BWW Recap: The Voice: Heated Performances, Steals, and...Flies?

Hello everyone! We're already in week two of the battles and tomorrow is the last day of the Battles. How crazy is that? We're revving up for the knockout rounds and then the live shows! Tonight was filled with amazing battles, some intense moments and some funny moments as well. Tonight, in recapping the coaches, I have to make a shoutout to the fly that was flying around Christina and made her jump out of her chair, and watching Adam swat at it, and then, of course, Blake making fun of her. I think we all empathize with Christina - does anyone really like flying bugs? No. But luckily Adam was to the rescue! Don't we all wish we had Adam Levine to kill flies for us?

Onto the recap of the Battles!

The first battle was a Team Xtina battle between Josh Logan, full time performer and father, and Michael Lynch, who came on and captured the audience - and Christina - with his version of Bailamos. The song they sang? None other than Maroon 5's Harder to Breathe. I love Maroon 5 almost as much as I love any Broadway show (shocking, I know), so I was skeptical of this choice because Harder to Breathe is one of my favorite Maroon 5 songs. However, each man delivered, and impressed Adam himself. The winner of the battle was Josh Logan, as he did sound like Adam and gave it the Maroon 5 feeling we know from the song.

The second battle was Team CeeLo, with George Horga Jr, who left his family in Portland to pursue music, and sixteen year old High School student Juhi singing "Best I've Ever Had" by Gavin DeGraw. Adam was bit critical of the performance - he's been a bit more critical this season than I've seen him in the past - but Blake enjoyed Juhi's version. In the end it came down to devotion for CeeLo, who picked George. That wasn't the end for Juhi though, as Adam stole her, using his one of two steals for her.

The third Battle was a Team Blake battle between two soul-country singers, Austin Jenckles, who plays music to remember his father, and Brian Pounds, who dropped out of college to pursue being a musician, singing "To Love Someone" by the BeeGees. The coaches overwhelmingly favored Austin over Brian, something I have never seen in the coaches before. Even as Blake was talking about the performance, he favored Austin. So it was no surprise when Austin Jenckles won, moving on to the Knockout Round.

Fourth performance of the night was a Team Adam battle, with James Irwin against Matt Cermanski, the "Comeback Kids", making it a second time after not getting any chairs turned the first time. They sang "Counting Stars" by One Republic, sung by Ryan Tedder, who is Adam's mentor for the Battles. Both Blake and CeeLo favored James, where Christina said both had talents. Adam was critical of the performance, saying it was "flawed performance" on both sides, but eventually chose James as the winner. On a personal note - this battle was so good that I bought One Republic's CD because of this battle. Anytime someone can make me stray away from cast recordings is a good battle. So they got the "Molly Seal of Approval", despite the fact that there could be only one winner

Battle Five was a Team Xtina battle, singing the intense and song that is full of emotion, "Not Ready to Make Nice" by the Dixie Chicks. Christina chose Destinee Quinn, who sang in biker bars before the Voice, and Lina Gaudenzi, who is classically trained. What I loved about this Battle was not only did we get to see the contestants sing the song, but we also got to see a clip of Christina singing it to help the girls. Christina sang it with such emotion that she finally was able to make the girls understand the emotion she was expecting for this song. After the battle, Destinee had sung the song with more emotion, and Lina was better technically. Christina emphasized with the emotion Destinee showed, and picked her as the winner. Adam, who was impressed with Lina, picked her at the last possible second, stealing her from Christina, though Christina seemed to be happy that neither girl had to go home after putting their all in it.

The final battle of the night was Team Adam, who had his contestants James Wolpert and Will Champlin sing "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons. Christina favored Will, who came out with the "look" of the song, but Blake and CeeLo liked James, since he came out in a sweater and tie, his style so different from the song but his voice was good enough to let them overlook his style being different. Adam agreed, and picked James, sending Will home.

It was an eventful night for sure, and I'll be back tomorrow to recap the final Battle episode. Hopefully the flies will stay away from Christina and we'll have an amazing final Battle Rounds episode!

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