A few weeks ago, I mentioned a new singing competition show that we had started watching, called “The Voice”.  The thing that appealed most to us about the concept of it was that people were judged on just that – their voice – and not on anything else.  In the “Blind Audition” rounds, coaches competed to convince the contestants with the best voices to be on their team.

     The last couple of weeks, they have entered into “The Battle Rounds” , where each coach must pit 2 of their own team members against each other.  They sing a duet, and the coach decides which one stays on their team ( thus advancing to the “Live Broadcast” stage ), and which one goes home.

     So far, our favourite singer from the battle Rounds is Casey Weston.  She sang “Leather and Lace” against her teammate, and we think she did an amazing job.  If you like Stevie Nicks, you may want to watch Casey in action – her voice is incredible, especially for one so young.

     We are looking forward to watching the next Battle Rounds on Tuesday night on NBC.  If you haven’t already, you should really check it out.

     A while back, I wrote a blog post about a show called “Live To Dance”.   The main reason my husband and I liked this show so much was because for once, there was no age limit for the Contestants.  ( Many similar competition shows required that you be 30 or under. )  They also let people dance to any genre of music they wanted, and did not limit the size of the group.  We felt this was definitely a step in the right direction to make these shows more inclusive.  Obviously, not all talented people with hopes and dreams are 30 or under, and not all people fit neatly into certain categories.

     We really enjoyed Live To Dance, not only for those reasons, but because it was a very positive show. The judges were encouraging, and built people up, rather than tearing them down, and creating a lot of drama.  After watching this show, I recall thinking to myself, “Now why can’t they do a similar show for Singers ? “.  It would be awesome to see people of all ages and genres of music on a stage, with a chance to have their voices heard.

     Well, we were very happy to see the ads on T.V. a few weeks back for “The Voice”.  This show is just for singers, and has coaches Christina Aguilera, Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, and Cee Lo Green.  The idea behind the show is simple: it starts out with what they call “Blind Auditions”, so named because people sing, but the coaches can’t see them.  Their chairs are literally turned away from the contestants, so all they can focus on is what really matters: the voice !!! Nobody can be judged for their age, what they look like etc., which we think is a huge step forward in these often superficial shows. You can read a brief summary of the stages of the show here.

     The first round of auditions was last Tuesday night, and the second round is tomorrow night, on NBC at 9:00/8:00 Central.  If you enjoy listening to good singers, and like to see talented people given a fair chance ( and not be judged by unimportant things, such as how old they are, or what they look like ) then please check it out!

     It’s about time they had a show like this !

     Now we just need to get them to have these kinds of shows in Canada ….