The Voice 9 – Battle Rounds #1 – Take the Polls!

THE VOICE -- "Battle Rounds" -- Pictured: (l-r) Barrett Baber, Carson Daly, Dustin Christensen -- (Photo by: Tyler Golden/NBC)

The Battle Rounds began on Monday’s The Voice. Out of six battles, only 3 contestants were eliminated. Steals were frontloaded this first night of competition for a spot in the Knockout Rounds.

Check out our FULL recap of Monday night’s The Voice

The big disappointment for me was the elimination of Celeste Betton who participated in the battle of the night with Mark Hood. “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” has been done a thousand times on competition reality shows, but that performance was pretty terrific. Mark was the correct winner of the matchup, he’s got a great voice, plus incredible stage presence. BUT Celeste deserved a steal over, say Regina Love who is an adequate big voiced singer. My guess is that Gwen Stefani made a show of saving her, but will put her up against a favorite in the knockouts. Fodder!

The other two steals, Tim Atlas and Dustin Christensen were justified. Tim, in particular, has an intriguing presence that just drew me in tonight. It’s too bad his Blind Audition was montaged. The big night-ending double steal, between Barrett Baber & Dustin Christensen featured two singers that The Voice audience just loves–older male singers with compelling backstories, and throwback voices. Apparently, Barrett scored really well on The Voice app. He’ll be dedicating songs to his wife and kids, and right when it counts, he’ll pull out a protestant hymn that he’ll explain was the song that he sang under his breath as the plane he was on crashed. Watch. He’ll make the Top 3 at least.

John Fogerty was particularly hands on as an adviser, but maybe it’s because he didn’t want Dustin Monk & James Dupre ruining his classic, “Fortunate Son.” Brad also lent a musician’s touch to his sessions with Blake. I need to see more of Missy Elliott to make a determination about her mentoring style. She was mostly used tonight to tug at the heart strings. Selena Gomez literally left no impression on me at all.

What do you think? Who were your favs? Take the polls NOW.

Favorite Battle

Favorite Contestant

Eliminated Contestant Most Robbed

Best Adviser

About mj santilli 34841 Articles
Founder and editor of mjsbigblog.com, home of the awesomest fan community on the net. I love cheesy singing shows of all kinds, whether reality or scripted. I adore American Idol, but also love The Voice, Glee, X Factor and more!