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Clash of the Choirs

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apskip:
This is a 4 night special series that is a competition for a $250,000 donation to a selected charity in the community of the winning team. the teams are:

Team Nick Lachey(Cincinnati)
Team Kelly Rowland(Houston)
Team Michael Bolton(New Haven)
Team Blake Shelton(Oklahoma City)
Team Patti LaBelle(Philadelphia)

Each team leader had 3 weeks to audition and rehearse their choir of 20 to come to New York City to compete last night, tonight and tomorrow night for the grand prize to be announced on Thursday. The auditions comprised most of last night's show, with the five actual 3 minute live performances the balance. It appears to me that the underlying premise of this produciton has little to do with the true notion of choirs and a lot to do with Hollywood and that old Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland "Let's put on a show" concept. Pure music is secondary to choreography and show-off soloists, which is not what true choirs are supposed to be about(I should know; I'm in 4 of them). It is not clear how the music for each team was selected, but what is clear is that a choreographer was sent out to each team and that all teams spent as much time practicing their moves as they did their music. Also, the other 4 team leaders are asked to comment on each performance and those comments are total sugar and sweetness, abolutely worthless. Where are Piers Morgan and Simon Cowell when you need them? The other leaders' fluff have no value, as viewer voting for 2 hours after the show will determine which times live and which die. All of the songs for the teams last night were of the "We are Family" variety. I had hoped for some better music, but my hopes were dashed.

The teams that should have an edge from the beginning are those used to singing in group harmony. That would be Nick Lachey, Kelly Rowland, and Patti LaBelle. Michael Bolton knows a lot less and Blake Shelton has to lean on a rejected auditioner for advice on how many basses/tenors/altos for the choir. This shows in the type of songs their teams perform. I heard Team Micahel Bolton and Team Blake Shelton go much heavier for the soloists. As a judge I would punish that, but will the voters of America? I sure hope that can hear the difference and preferred the choir sound over the soloist sound for a choir competition. We'll see tonight, but I predict that the first two teams out tonight and tomorrow will be Team Blake Shelton and Team Michael Bolton. They had a simpler, less harmonic sound than the other 3 teams.

There were some outstanding moments on last night's show. Team Michael Bolton had a 77 year old alto. Team Blake Shelton selected two U.S. Army regulars. The surprise that was promised was actually 2 surprises, first a live hookup from Iraq with an Army unit from Kansas and then General Electric Vice President Frank Taylor(himself a retired Army general) announcing a gift of $250,000 to the disabled American Veterans. That brought down the house, as well it should.

apskip:
The second show of this series is over. NBC pulled a fast one by announcing that 3 of the 5 choirs were safe and  would perform, leaving the other two to sweat for 40 minutes to see which one was eliminated. The safe choirs were Team Blake Shelton, Team Patti LaBelle and Team Nick Lachey. They performed so that the Tv audience can decide who to eliminate tomorrow. The performances were quite different in style than last night's. Soloists were used even more, to the detriment of the choral blend sound. The choreography was toned down and quite minimal, which I thought was most appropriate. I did not like any of the music, although I disliked the country music piece used by Team Nick Lachey the most. His soloist Nick was shown in a segment waking up hoarse this morning, going to a voice doctor, getting a maybe if you're lucky judgment on singing, and then coming out and opening the piece as the soloist. If I were to pick one team to predict elimination for overnight, it is Team Nick Lachey based on the style of music they sang. Choirs should not be singing that type of music in this type of competition and I hope the audience punishes them severely. I wasn't very happy with Team Blake Shelton either and Team Patti LaBelle was totally dependent on soloists in their sound.

The decision for the last spot was finally announced. Team Kelly Rowland was eliminated and out. Team Michael Bolton was still alive. They gave a stirring performance and I moved them up from the bottom in my thinking to probably tied for first with Team Patti LaBelle. We'll see what the audience thinks.

Tomorrow's crucial round will feature traditional Christmas music. I expect that I will like this better than anything I've heard, but you never know.

Texan:
I did not watch this show.  Do you agree that Kelly's team should have gone home.  I forgot about the show but was hoping she would do well since she was from Houston.

reedthis:

--- Quote from: Texan on December 19, 2007, 09:41:17 AM ---I did not watch this show.  Do you agree that Kelly's team should have gone home.  I forgot about the show but was hoping she would do well since she was from Houston.

--- End quote ---

I watched the show and thought Michael Bolton's team should have went. I was surprised Kelly's team lost I thought they were good.

apskip:
Right on, reedthis. My initial judgment was that the two worst choirs were Team Blake Shelton and Team Michael Bolton. I had Team Kelly Rowland in the top three. I was shocked to see her team beaten by Team Michael Bolton, but Bolton's team did really surprise me last night with the best performance of all 4 remaining choirs. I agree with you that the audience robbed Team Kelly Rowland.

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