Tag Archives: The Voice

Reflections: Participating in Cattle Call Auditions

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This past weekend was the cattle call auditions for NBC’s The Voice… Season 4. Now technically I did this back in Season 2 as a favor for a friend that wanted to go for her own personal reasons and at that time I didn’t really prepare anything worth while. This time around I did, kind of… well not really considering I didn’t really decide to go until the Friday before the weekend.

So why do I do it? For the experience primarily, because even though I audition for community theatre productions the one arena that has always tripped me up was singing, I get so nervous that I don’t sing anywhere near my best. So I end up screwing myself over.

What I find with cattle call auditions is that they give me the chance to work through my nerves on a grander scale and really just bring me back down to reality. This is in the sense that an audition is just that “an audition” and it is not the end of the world if you don’t move forward.
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Review: The Voice of Việt Nam (Live Rounds – Hồ Ngọc Hà Edition)

Finally we have the fourth and final team for whom we will look at the breakdown of the seven vocalists as they are whittle down to five.

Taking a look at the official posted results we can easily figure out at least two of the final five that will be moving forward.

First off let us get the runaway favorite out of the way for this team who happens to be Bùi Anh Tuấn who sang Hoang Mang (Bewildered). He received 47.2% of the total team vote.

The second place public vote recipient went to Đinh Thị Thanh Hương (13.81%) who sang Forever And One

So who were the lucky vocalists to be given a free pass by the judge to move on to the next round?
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Review: The Voice of Việt Nam (Live Rounds – Đàm Vĩnh Hưng Edition)

As I have done in the past for the Thu Minh and Trần Lập Editions… this time around the vocalists for the teams of Đàm Vĩnh Hưng and Hồ Ngọc Hà.

First on the list: Đàm Vĩnh Hưng.

Now just like with the previous two teams, The Voice of Việt Nam have posted on their website the results of the public voting.

So just like the previous two teams, the top two contestants of the public vote get an automatic pass to the next round and they are:
Vũ Thanh Hằng who sang Thu Cuối (The End), she received 26.93% of the total vote for the team.

The second highest public vote went to Phan Ngọc Luân who sang You’ll Be Sorry with 17.92% of the total votes of the team:

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Review: The Voice of Việt Nam (Live Rounds – Trần Lập Edition)

As I did with the Thu Minh Edition… I will look into what happened with Trần Lập’s team and how they got whittled down from seven to five. If you do not remember how the breakdown happened go to the post of the Live Round Edition – Whittling Seven Down to Five.

Looking at Thu Minh’s team there is a massive run away winner in the public vote. In the case of Trần Lập’s team there were three member that got the lion’s share of the public vote with everyone one else trailing a bit behind them. The top two of the three got an automatic in via the public vote:

Nguyễn Thùy Linh (31.7%) who sang “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”

Trần Thi Kim Loan (31.63%) who sang “Và ta đã thấy mặt trời” (Finally I Saw the Sun)

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Review: The Voice of Việt Nam (Live Rounds – Thu Minh Edition)

With the second round of two teams of seven participating in the second Live Show from teams Hồ Ngọc Hà and Đàm Vĩnh Hưng, let’s look and see how the first two teams fared in the first set of Live Shows. In case you do not know how the teams are whittled from teams of seven to a team of five head to my post: Live Round – Whittling Seven Down to Five.

Taking a look at the online list of how the public vote was separated, Thu Minh’s team had a clear winner in the popular vote running away with more than half of the votes that were called in and everyone else just trailing behind.

The Public Vote winners of Thu Minh’s team were:
“Phạm Thị Hương Tràm” who sang “Anh” (You). According to statistics she apparently earned the lion’s share (57.23%) of the public vote from her team.

… in case you did not know, she sang a Whitney Houston classic during her blind audition.

As for her team mate Dương Trần Nghĩa he sang Bay which translates to Fly (mind you Bay is the Vietnamese word, not the English word). He got about 11.09% of the vote.

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Review: The Voice of Việt Nam (Live Round – Whittling Seven Down to Five)

So I was catching up with The Voice of Việt Nam, Việt Nam’s version of the United States hit The Voice.

A lot of the premise is still the same, but there are some things that I found to be rather interesting.

First let’s go back to what I mentioned about reality television in Việt Nam in general

I didn’t realize this show existed until I was chatting with family in Việt Nam and noticed a news article on Yahoo.co.vn site about a contestant on Việt Nam’s version of The Voice… also known as “The Voice of Việt Nam”. Complete with a Facebook Page, “The Voice of Việt Nam” is similar to that of the first two seasons of America’s version of The Voice. The blind auditions, the battle rounds, then the live rounds.

Each judge/coach has to comprise teams of fourteen vocalists from the blind auditions, then during the battle rounds those fourteen are whittled down to seven. As of this past Monday (September 24) the Live Rounds have begun.

The judging / coaching panel includes:
– Thu Minh: Dance, Pop Ballad
– Trần Lập: Rock, hardrock
– Hồ Ngọc Hà: Pop, R&B, Ballad, Dance
– Đàm Vĩnh Hưng: Việt Nam Pop

Unlike the United States version of The Voice, the judging / coaching panel tend to stay more in the similar realms and don’t really stretch out that much.

So it has been two weeks and already there are changes between the Việt Nam version and what we know in the United States:
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Review: NBCs the Voice (Updates)

Before I begin here is one vocalist rendition of a Whitney Houston classic from “The Voice of Vietnam”

So NBCs the Voice has been on the airwaves for the past several weeks starting with the Blind Auditions on September 10th and 11th. The blind auditions have continued on for the next three weeks with the last set being October 1 / 2. Afterwards are the Battle Rounds. What is interesting is that tickets to watch the Battle Rounds live were issued for early August… so by this point in time those that are awaiting to be seen in the Live Rounds have been working on their bits for almost two months.

Blind Auditions:
– September 10 / 11 / 12
– September 17 / 18
– September 24 / 25
– October 1 / 2

I will provide commentary, information, thoughts sporadically once the Battle Rounds start over at the Pure TV Network blog. I have also been watching The Voice of Vietnam and will be posting a little bit about that (if it relates to the United States in anyway) over at that blog as well. Anything that is dealing strictly about The Voice of Vietnam you can find here on my personal blog.
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Fleeting: Reality Television in Việt Nam

So I have this little obsession, not really obsession but something that I haven’t really voice all that much before. I have an addiction for reality television… but not necessarily in the states… in Việt Nam. Quaint isn’t it?

It all started with my love of reality television (Dancing with the Stars, So You Think You Can Dance, America’s Got Talent and The Voice) and blogging about them. Which is bad enough as it is… then I learned a long time ago (aka a couple of years ago) that there is a version of Dancing with the Stars already on the airwaves in Việt Nam. Well needless to say I tried to figure out a way to watch it… but to no avail. Ah well.

The same goes for the other reality tv competition shows… no way for those Vietnamese-Americans on state side to watch if we wanted to, so off to YouTube we go.

Anyway what drove me to write this post? The following clip that I saw while at Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport (aka Saigon International Airport):

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UPDATE: London 2012 Olympics Coverage

While the Olympics are going on, I will be posting my thoughts about them at the Pure TV Network blog.

GYMNASTICS
– United States Gymnastics Olympic Team (both Mens and Womens) the Qualification Round
– United States Mens Gymnastics Olympic Team Final Results
– United States Womens Gymnastics Olympic Team Final Results
– United States’ Danell Leyva and John Orozco in the Individual All-Around
– United States’ Alexandra Raisman and Gabrielle Douglas in the Individual All-Around Preview
– United States’ Alexandra Raisman and Gabrielle Douglas in the Individual All-Around Results
– United States Mens and Womens Gymanstics Individual Apparatus Preview

OTHER OLYMPIC COVERAGE
– Michael Phelps a Look Back
– The NBA at the Olympics

Other posts at the Pure TV Network:
– NBCs the Voice Season 3: Advisers to the Judges Chosen
– Stars Earn Stripes: NEW Celebrity Reality Show on NBC

Since the other shows that I watch are on hiatus due to the Olympics I will be focusing on wrapping up a few Pure Dancing with the Stars summer projects as well.
– Dancing with the Stars Season 15: Elimination Predictions w/o Professional Partners
– Dancing with the Stars Season 15: Who would you choose as the 13th Celebrity?

Hope to see you there!

Entertainment News: The Voice is coming back in the Fall

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Why am I not surprised? The Voice, NBC’s summer smash hit in 2011, and made new waves in spring of 2012 is going to come back in the fall 2012 lineup.

Not only that they are planning to cycle in additional judges to the panel. Not necessarily because of the chemistry of the current panel, but on the contrary TPTB (The Powers That Be) feel that since the judges are all working musicians, to ask them to schedule time for the show would be asking too much as it is.

To say that I’m excited is an understatement. What I am most worried about is whom they would bring on as coaches, after all the chemistry between the judges panel now (CeeLo Green, Adam Levine, Blake Shelton and Christina Aguilera) was a total unknown when the show premiere last summer and it soon became such a massive hit. I mean take a look at the Superbowl promo they filmed:

Anyway, I’m getting off the point. I think the only way that the Voice can sell in the Fall is if they make just as huge of a knockout with the judging panel as they currently have. But who to bring?

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TV Show Review: The Voice Season 2

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Typically for new shows that have come on the air, I watch for a season and then I lose interest. This happens more often with reality competition shows. Which is odd since I blog for a bunch of them as well, but that’s a different story. Ever since American Idol, there hasn’t really been much competition in the reality singing competition, and even then American Idol had the distinct feel of being very manipulative behind the scenes, which didn’t help me in wanting to like it any more. So I stopped watching after the first season.

So when the premise of The Voice came about, I was skeptical and intrigued. In the end I decided to give it a shot and see what happens. Next thing you know, one show continued to another episode and then another. Then I started downloading some of the music, and eventually I ended up watching the entire first season and anticipating the second season.

Needless to say I did the same with the second season, watching everything from day one and continued onward til the end.

What I really love is that the coaches don’t really bring addition drama, they are all very supportive and they are invested in the vocalists that come onto the show. So let’s look at the track record of the coaches from the only two completed seasons thus far:

Christina Aguilera has had an artist that has placed last in both seasons thus far. Whether that is just the nature of the beast or the artists on her team is anyone’s guess. I really love opera voices – being a huge fan of Il Divo, Josh Groban and Vittorio Grigolo – so to me Chris Mann is just right up my alley. However, I would have loved to have seen him sing a piece that is more out of his comfort zone and really make it his own as opposed to something that is typically tried and true. Still, I can’t wait to see where he goes from here.

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