Bouli

28 minutes ago, Hamza Tufail said:

Maelyn was WAY more popular. GNT too.

 

Grace is really liked here. She has a very strong fan base, similar to Morgan. I think towards the end the avg IDFer preferred Gina slightly, but still liked Grace. But Gina and Grace both still doesn't come close to Maelyn in terms of popularity. Maelyn was, like, everyone's fav here. I remember her getting more than 40% votes with her worst performance (Falling Water) lol. But see the knockouts poll, and see Gina's position there.

 

 

Again, as I said above, Morgan, Gina, and Grace all had strong fan bases here. But If you make a "Rank The Winners" Thread, Maelyn would probably get the most #1 mentions here. Gina not so much. Same is the case with Grace. She's really liked, but won't get as many #1 mentions as Lauren or Addison.

 

 

I personally prefer Grace to almost all the above mentioned contestants though.

 

Btw, if you want confirmation, make a poll about them. You'll find out.

I think you're right about all that. One thing that helped Maelyn, too, was that she was on a bizarre season with a bizarre format (I still contend that Season 16 was probably the strangest season this show has ever had), and lots of favorites dropped off very quickly because of it - and more than that, it was Maelyn against 3 country singers who weren't just country, but were aggressively country in different ways lol. AND they were all Team Blake. I feel like the feelings towards Maelyn were particularly strong because of how her season was stacked up. (I say that as someone who was rooting first for Shawn and second for Maelyn, but also knew Shawn didn't stand a chance given that season's format.)

That isn't to say that she wasn't an incredible singer; she's still one of my all-time favorite winners. But I don't think people would have been as passionate about her on a regular season that didn't end up with her vs. 3 COUNTRY-country dudes.

The 5 that stood out to me as "my favorites of the season" and the ones I've repeated more times than is reasonable:

1. Kala Banham - "My Funny Valentine"
2. D. Smooth - "My, My, My"
3. Gina Miles - "Wicked Game"
4. Grace West - "Love Is Alive"
5. D. Smooth - "Location"

Honorable mentions, in no particular order:

• D. Smooth - "Thinking Out Loud"
• Ryley Tate Wilson - "Dancing on My Own"
• NOIVAS - "I Put a Spell on You"
• Gina Miles - "Nothing Compares 2 U"
• Gina Miles and Kala Banham - "Skinny Love"
• Nariyella - "One Night Only"
• Neil Salsich - "Honky Tonk Blues"

3 minutes ago, WastedinMemphis said:

I didn't see disrespect for Grace either. Outside the intense handful of fans who posted most and adored her, folks seemed respectful and to acknowledge her talent, but I didn't sense a lot of deep enthusiasm. Staying so traditional probably impacted that some. I wasn't really a Grace fan but thought she'd win, would be deserving and wouldn't have complained.

 

I started as a Neil fan, added Mary Kate when we learned he didn't make it, and then started paying more attention to Gina and D. Smooth. In other words, looking for new favorites. In this weird season, there seemed to a lot of that. Gina emerged at the right moment to capture it imo.

 

100%, this was such a weird season. The truncated format made it very difficult to zero in on a favorite; it felt like it was over before it ever started lol. Gina peaked to an almost aggressive degree; her trajectory this season was incredible. Maybe in a longer season, she may have plateaued (and I kinda feel that Grace did). But Gina didn't have time to do that. She was just on top of her game at the right time.

In the end, D. Smooth ended up being my favorite (and he got my vote on finale night), but Gina was my 2nd favorite. I wouldn't have been mad if Grace won, though, especially because I knew D. Smooth wouldn't and that it would be between Gina and Grace. And I thought Grace had a very pretty and strong voice; I still repeatedly listen to her performance of "Love Is Alive" because it's so gorgeous, and I wouldn't have complained if she won.

I like seeing Gina's win as a series of pictures. I also love Grace's reaction in the second picture - and Niall looks like he's ready for world domination

Man, I'm having trouble answering these questions, maybe because the wording doesn't really describe how I viewed either finale.

1. I say this as someone who actually liked all 4 to varying degrees (absolutely loved Chris and Lauren [especially Chris], really liked Gina and Grace). I guess I picked Gina's win as "worse," but I don't see either Gina's or Chris's win as "worse" or "bad" at all. Chris is still my #1 all-time favorite winner, and I voted for D. Smooth, but I was rooting for Gina.
2. Definitely preferred Lauren Duski over Grace. I still play Lauren's performances, especially "Deja Vu," pretty regularly.
3. Didn't expect the results, and I'm happy about it, but I would've been happy if Grace won, too. Grace's win would've been happy and expected, but Gina's was a pleasant surprise.

TBH, all I really wanted was for D. Smooth to finish over Sorelle, and for NOIVAS to get 5th after whatever "Fly Away" was. I thought it was all a pipe dream, but it all actually happened. Soooo I'm good

5 minutes ago, nytsch said:

Was Grace really not as popular as them here? I thought she has a huge fan thread and always did great in polls.

 

There are some people who didn’t like/didn’t really care for her but that’s pretty much always the case?

 

Edit: genuinely asking bc I wasn’t here at the time and too lazy to look back lol

Maybe this is just anecdotal/based on my observations. But I thought she was very well-respected and well-liked here. It seems that largely, the favorite here was Gina, but I didn't see any disrespect to Grace. I saw a lot of people acknowledging how pretty her voice is, and how pretty and her performances have been, even if the preference was clearly for Gina. Just because Gina was the favorite, it doesn't mean there was large dislike for Grace.

1 hour ago, Hamza Tufail said:

I'm not big on R&B/Soul, so I personally don't mind when they put their twists on soulful songs.

 

But honestly, their pre live performances sounded amazing to my ears. Their first live performance wasn't bad either. It just had few pitch issues when they tried to sing in falsetto. The two high notes at the end that the brunette girl (Bella) hit were really impressive. Million Reasons was also great for the most part. Just Bella sounded a bit sharp here. She's just a 15 years old girl, and joined Madi and Ana late. Singing in the finale is a big pressure. I know there are people like Hailey and Chevel, who were very young, yet sounded great in every round. (Except for Hailey's Finale). But it's really hard to do harmonies perfectly live, esp the on the high parts. I do think Bella needs some more experience of singing live.

 

 

Now to the question, as to why I don't talk about their pitch issues?

 

Simple Answer: I'm biased as hell. When it comes to my favs, I say that there were few issues, but overall I loved it. Whenever a non fav have issues, I highlight it a lot, and always say how much pitchy and messy and boring their performances are. I'm sorry.

Ahhh! No! It's all right! I don't think you need to apologize; I think we all have a tendency to be biased in favor of our favorites and to overlook their flaws because we enjoy everything else about them. I think we all want to try to be fair and unbiased, but it's difficult when you connect to someone's performances so much.

I guess because I grew up on soul and soulful music, that comment about them sucking the soul out of their songs really resonated with me. I couldn't figure out why their performances all sounded so shallow and unpleasantly shrill to me until I read that. Every single performance has felt almost like a corny barbershop quartet to me lol. I thought "Million Reasons" was inoffensive (not my taste, but not bad) until the big harmony at the end where one of them (I think Bella) sang a note an entire half-step above what I think was the intended note, and it was grating.

But you're right that I should have some grace for her because she's brave to be getting up there at her age, in the stressful situation of a finale, after hardly having any performance experience (especially due to the bizarrely truncated season). She's a very good singer, extremely talented, and I think she'll be especially fantastic when she can get her pitch issues under control.

I definitely don't want to take away from the fact that they are all extremely talented and put a lot of effort and strategy into their performances. I just don't like their performances. At all lol. But that's just me.

And if you aren't really into soul and you like the spin they put on their renditions, I get it; we've all got our preferences, and you don't need to be sorry.

I'm actually tickled at how every single guess here is between Sorelle, D. Smooth, and NOIVAS.

Literally no one who has voted so far thinks Grace + Gina won't be in the Top 2.

My order:

5. D. Smooth - I adore him, honestly, I honestly think he had the best finale performances last night, and my ideal Top 2 would be him and Gina. But based on Charlie Mason's poll and just the way I know America votes, he ain't getting higher than this.

4. Sorelle - I think this is as high as they can go because they aren't on Team Blake.

3. NOIVAS - I think he could've been a contender for 2nd if he hadn't had such a weak finale night. "Fly Away" was especially disappointing. I like him, and that was genuinely one of the worst song choices I've ever heard on this show. (Not one of the worst performances - just one of the most ill-fitting song choices I've ever heard. Like, with your big voice, you're gonna just sing that boring chorus over and over, man? And not even in tune?!) He lost any shot at the title with that one.

I haven't liked a single one of Sorelle's performances. I've really tried, but I didn't even like their pre-lives - and I couldn't stand either of their live performances. I couldn't figure out why I felt like that... until I saw a comment (not on IDF) that summed up why I feel like that. Basically said, "They sanitize all these soulful songs and suck out the soul, leaving something technically fine, but as bland as white bread."

But I only mostly agree with that because it isn't even always "technically fine" - their live performances both had extremely pitchy moments, especially on the higher notes that they really had no business going for, and you can't afford to have drastic pitch issues when your whole schtick is harmonizing. I'm honestly shocked at how few times their pitch issues are mentioned here. Their performances have just been extremely unpleasant to listen through IMO.

I'm shocked that he gave Sorelle such high scores, given how pitchy and shrill they were - especially on "Ain't No Mountain." His reviews didn't criticize that aspect of their performances tonight nearly enough.

7 hours ago, Misirlou said:

I loved Davon´s BA a lot. I mean, Amy Winehouse, fresh song choice, overall jazzy performance. It was so good. It would have been great had he continued to go on the more unexpected route, and he could have been a cool alternative R&B artist.

 

But he very quickly went into the diva lane, and while he didn´t really begin collapsing until lives, my interest was gone.

What bothered me was that some 'diva' songs REALLY worked for him. His pre-lives Playoffs performance of "I Am Changing" is one of my all-time favorite performances on the show! But his live song trajectory was one of the worst I have ever seen. Love on Top, I Have Nothing, Hurt, Ain't No Way, and Gravity?! Beyonce, Whitney Houston, Christina Aguilera, Aretha Franklin, and John Mayer?! For HIS jazzy, smooth voice?! Ugh, I know he had the capacity for belting and power, and I know he could sound beautiful doing it, but that was not the direction he needed to go in.

29 minutes ago, FloorWax said:

Chris - Based on Playoff performance (and every single other round tbh), he should have gone through. I get only wanting one of him and Davon but the man was robbed here, despite it being his weakest performance.

I still can't fully understand her decision here. Davon was probably my favorite singer that season (well, at least in the pre-lives...), but he and Chris occupied very different lanes in my opinion. They were both veeeery different flavors of R&B, with very different voices, performance styles, and approaches, and I would've loved if both went through alongside Noah Mac.

I guess the issue would've been that the viewers might not see it the same way; they might see them as carbon copies of each other despite their ample differences. I would understand her decision from that perspective alone, I guess. I also understand the decision given that JHud probably saw Shi'Ann as a miniature version of herself, and The Voice coaches seem to love finding those lol. But Chris was superior to Shi'Ann in every performance. IDK

31 minutes ago, CocoaPuffs said:

Gina is insanely underrated bc what are these poll results 

I mean, Gina is my personal favorite left, I absolutely want her to win, but I don't think she's going to win. If she were on Team Blake, maybe there'd be a shot, but I can't see the viewers letting Blake lose his final season.

20 hours ago, jork said:

Chris Blue deserves props here, especially for the handiwork of "Rhythm Nation" that actually got minivan (or more likely, casuals) to seal him tha win.

 

But just for kicks, I'll throw everyone in a loop and go back to vintage Jared Blake for this. The guitar showboating, the horns!, riding the douchebag lyrics, the desperate grungy wails and the smirky reactions of the judges all made this one awesome.

 

Performances like that just remind me of how different this show used to be. I highly doubt an audition of this song would've made it onto the show, and it has been a long time since we had a singer in that sort of lane. That was such an awesome throwback. I didn't like the performance lol, but I liked the nostalgia

OMG, how did I just discover this thread today? This is such a cool concept!!!! Thanks for doing this - I love reading what you've written! I've read a few, but I'll check out the others in a sec.

For my perspective on Chris, I make it no secret that for a long time, he has been my #1 favorite winner EVER on the show. (He got some stiff competition with Cam Anthony and Josh Kaufman, but I'd still put Chris at #1, since his victory is the only one to ever make my whole household shriek.) Also, for what it's worth, my #1 favorite contestant that season [and of all time] was the one in my profile pic lol, but Chris was #2 to her - then Stephanie Rice was #3 and Lauren Duski was #4.

As someone who also loved Lauren Duski, I was happy they were top 2, but I never quite understood the pure hatred some people seem to have for Chris. People will flat-out call his victory a mistake and an injustice with a largely untalented winner beating a queen, as if he didn't have mountains of talent to earn it above all odds. I've seen people say he isn't anything special because he sounds and moves like EVERY soulful singer in an African American cultural church. As someone who has gone to several and grew up in that culture, I can promise you he's different and in a whole 'nother league. To me, he was truly the whole package. "Rhythm Nation" and "Superstition" will go down in history as two of the greatest performances in the show's history in my opinion - and one was live.

Lauren Duski had an ethereal, dreamy, warm, and romantic voice. I absolutely LOVED her tone, her songwriting, and her ability to connect with each song she sang. Her voice was so good at conveying heartbreak. Her original "Deja Vu," in my opinion, was the finest original song by far, and one of my favorites ever on the show; I still listen to it today (and I admittedly don't listen to "Money's on You" - it's not a bad song, but it just isn't really my thing). I always personally wished many of her fans could say kinder things about Chris and his run to acknowledge how special and talented they both were.

As for Craig Wayne Boyd, I've always had a soft spot for him; I like to credit him as the contestant who really got me into the show. I've been watching on-and-off since Season 2 (the first performance I remember watching live was "Wake Up Call" by RaeLynn, and the first song I bought on iTunes was "Skinny Love" by Lindsey Pavao), but Season 7 was the first time I got really engaged, and CWB was one of the big reasons. I was obsessed with his audition, "Some Kind of Wonderful," and "I Walk the Line." I love his tone so much, and I personally wanted him or Chris Jamison to win, but I actually really liked everyone in Season 7's top 5. I'm glad to see some solid appreciation here for two (relatively) unpopular contestants on IDF.

On 5/4/2023 at 9:53 PM, allistr said:

Eric Who.

Forever an injustice that they never posted the full performance of "Exes and Oh's."  That man crawled across the stage, and they wouldn't let us look at the whole thing.

On 5/4/2023 at 6:54 PM, istersay said:

Sandy Redd

 

Janice Freema

For Sandy, that moment she tossed her hair around during "River" was iconic. She was just awesome.

For Janice, she was one of those singers who commanded the entire stage with her powerful voice and body. She felt every single note in her body, and it was chillingly good. RIP

Inspired by NOIVAS's "I Put a Spell on You."

Who are other performers who just rock the entire room with their sheer presence?

I'd start with these:

• Kimberly Nichole (S8)
• Chris Blue (S12)
• Chloe Kohanski (S13 - I wasn't her biggest fan, but MAN, she took comMAND of that stage, especially on her more upbeat songs)
• Kyla Jade (S14 - watch "You Don't Own Me" if you wanna know why; she took command of the stage even when she wasn't moving)
• Rayshun LaMarr (S14)
• Omar Jose Cardona (S21)
• Troy Ritchie (S7)
• Kat Robichaud (S5)
• Michelle Chamuel (S4)

How about some others?

21 minutes ago, Misirlou said:

Chance has messed up pretty bad, but I´d say he still has way to go before being considered the worst. I can think of way worse mistakes made by a few others.

Talking strictly about mistakes coaches have made on the show, I'd think Adam Levine in Season 15 (with DeAndre Nico and Reagan Strange) takes the cake. Chance will never do anything that hilariously bad.

I agree that Chance's elimination of Kala was a grave mistake - but I'm not sure that puts him in "Worst Coach Ever" territory.

Like, we gotta remember two names in particular: Shakira and CeeLo.

One of Shakira's contestants literally put her on blast in an article talking about how she didn't care about any of her contestants and only pretended to in front of the cameras, to the point where everyone was jealous of Usher's team because he was so invested in his people.

CeeLo... I mean, I think his unsettling thirst over Erin Martin kinda seals that one for him. (You could bring in the significantly more questionable things he's done in his personal life [not sayin' them here, just check the "Controversies" section of his Wikipedia page], but strictly talking about his time on the show, Erin Martin is enough.)

Chance has made some questionable decisions this season, especially letting go of the strongest performer on the entire Playoffs night and arguably the performer who gave one of the entire season's best performances... but I can't say he doesn't deeply care about his contestants. He really appears to, and I've seen a lot of improvement among both Ray and Sorelle, even if I'm not a fan of Sorelle. (I actually like Ray, and I'm glad he made it.) And he doesn't give me the heebie jeebies like CeeLo.

All of those are fantastic, but out of that list... I'm gonna have to go with "Summertime" by Kim Cruse. That was genuinely one of my favorite moments in the history of the show. Davon Fleming and Kala Banham are very close behind.

They're all 10s, but... like, 10s of varying degrees lol. Well, actually, Kim Cruse is 11.

Please add me.

I haven't been super active this season, but I caught up on all the Playoffs performances on YouTube, and I'm at a loss for words. I genuinely cannot understand how someone can give a performance that perfect, just pitch-perfect and nuanced and absolutely gorgeous... and then immediately go home afterwards.

Like, I've been sitting here thinking that it would be an absolute delight if the show could figure out some way to shoehorn her back in with a sudden Wildcard or something, like they did with Damien in Season 7. And then let her pick whichever coach she wants, because Chance clearly doesn't see what the rest of us see in her.

I'm both in awe of her talent, and absolutely floored. I'm still shocked.

I thought NOIVAS was fantastic. But Kala was in a whole new league. I had to pick her.

I have NEVER seen someone deliver such a perfect performance and then get eliminated afterwards. I'm still shocked.

2 minutes ago, FloorWax said:

 

Not to be that guy, but actually Calum didn't come up with that version. He popularized it for sure, but Robyn had been doing ballad performances of the song even 5 years before. 

 

I honestly had no idea! That's so cool; thanks for informing me. I just wish it were performed less on these shows.

I'm sorry if this has already been stated. But I am honestly getting sick of the slow ballad version of "Dancing on My Own" that Calum Scott came up with on BGT. It was kinda cool, fresh, and original when he did it - but ever since he did it, now I feel like almost every single season of every single TV singing show has to have someone singing a slow piano ballad version of "Dancing on My Own." Not even kidding, both current seasons of The Voice and American Idol have had one! It feels stale/overdone by this point, but I know it usually pays off and it's a surefire way to get votes, so it isn't going anywhere.

On another note, I'd be very impressed if I heard someone sing Robyn's original upbeat version.