Bam-BOOOO!!!

I am but one of the millions who watch this reality show. It may be “scripted” on some parts, but I like the basic concept that one gets merit solely on his/her voice, regardless of looks, age, gender, status or other discriminating factors. There are three phases to the competition: The Blind Auditions, The Battle Rounds and The Live Shows. The show is currently on The Battle Rounds.

The first ever Battle was between Lee Grane Maranan and Dan Billano from Kamp Kawayan (Bamboo’s team). The chosen song was U2’s One. Here’s the video of that Battle:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9TZZV2XwJ0]

A lot of people (including me) reacted strongly on social media when Coach Bamboo decided that the round went to Lee Grane despite her obviously weaker performance compared to Dan. He later justified his choice, saying there was “no favoritism” that factored into his decision. While I have nothing against Lee Grane and in fact like her music and style of singing, I just feel that her performance in that particular round considerably paled against Dan’s powerhouse vocals. It may be the choice of music or whatever, but fact remains that Dan clearly performed better and even Lee Grane herself admitted such. Something which Coach Bamboo obviously did not take into consideration, despite the fact that the judging between the two should have been based on that particular performance. Not on anyone’s musicality, style or potential as a whole. But quoting him, “…to make decisions on one performance, on a ‘battle,’ I think my guys deserve better than that.” So then, what’s the point of having a Battle? He might as well have just picked his preferred artists and seen them through to the end without going through that farce of a Battle.

Last Saturday, it was his artists Isa Fabregas and Angelica Prado who went to Battle. They sang No Doubt’s iconic hit Don’t Speak. Here’s the video of the Battle:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN4LEtsKpYk]

Once again, Coach Bamboo got a lot of flak for choosing Isa over Angelica despite the latter’s better performance. And his reason? “Pakiramdam ko, walang ganitong ARTIST ngayon eh. I feel she is a throwback.” Which seems but a polite way of saying that though Angelica performed better, she’s of the mediocre common variety. Sadly, it seems Angelica lost to Isa’s singing style (not even her singing voice) before she even went on stage. Again, Bamboo might as well have not gone through that farce of a Battle. Or better yet, he could have had Isa and Lee Grane Battle it out instead with both their unusual singing styles, since that would have evened out the odds too with Dan and Angelica who are both rock band vocalists and of the same vocal caliber.

In the same vein, I came to admire Coach Lea though I was initially turned off by her over reactions during The Blind Auditions. She earned my respect in last night’s three-way Battle between Rainier Acosta, Juvie Pelos and RJ Dela Fuente:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4Vcl3wnhmA]

I actually thought that Rainier or Juvie would win the round because they sang (in my humble opinion) at live performance level while RJ mostly stuck to the dynamics of the original song. Coaches a.p.l. and Bamboo said as much too. And if we take their potential into consideration, Juvie would have been the hands-down winner of the three. But Coach Lea went for RJ for delivering the piece within its context and mood. And while I still like the performances of the other two artists better, I have no problem with her choice because she based her decision on their Battle performance. It’s that simple and how it’s supposed to be done in the first place.

I am hardly a die-hard fanatic, nor am I one of those who blog-rant just for the sake of ranting or gaining attention. As a matter or fact, I have been consciously making the effort to keep the contents of this blog relatively positive these days. But I have just got to post about this because I strongly feel the injustice on behalf of the eliminated artists from Kamp Kawayan. 😐

* all photos grabbed from The Voice of the Philippines official page