BWW Recap: The VOICE, First Night of Battles Full of Intense Performances and Steals

Hello Everyone! Did you miss me last Tuesday? Well, I'm back this week for an action packed week as The Voice heads into their second phase of the competition: The Battle Rounds. For those of you who don't know, this is when each coach puts two of their team members up against each other, has them sing a duet, and then picks a winner. To make it more interesting, each other coach now has the ability to "steal" the person the coach didn't choose three times, keeping the other contestant in the show on a new team.

That sounds confusing, I know. But I promise it's not that confusing! To give you an example, if Laura Osnes and Stephanie J. Block competed in a battle for Team Adam, and Adam chose Stephanie, Christina, CeeLo, or Blake could all "steal" Laura and keep her on their team. They can do up to THREE times.

Also for the battle rounds, each coach brings in a mentor, who is a friend of the coach to help prepare for the battles. Past mentors have included Miranda Lambert, Kelly Clarkson, Ne-Yo. This year though, for Team Adam, the songwriter, producer, and lead singer of One Republic, Ryan Tedder, is on board to help Adam. For Team Blake, he recruited the iconic Cher to help him. Christina went with indie singer and songwriter Ed SHeeran to help her, and CeeLo chose R&B Producer Miguel.

So in case you weren't aware, the Battle Rounds are a HUGE deal for The Voice. It's where each performer is examined and we get a chance to see who is the real deal, and who will go onto the live rounds.

The first battle was with Team Adam, between Grey, a wedding singer from Jacksonville, and Nic Hawk, who was on The Voice for his family, to inspire his brother to follow his dreams. A powerful battle took place, the pair singing Jessie J's "Domino". While Nic showed that he could sing and deliver an entertaining performance, it was Grey's strong vocals that won Adam over, proclaiming her the winner of the Battle. As Nic was saying goodbye, Blake pressed his button, indicating he wanted to steal Nic and put him on his team! Fantastic, no one likes the first Battle to be a sad one! Yay for Nic and Grey!

The next battle featured Team Xtina, and two powerhouse vocals, seventeen year old Amber Nicole and fifteen year old Timyra-Joi. Christina gave them the song "Listen" by Beyonce to sing, and to point it quaintly; they both rocked it, completely. I'm not a big ballad listener; I prefer the faster songs, but these girls captivated me. It was eventually Amber Nicole who won the battle, despite the other coaches' support for Timyra. When explaining her choice, Christina explained that, in the end, Amber Being older than and Timyra-Joi was what finally made her choose Amber.

Team Blake took the next battle, putting the two classic country singers up against each other, pagent coach Shelbie Z. and country singer Justin Chain. Blake gave them an actual duet to sing "Don't You Wanna Stay" by Jason Aldean and Kelly Clarkson. The two performed so well that the other coaches, when trying to help Blake with advice, couldn't get over how well the two sang the duet together. In the end, Blake chose Shelbie Z to move on to the next round.

CeeLo's team was up next with a battle, pairing indie singer Caroline Pennell with R&B singer Anthony Paul. They were given "As Long As You Love Me" by Justin Bieber, and though it seemed like a mismatch, it was actually a mismatch made in heaven. Caroline's breathy voice matched Anthony's smooth voice perfectly, making Adam and Christine push for Caroline, despite the song not Being in her genre of music. CeeLo listened to Adam and Christina and declared Caroline the winner, and in an amazing turn of events, Christina, who had pushed for Caroline, stole Anthony. Was that a bit of strategy, Miss Aguilera? Either way, both contestants are still in the competition and made it to the next round.

The fifth battle took us back to Team Adam, where we had more powerhouse vocals, Tessanne Chin and Donna Allen, who sang "Next to Me" by Emeli Sande. Both these singers took a song and completely made it their own, feeding off each other to make a great battle round. In the end, and about five minutes of Adam trying to decide, and a commercial break, Tessanne was declared the winner of the battle, despite having said she knew she'd lose against Donna! I hate seeing someone lose, but it's nice when the underdog wins!

The final battle was Team Xtina, between Briana Cuoco and Jacquie Lee, who sang "House of the Rising Sun" by the Animals. This was an incredibly blue-sy song and required a lot of intense vocals, and both girls performed it wonderfully. The other three coaches were split down the middle, with Adam unable to help Christina, yelling "I don't know!" to the audience and to the contestants. Christina chose Jacquie, but CeeLo and Blake immediately pressed their buttons to steal Briana, and after some persuading, she made a surprising choice to go with Blake.

And that concludes the first night of the Battle Rounds. I'll see you all tomorrow for the second night, and hopefully more intense performances and steals!

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