‘The Voice’ Season 9: Worst Song Choices Thus Far? [Opinion]


NBC’s The Voice brings us some of the best singing talents on TV, season after season. However, we often see good singers go home for what boils down to terrible song choice. Whether it’s The Voice artist themselves or their coach *cough* Gwen Stefani *cough,* bad song choice can be THE nail in the coffin.

There are some people who are so good that they can sing practically anything. However, those singers are actually rare. A good artist (and an experienced Voice coach) has to know what songs work for which voices. Even if you want to push an artist to step out of their comfort zone, a bad song that’s performed horribly live won’t make for a sympathetic audience.

Here are artists that likely left The Voice because a poorly selected song.

Regina Love had such momentum going into the lives after her soulful performance of “Midnight Train To Georgia.” Then Voice coach Gwen “gifted” her the brand new Adele song “Hello.” I know that The Voice is pretty transparent about helping established artists get some promotion, but at least they could have done so without ruining things for poor Regina. Her voice, while strong, was not right for this song.

I had previously said that Regina often lacked subtlety when singing (and attempting the big notes); she needed a more gentle number to help her show off her lovely lower register. I would have given Regina Love “Kissing You” by Des’ree and left “Hello” to a Team Adam or Team Pharrell member. Anything that flipped the script on her previous style of singing and showed more versatility. It was a waste of a song choice that benefitted no one (not even Adele) and helped hastily speed up this Voice hopeful’s exit.

Anyone that thinks Braiden Sunshine wasn’t saved because of his cuteness is kidding themselves. This was an awful interpretation of Bread’s “Everything I Own.” Like Regina, this was a serious step back for Braiden. And once again, it’s because of a poor song choice by coach Gwen. She has SUCH talent on her team, but her inability to judge which songs work with which voices is going to get them sent home.

Braiden proved he has chops with his cover of Michael Bublé’s version of “Feeling Good.” But The Voice is stacked this year with loads of cross-genre talent. Adorableness will only get you so far this season. This NBC show gets highly competitive in the later stages, and everything counts.

Tim Atlas’s “Torn” was not only a poor song choice, it firmly demonstrated that he was a waste of a steal. Better singers went home during the Battle and Knockout Rounds on this season that, sadly, weren’t granted an opportunity to stay on or return.

Having to sit through this lifeless interpretation of a Natalie Imbruglia hit felt like punishment. In the future, I’d appreciate it if judges on The Voice kept artists around because of their potential and not out of pity. It can be hard, and I’d probably be tempted, too. But sometimes performances like this are an affirmation that some people aren’t right for this particular type of program.

He and this bad song choice were put up against Team Pharrell’s Evan Mckeel. Because of that, I’m thinking that Pharrell (and by him, I mean The Voice producers) didn’t want to chance this guy getting to the live shows.

Why are these talented singers on this list despite an otherwise excellent job? Well, it’s not because I thought Amanda Ayala and Shelby Brown were bad. It’s because the song choice was horrible. “Edge of Seventeen” by Stevie Nicks isn’t about a teenage girl reminiscing about not growing up. It’s about an older woman who’s flirting with a much younger man (boy even) and wishing that she could keep her girlish, wild nature. The “age-old” desire to always be a beautiful, fresh-faced girl “on the edge of seventeen.”

As most grown women relate to the spirit of the song, especially as they get older — it was pretty damn insensitive to have a pair of teenage girls belt it out. While not terrible, it was blatant that they couldn’t grasp the heart of the song, and it was just as blatant why. Not every Voice talent can believably capture songs of this nature — and those who can’t probably shouldn’t be given those type of classics.

What were your least favorite performances on The Voice? Which artists do you think left season 9 early because of poor song choices? Share your thoughts in the comment section below!

[Image Via Screen Grab From The Voice Official YouTube]

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