Cranberrys

A little birdie told me. The Kelly Clarkson Show is also moving to NYC next season. What a coincidence.

Reducing to 1 Season may make many here happy but I doubt it makes the current coaches happy. It cuts their pay in half. Blake doesn't like touring much anymore (only wants a few weeks a year on the road), John can't even fill small venues solo so he can't make as much money touring, and Kelly can't tour because of her television show & family situation. Expect to see the coaches in new lots of new projects pretty quickly. Vegas will be chock full of ex & current The Voice Coaches.

The answer is an emphatic YES. No one is cheesier than Clay Aiken. This is not a road I wish to travel. It is boobie-trapped with Cootie bombs.

If you're a John Legend fan this is an unpopular opinion. I really dislike John's arrangement and performance style. He's bombastic, showy, and cheesy. Go watch this CHEESY arrangement & performance of Bridge Over Troubled Water. Everything he does is cheesy. It's a horrible arrangement & cheesy performance of a great classic song. John can sing well but he doesn't emote well. He projects false emotion that turns into cheese. I think John got extremely lucky very early in his career. He was in the right place at the right time and the dearth of african-american singers when he hit the scene propped him up. His poor interpretation of classic songs is a hallmark of his cheesy nature. The era of inclusivity pushed boring John Stephens (he changed his name to Legend because he knew he was boring) further than his talent deserved.

I think you've got it wrong. Kelly has a larger, more active fanbase than Blake. Country is the genre of choice at TV and prior to Kelly joining the show Blake probably had a fan advantage across all genres but since Kelly arrived she's won the majority of head to head battles with Blake (and everyone else) with "winning" country singers. Kelly brings a larger, more balanced, multi-genre fan base to the voting than Blake. Blake has won more times than Kelly because he's been there 13 more seasons not because he's more popular or a better coach.

I don't get how out of sync this message board is with the the American television audience. It's amazing how far from reality the majority of this forums opinions are. Kenzie is going to win and it's not even close. Looking the part, charisma, in the moment performances that peak the publics interest, and genuine talent win singing competitions. Kenzie has all that and more. He was born to be a star. Jake Hoot won and he's not one tenth the talent Kenzie is. Kenzie is exciting and fresh with absolute top tier explosive talent far beyond any competition The Voice provides. Kelly knows it. Everyone is entitled to their opinion - but how can this forum be so consistently crazy wrong season after season?

It doesn't make me happy to criticize Idol. Season 1 shocked me with Kelly Clarkson's undiscovered world class talent and roped the rest of the planet into the TV singing competition craze. It re-energized my love of music when it was at a low point in my life and I've maintained my love for it ever since. Today, 19 years later, Idol is reduced to silly Judges playing kazoos to get more screen time amid the worst talent in Idol history. Idol needs a complete makeover - new judges, new studio, new producers, new everything. Take it back to the basics: singer, stage, critique. public vote. Reality is always better than the contrived. Idol now showcases Judges doing *nothing* interesting, untalented people who literally can't carry a tune and encourages them to continue an Idol journey to an absolute dead end. Episode 3 was the worst Idol episode I've ever seen - so bad I had to turn it off. I'm done with this season of Idol. I promise I will not post again during season 19. It would be easy to bring Idol back. Authenticity is all it needs. I hope it does - so I can come back and enjoy it.

Art happens when life meets inner-hearts performance in some compelling way. The saving grace of this episode was Rhonda. Her circumstances alone were enough to move me to tears - her performance in light of her circumstances broke the dam. Unfortunately this episode, IMO, is the worst in the history of American Idol. And as moving as Rhonda was it isn't near enough to save it. How did Idol get so far off track?

Idol isn't Idol anymore. The show's main pitch at ABC is how much drama there is in the singers personal life. And it's mind-numbing.g.g.g.g.g. I recorded the first two episodes this season and zapped thru them both in less than 20 minutes - skipping several singers altogether. All I care about is the singing - and the presentation of the singing is more staged and less spontaneous than ever. I think they script & rehearse many of the judges reactions & critiques. It looks, feels, and smells fake. eta - About Gabby Barrett: Her post idol success is 100% the product of "I Hope" - a song she co-wrote. Without IH we wouldn't be talking about her at all. Gabby isn't beautiful or charismatic - and her voice a just slightly above average - but apparently she can write her own songs and that's ALL you really need to make it in the music business.

Idol became a success with a simple & pure 3 step formula: 1. Make the show about the singers talent. 2. Analyze the talent with Judges critiques. 3. Give the public the final vote to choose it's winners. The Voice came along with a different formula that focuses on the coaches chemistry and beat Idol in the ratings. And Idol lost it's soul chasing The Voice formula. Nothing has changed with American Idol Season 19. It's still on a foreign path far from it's successful original formula. It's still chasing The Voice - and the chemistry between the Idol Judges still smells like a WWE wrestling match.

Maybe her best performance.

Moving, beautiful, and timeless.

I don't know anything about anything but Chevel's dad seems flakey - in a well-meaning but extremely crude (and a lil creepy) way.

Anti-Carrie Underwood fan here. Besides the other things I'm going to mention I don't care for Underwood's one dimensional vocal technique or wall to wall belting. Underwood clubs songs to death with volume. Most of her fans believe that's her biggest asset. I jthink she's got a loud mouth. Subtlety and nuance are foreign words to Underwood's narrow musicality. Tenderness and meek vulnerability don't mix well with all the monotone belting she does. What little versatility she has doesn't appear in her catalog. Carrie Underwood has done more to hurt the careers of her female country peers than anyone in any era of Country Music history. Every country songwriter in America sends CU their best work - leaving nothing but scraps for most other great country females singers out there - Martina McBride included. Beginning with her second album Carrie's been changing a word or two on other writers work and taking writing credits she doesn't deserve. Underwood has never written a single melody for any song she has ever recorded that reached the top 10 on the country charts. Underwood often participates in the writing process but only as a sounding board to help the real writers work out the phrasing. Underwood's music & squeaky clean persona fit the widest available female country radio niche and Country radio gave it to her 15 years ago. Carrie won that slot with her American Idol win and, most importantly, with her first album "Some Hearts". Carries biggest career making hits are on "Some Hearts". Of the 13 songs on that album Carrie had one tiny co-writing credit with two other writers on ONE (1) track - the last track on the album. Carrie Underwood's Idol victory, first album's mega success, and strangle hold on country songwriters is the backbone of her success and why there are so few opportunities for other females artists on country radio. Underwood's attractive features and petite figure combined with keeping her private life wholesome and controversy free make her an easy, safe, and popular choice for country radio programmers to choose her over other country female artists. I can't argue with Underwood's chart and touring success. But I wouldn't walk across the street to hear her drone boring caterwauling.

It used to be the case great songwriters wrote great songs and they handed them off to great singers to sing them. Taylor Swift came along and played a big part in changing that business model. Taylor is a shitty singer but a great songwriter. She managed to write great songs with great hooks she could perform in her extremely limited one octave range. Swifts vocals were never the artistic aspect of her songs. Her songs are always reduced to simple, single octave vocals she's capable of performing - as basic and easy as a child singing "Happy Birthday". When great singers cover Swifts songs they expand the range, nuance, and phrasing, and make her songs exponentially better. But Swift and the current batch of radio girls (Maren Morris, Kelsea Ballerini etc.) are recording the songs they write despite they're limited vocal abilities for fame and fortune - art be damned - and you can't really blame them until you hear a great singer cover their shitty vocals. I'm not a fan of this way of producing music. I want to hear great singers sing great songs. Shitty singers singing great songs are like children playing. Unfortunately, today, all that matters is the songs hook - the singer's skill is an afterthought.