have experience, too.
. The coaches are expected to be themselves, not play TV versions of themselves. Levine is high-energy, uptempo, combative, sarcastic and outspoken. He's all about the music, not the fame. As he told me last month, "I trust this show more than I trust the business," when it comes to finding new talent. Green is soft-spoken and watchful; he listens more than he talks. Aguilera is effusive and open-hearted, but also given to moments of reflection and introspection. And Shelton, who some Voice insiders have tabbed as the standout coach, is as much about nurturing and encouragement as he is about album sales and tour dates.
TV-reality competitions are not quite the same as real-world talent contests. They're designed for TV, for one; the talent part is secondary. They have to deal with issues of pacing, suspense, empathy and old-fashioned storytelling. They work best - as TV shows - when there's an element of challenge and overcoming the odds, and self-affirmation. There has to be a rooting interest, and a reason to watch other than mild curiosity about who will win in the end. There has to be a reason for viewers to come back, week after week. And when talent alone won't do it - some Idol seasons are stronger than others - there's always engineered drama.
The Voice has its share of contrived drama. Every second contestant, it seems, is an HIV-positive recovering addict or a 50-something lifelong music devotee looking for that one last shot at fame and stardom.
On Idol, though - especially this season - the contrived drama has overwhelmed the singing, at times.
There was no need, for example, to shamelessly keep replaying the moment when a 16-year-old fell off the stage during Idol's Hollywood audition phase. Contestant Symone Black, already suffering from dehydration, took a tumble off the front edge of the stage after performing a credible rendition of Otis Redding's Sitting on the Dock of the Bay. There was no need to show the accident what seemed like 67 times - no need, that is, except ratings and the fact that, thanks to the magic of video editing in the digital age, the moment could be packaged and used as a teaser for nearly two hours, followed by an episode-ending cliffhanger. Was she hurt? Did she injure her back? Will she ever sing again? Tune in tomorrow to find out.
Idol has now reached the audience knockout phase. A dozen contestants remain, following last week's systematic mauling of Adele songs. Idol will dial back on the engineered drama, in theory, from here on in and let the singers take over.
There's an inescapable feeling, though, that this year's field is weaker than in some past seasons, despite the judges' constant crowing about how this is "the best group ever!" It didn't help Idol's cause that Interscope Geffen A&M chairman Jimmy Iovine told one contestant last week that his "shtick" was getting old and that the show is called American Idol, not American Comedian.
Iovine remarked that another contestant was screechy and annoying, and said of one performance - which got a standing ovation from judges Randy Jackson, Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez - that it was cheesy.
Meanwhile, The Voice has wrapped its sensational blind-audition phase - the search for the mystery voice - and is now in the so-called "battle rounds," where the coaches assign a pair of singers in their teams to perform a duet, and choose the singer most likely to advance. The singers will be helped in their task by guest mentors: Lionel Richie and Jewel with Aguilera's group, Kelly Clarkson and Miranda Lambert with Shelton's group, Ne-Yo and Babyface Edmonds with Green's group and, perhaps most intriguing, Alanis Morissette and Robin Thicke with Levine's group.
Levine told Anderson Cooper recently that he's angling to get Kanye West involved with his group. Not so long ago, the very suggestion would have been laughable. Now, not so much. The Voice is suddenly serious business.
And music to the ears. The Voice has risen lately in the ratings, where American Idol has dropped.
For once, though, the bottom line is not just about the bottom line.
The Voice is simply the better show, pure and simple.
The Voice is more relevant, more meaningful, more compelling and more entertaining right now, because it's good to listen to, not just fun to watch.
Source: TheStarPhoenix
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
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