Javier Colon Wins the Voice
Congrats to Javier Colon, who won The Voice tonight. (He was my second choice after Beverly McClellan, who didn't make the final two.)
How Dia Frampton even made the final four with her whispery voice and her lack of stage presence (despite her very pretty face) was a mystery to me. But when she made it to the top two tonight over Beverly and Vicci Martinez, both of whom outshone and outsang Dia by miles, I figured it out. Carson Daley said last night, Dia's performance on the live show made it to number 1 on iTunes (Javier made it to number 2 of iTunes last night.) Every purchase on iTunes counted as a vote for that artist. So the votes were not just determined, like other shows, by those phoning, texting or the web, but by purchases on iTunes. [More...]
Downloading a song from iTunes merely says the purchaser liked the song and one particular performance. I don't think it's the same as a vote, which is an affirmative statement by the voter that the artist they are voting for is the one they think should win.
Those who actually voted after last night's finale were voting for their top choice based on the whole season. Those who downloaded a finalist's performance from last night's show on iTunes were only choosing one particular performance, not a body of work over the course of the show. Why does that purchase count as a vote for the season winner?
Translation: Beverly and Vicci didn't win because they didn't sell as many downloads on iTunes.
I also think Beverly was hampered by having to sing Christina Aguillera's song with her last night. (Vicci Martinez sang Pat Benetar, Javier sang Michael Jackson and Dia sang Tom Petty.) Making Beverly sing Christina's song in a duet with Christina made it all about Christina, not Beverly. And Christina acted like a narcissistic diva on the show, who would buy that particular performance of Beverly's?
I hope for season two they dump the iTunes votes. And if you get a chance, watch a video of Beverly singing "Piece of My Heart", The Thrill is Gone, or the Who's Baba O'Reilly.
Here's a one minute clip of all four finalists performing on the Tonight show this week (sorry for the suck-y ad but I couldn't find a version without it. Ads have totally ruined You Tube and most videos for that matter.)
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