Smash is on the upswing. The incredibly engrossing and juicy (albeit a little inconsistent) musical dramedy just grabbed an order for a second season following a great “Workshop” episode last week and climbing ratings…. This week, they’re keeping the heat up with Director Derek (Jack Davenport) doing some sneaky machinations involving Katharine McPhee‘s Karen. Check out Karen singing a new track by Grammy winning pop producer/writer and OneRepublic lead singer Ryan Tedder below. (Hello, someone could be a dance diva in the gay clubs!) And watch the fireworks on Smash tonight at 10pm on NBC.
After a strange and messy run, The Voicecrowned its first winner in a bit of a surprise with Javier Colon taking the title. While he may have seemed like the frontrunner after his glorious “Time After Time” cover in the blind rounds, he lost a bit of steam to the affable Dia Frampton in the subsequent weeks. Colon always delivered polished strong vocals and was the clear standout on Adam‘s team, but Frampton had become the David Cook of The Voice with intriguing and exciting new interpretations of classic hits. She was also outselling all her competitors by a wide margin on iTunes. After this week’s final performance, Colon’s digital sales came quite close to Frampton’s so it seemed like he could have a shot. But, it really seemed like Dia would win. So kudos America for picking someone with a great voice over someone who has a unique but affected voice…. Of course, I would’ve preferred the best singer of the bunch, Beverly McClellan, to win, or even the punky and awesome belter Vicci Martinez. But I should just be happy that all four finalists were strong contenders. It brought a nice if underwhelming tone to the finale which featured duets from each of the contestants. Here’s my take on those performances for ya:
The Voice Finale Results Performance Rankings: 1. Javier Colon & Stevie Nicks “Landslide”: it was simply gorgeous and became only the second true big “Moment” of all the season’s performances. (The other was Xtina and Beverly’s “Beautiful”.) Javier’s harmonies with Nicks were perfect and it was his best showing to date. Grade: A 2. Vicci Martinez & Pat Monahan “Drops of Jupiter”: while the two didn’t really connect in the song, Martinez’s sheer power and soaring vocals helped this one land in the runner up spot. And she was one of two finalists who outsung their star duet partner on the night. Grade: B 3. Dia Frampton & Miranda Lambert- “The House that Built Me“: this was lovely but boring. And unfortunately for Frampton, but she came nowhere near the strong vocals and emotional sentiment that Lambert displayed on her signature hit. Grade: B- 4. Beverly McClellan & Ryan Tedder- “Good Life”: Beverly gave her all and easily outsung the limited Tedder on his group OneRepublic’s current hit. He’s really a wonderful writer and producer, but not much of a live singer. Beverly, on the other hand, is a great singer. I just wish she had been given a song and a partner worthy of her talent. Grade: C+
So, if you look at those rankings, at least the winner of the show had the best final performance. I do expect all four singers to maintain some level of success in the future and Frampton seems likely to be the biggest seller when all is said and done. It’s understandable since she’s the youngest and the most contemporary of the finalists. I do wish them all well.
I also wish this train wreck of a show well despite my complaints. For all of its mistakes, blunders and bad choices, it was solid entertainment and crowned a good winner. I wonder how it will do holding up against the vastly superior American Idol in the winter. We shall see. But if they want to do well, they had better take these suggestions:
1- Get rid of the social media room, twitter crap and that Alison blond correspondent. They’re all an annoying and terrible waste of time. .
2. Give Carson Daly a good talking to. He needs more energy. He should care about what he’s doing and the contestants. He shouldn’t act like he’s on a telethon. And he should be more informed. What moron who ran TRL for years pronounces one of the biggest writer/singer/producer’s name wrong? Seriously, it’s Ryan TEDDER, not Teeter, you dingbat Carson!
3. Keep the emphasis on the singers. Sure, the coaches were interesting (when they weren’t egotistical or grating) and they gave some good direction. However, the show is about finding the one true NEW voice. It’s not about these former hitmakers.
4. Streamline the audition process, battle rounds and competition rounds. It seemed like the show was making it up as it went along. Figure out what you’re doing NBC!
5. Continue to focus on diversity and honest storytelling and blind casting. That was one of the strongest facets of the show. (Yay for the gay finalists, the wide range of age in competitors and the racial diversity among the singers.)
6. If you’re going to do a results show, don’t just plan it the day before. These results shows were boring, uninspired, featured pretty lame performances and a lack of drama.
I could probably go on and on, but I need to write my So You Think You Can Dance recap (now that’s an amazing reality competition show that is executed incredibly well). So, I will leave you to your own thoughts about this fascinating and flawed show. Will you come back for season two of The Voice? Or are you more excited for the new musical drama Smash, starring American Idol’sKatharine McPhee, that will accompany it like me? Sound off below…. And enjoy winner Javier and Stevie Nick’s great “Landslide” duet as well.
Last night, ABC aired the resurrected Billboard Music Awards honoring the best in sales and airplay in the recording industry over the past year. However, they couldn’t resurrect this dull and unnecessary awards show (and that’s coming from someone who loves awards shows!). They might as well have called it the BillBORED awards as the performers were less than exemplary and some were even tragic. (Oh dear Britney!) Plus, all the winners were pretty obvious to anyone who follows the record charts, not to mention they seemed rather dated considering Billboard does a year-end chart and special issue at the end of the calendar year. It just felt like a network attempting to make money and get some ratings by airing yet another show. Unfortunately, it failed on all accounts. The writing was terrible, the skits were boring and poor Ken Jeong (The Hangover, Community) was not funny despite a galiant effort. With that said, take a look at the list of winners below and my grades for the performances. And head to Billboard herefor more on the show and the winners.
2011 Billboard Music Award Winners:
Top Album Artist: Taylor Swift
Top New Artist: Justin Bieber
Country Song of the Year: Lady Antebellum, “Need You Now”
Millenium Award: Beyoncé
Top Duo/Group: Black Eyed Peas
Radio Artist of the Year: Rihanna
Hot 100 Song of the Year: Taio Cruz’s “Break Your Heart”
Digital Artist of the Year: Justin Bieber
Country Artist of the Year: Taylor Swift
Top Touring Artist: U2
Fan Favorite: Justin Bieber
Female Artist of the Year: Rihanna
Icon Award: Neil Diamond
And now let’s Grade the Performances~
Rihanna & Britney Spears- “S&M”- hello, that was awkward lazy and lascivious. At least Rihanna sang live, but this was a huge letdown and when Britney lulled her way onto the stage to lip synch like a mess, the song completely collapsed. Grade: D+
Black Eyed Peas- “Just Can’t Get Enough/I Gotta Feeling“: channelling Tron and boring me to tears, the Peas did their thing but it seemed to lack the fun and energy of other perfs. It doesn’t help that “Just Cant” is a terrible song. And I love how Fergie just picks any ole key for each verse… Grade: C-
Keith Urban- “Without You”: strong vocals, good musicianship, solid performance. Grade: B
Pitbull, NeYo & Nayer- “Give You Everything”: entertaining perf of the current top ten smash. Pitbull class’d it up and NeYo did his best Michael Jackson and they used Vegas dancing girls! Grade: B
Beyonce- “(Girls) Run the World”- Beyonce is a consummate performer and she did her best, but relied too heavily on video graphics that didn’t translate from stage to screen… Grades~ Beyonce: B+, Her Speech: A, The Song: F
Cee Lo Green- “Crazy/Bright Lights Bigger City/Forget You”: easily the best performance of the night. Cee Lo’s vocals were great. His enthusiasm was infectious and that awesome piano defied gravity. Grade: A-
Lady Antebellum- “Just A Kiss”: with lovely vocals, Lance Bass and Carnie Wilson, ahem, the kids of Lady Antebellum I mean, delivered a fine if nondescript version of their current hit. It was nice, that’s all. Grade: B
Taio Cruz- “Dynamite/Break Your Heart”: showing Usher how he should be singing, Brit singer Cruz showcased his smash hits from last year with a good if not great performance. And he needed to pull his pants up! Grade: B
OneRepublic- “Good Life”: wow, Ryan Tedder needs to stick to writing and producing cuz he sings live like Taylor Swift. And by that I mean~ AWFUL. He was screechy, pitchy, flat and all over the place…. at least it was a good song. Grade: C-
Far East Movement w/Snoop Dogg & Ryan Tedder- “Like a G6/Rocketeer”: these rappers were ok, but upstaged by the Dogg and Tedder was terrible again. Grade: C
Mary J. Blige & Lil Wayne- “Someone to Love“: Blige was giving you ’94 with the bangs and one piece suit tonight as she growled through her latest single. Her vocals were decent and Lil Wayne was ok, but by the end of the night, I remembered her pony tail and bangs more than the song. Grade: C+
Ke$ha- “Blow”: powering through her admittedly catchy current hit, Ke$ha gave arguably her best live tv performance to date and she was singing LIVE too. I was sorta impressed. She still has a way to go, but at least she’s on the right track. Grade: B
Nicki Minaj- “Super Bass”: um, what the heck was that? I clearly do not understand Nicki and I didn’t like the song, but I like her. Grade: C+
Britney Spears/Nicki Minaj “Til the World Ends“: a lazy disastrous mess and Britney should be ashamed. She wasn’t even trying with her atrocious lip synching and indifferent attitude. Just appallingly bad. Grade: F
Neil Diamond- Medley: well, it was fun and I’m sure the middle-aged Republicans really dug it. I do have to say he can still entertain a crowd, so good for you Mr. Diamond. But watching at home left a bit to be desired. Grade: B
And here’s the one really memorable perf from last night~ Cee Lo…
American Idol mania is currently sweeping the pop culture landscape with its best season in ages. However, it’s not time to forget about some of our other favorites from the past as 3 faves are releasing new music this week. First up is season 7 winner David Cook whose brand new single “The Last Goodbye” (cowritten by Cook and hitmaker Ryan Tedder) hit the web today and will be available at digital outlets tomorrow. It’s some great and catchy pop rock that should help him avoid the sophomore slump. We’ll see how it helps his second album sales when the record, This Loud Morning, is released on June 28th. The album will include this new hit plus David’s Idol season 10 “castoff” song “Don’t You Forget About Me”…. Also releasing new singles this week are last year’s only really memorable contestant Crystal Bowersox and season 3′s early ouster turned Oscar and Grammy winner Jennifer Hudson. They’re both offering up the second songs from their current releases. Crystal’s is a gorgeous folksy ballad called “Mine all Mine” which could give her a hit on Country, Triple A and the Hot AC charts while J Hud’s is a fantastic R&B dance track that could explode at many formats called “Don’t Look Down”. Check out all three new songs below and head to your favorite digital retailer to buy them too!
