The Voice – Battle Rounds – Night Two – 2018

By starrymag | March 27, 2018

By: Jamie Steinberg

 

Q) Johnny, congrats on making it through to the next round.  I was hoping you could tell us what we missed.  About all we saw last night was you whipping your jacket off in the middle of that performance.  How did it go for you?  What type of feedback did you get that type of thing?

 

Johnny Bliss: It was amazing.  I think last night was a huge phenomenal night for me. First off, the jacket thing was because the jacket was so heavy and it was so nice at the same time, and it was just like working against me.  I was like, you know what, I’m going to use this thing that’s working against me.  I’m going to make it work for me. And I ended up taking the jacket off because I wanted the concept to be Aladdin and Jasmine type of thing.  Because you have Megan Lee who is so beautiful.  She’s so sweet and you can see that purity and that innocence in her.  And then it’s such a sexy song.  So I’m like, you know what, I’ll turn up the heat. And that’s kind of what it was and Kelly hid behind her chair, and Alicia was very happy, and Adam was very happy.  It was beautiful.  You guys missed a lot.

 

Q) Reid, the coaches seemed to gush over Davison’s performance and your battle.  Like Kelly made the comparison, his runs were like a warm buttered biscuit.  Were you surprised when Adam named you’re the winner and why do you think you won the battle?

 

Reid Umstattd:     I absolutely was surprised.  They cut so much out just to cut down for time and everybody leading up to Adam’s decision was really more complimentary of Davison, which I thought was totally deserved.  He is just such a phenomenal singer and I kind of felt a little bit out of my league the whole time that we were rehearsing and everything.  So I just assumed he’ll win.  Hopefully, I’ll get stolen.  Alicia had turned around for me in the blinds, so I was crossing my fingers for that.  So when Adam said my name instead of Davison’s, it took me an hour to actually celebrate having gotten through because I was just so gutted that Davison hadn’t won. So yes, it was a total shock.  My dad was there in the audience and he thought I was about to pass out.  He said he looked at me and my face had gone white.  He thought I was about to pass out.  I was totally shocked, absolutely.

 

Q) For Kelsea Johnson, congratulations on getting this far.  When Alicia called your name and you were just completely stunned, what was going through your mind and where are you looking to go from here?

 

Kelsea Johnson:    So I was incredibly shocked because I don’t know if you could tell, but in the seconds prior to her naming me the winner, I was so defeated.  That performance wasn’t something I wasn’t proud of and I think it’s obvious because I didn’t have a voice.  I’m trying to hit these really big notes.  I ended up cracking at one point and I felt so defeated.  I was like this is what is going to be my demise.  This is where I’m going to go home and I was just waiting to hear Jordyn.  To be completely honest with you, I was already thinking of my thank you speech to Alicia for letting me even be on her team to begin with.  And so when she said that, I was just floored.  I was just like, what, because I mean, I think in retrospect, I’m glad about the decision but I really think that Alicia was so understanding in the sense that she saw more than just that performance.  She was thinking bigger picture, I guess, and she liked me enough to keep me on and let me win the battle, which was amazing. And from here on, I really just want to prove to Alicia that she didn’t make a mistake.  That’s the biggest thing that I want to do in my knockout.  I want to make sure that she knows, hey, yes, Kelsea, you’re kind of taking a risk right now because, yes, Kelsea wasn’t the best in her battles but she’s just going on a whim.  She’s just saying, okay, well, I think Kelsea has more in her.  So I’m going to give her this second chance.  And in my knockouts, I’m really just trying to make sure that I prove her right, that I’m not making her regret her decision of letting Jordyn go.

 

Q) Johnny, what type of feedback did you get from the coaches and how did you feel about the song choice?

 

Johnny Bliss:     I loved the song choice.  This is a song that I was running away from and I kept telling all of my fellow contestants the same thing.  I was like, oh my God, they chose the song I was running from because it’s such a hard song to sing.  It’s Bruno Mars and it’s so high.  And you’ve got to sing it as a duet.  And I’m just super nervous the whole time that I got the song, but I love the song.  I was obsessed with that song.  And then the coaches, well, Adam, was super happy for me.  He was like, I love you, Johnny.  And one thing that the judges told me that was so beautiful was like, we all love you up here.  This whole panel is rooting for you.  You could have been on any one of our teams and still, to this day, we still love you. And then Kelly was hiding behind her chair, saying that she had a crush on me, which was super cute and it was super nice for her to just give me that love.  Also, Blake was very happy for me.  He said, “I love you, Johnny.  We just love you.”  And Alicia, she took a deep breath when she spoke about me and Megan and she just closed her eyes and said, “Johnny, the winner of this battle is Johnny.”  And she just felt so comfortable.  It made me happy to see her feel at ease when she said my name.  It made me feel so special.  It was a big celebration that the judges that day when I sung that song and they were very happy. The crowd went insane when I took my jacket off and it was really cool.

 

Q) Another question for Reid.  Adam said Davison could use some of your confidence and that you would actually benefit from borrowing some of his passion, drive, and determination.  I guess how did you react to that and what exactly do you think he meant by it?  Just because I’m sure you do consider yourself passionate and determined when it comes to your music.  You know what I mean?

 

Reid Umstattd:     Yes, that’s a really good question.  The confidence thing is a struggle for me and that part of his feedback was really nice for me to hear because I think just like anybody who has to get up in front of a bunch of people and do anything, there are days when it’s just kind of a struggle to believe that you are anything special. So that was a nice thing to hear from him.  The drive and the passion part, I’m obviously passionate and I’m driven.  So I guess I just disagree with that part of the feedback, not the part where he was talking to Davison about being passionate.  I’m passionate too, man, and I put everything I had into the tune. So something came across.  But yes, that part of the feedback, I just had to roll with it.

 

Q) Kelsea, so what was it like to perform on that stage and what do you feel like you’re getting out of this experience from being an artist?

 

Kelsea Johnson:    Well, first of all, for that performance in particular, I never sang with people before because this is really my first step in music.  So singing with Jordyn and harmonizing was a big struggle for me.  They didn’t show that during the rehearsals, and I’m so grateful for her because she really sat there with me and we practiced those harmonies back, to back, to back and that might be the reason why I lost some of my voice.  But we didn’t stop until we got it right.  Well, I didn’t stop until I got it right because that was such a hard thing for me and I think with just the way that this show is formatted, the fact that we have to do a duet with somebody, harmonies are kind of a given when you’re doing a duet.  And that just helped me grow. Now, I’m a little bit better with my ear.  I mean, my ear is not all the way there but I’m definitely a little bit better with my ear now.  And learning from Alicia and just the feedback that she gives, just the idea that you don’t always have to be the loudest to be the best.  You can still sing and be quiet and that was one of the advice that she gave us each, her and Shawn Mendes, telling us, give this song room to build.  These little things can be applied to so much more.  The advice that she and Shawn Mendes gave wasn’t just limited to my battle round.  It’s unlimited to everything that I do here and going forward.   So I think that just being able to have Alicia as my coach and have Shawn Mendes as an advisor has already taught me so much.  And being on the stage, that stage is huge.  That was really exciting and something different for me.

 

Q)  We didn’t get to see your performance either so I was hoping you could fill us in on what we missed.

 

Jaron Strom:   I hate that you guys didn’t get to see the full thing.  It was definitely a fun experience, and performance, and duet.  And I think that it was unique in a way that they picked a country song to put me on, and it was a song I didn’t know by an artist I didn’t know.  And I’m a pop singer.  So it kind of gave me a moment to step up to the plate and put my own swag, and personality, and style on it.   But I was still nervous going on stage, knowing I’m going against a country singer with a country coach who has a very genuine voice.  So getting up there, I was a little nervous but then I got into it, like, truly enjoyed it and made it a duet to remember, and just moved around a lot.  Kind of got up, winked at the coaches, and just had a fun time and dug into it.  And it feels really good.  I enjoyed it a whole lot and the coaches, actually two of them, I think, Adam and Kelly were leaning more towards Bransen.  And given he has a country tone that they said kind of reminded them of home and kind of resonated with Blake’s style and he could utilize that.  But Alicia leaned more towards me for my movement, energy, and tone and how I put my own style on the song.  But in the end, Blake, like he said, I stepped up to the plate and had the work ethic to really take something that didn’t make sense for a pop singer right off, and make it my own, and really dig in and make the most of it.  So it was an amazing feeling and just winning that was incredible and caught me off guard.

 

Q) I have a question for Jorge.  Given Kelly kept saying that she had made the dumbest move ever in pairing you up with Amber for the battle, what was your confidence level going into it and was the decision to sing in Spanish part of your effort to step your game up? 

 

Jorge Eduardo:     Not really.  So the decision to sing in Spanish was because I think we were on a break or something, because Amber and I were practicing the song.  And they actually didn’t mention it there, but it was both of our idea because I started fooling around and singing, just translating the song to Spanish and singing to her.  And she started laughing and she was like, that part actually sounds good.  And then she asked me to teach her so I taught her that part and at first, we started doing it as a joke and then we showed it to Kelly and she loved it.  So we stuck with it. I didn’t really do it to step up my game.  The fact that I was going against Amber, I was a little bit nervous since the beginning because I saw Amber’s audition and she has this amazing voice, and the hard thing for me at first was thinking what me and Amber could do together.  And I think we found that point where my voice and her voice sounded really good together.  And more than a battle, I like to call it a collaboration.  I don’t know, I think she had a lot of fun.  I had a lot of fun.  I think it was great and I made a great friend too.

 

Q) Reidd, that song choice, had you ever sung love on the brain before and how did you make it work?

 

Reid Umstattd:     Man, I had only heard it once or twice.  So no, I definitely had never sung the song.  I don’t know, I love that style of music.  It’s not the style that I would have pictured myself singing but it’s something that was fun to sort of dive into.  I just love to sing anything.  That’s kind of how I’ve grown up sort of sharpening whatever tools I have or just seeing whatever’s on.  I think that’s the fun in challenging yourself is to go out of your comfort zone and sing stuff that pushes you.  So it’s a message of the song, which is the best way to get into any tune is pretty clear.  So just kind of have to interpret those lyrics however you can in order to make them feel most genuine.

 

Q)   I have a question for Jorge.  Adam lamented over how we never turned around for you in the blind auditions and he wished he had because you’re so diverse.  I guess if you did have all four coaches turn for you in the beginning, do you think you still would have picked Kelly?  Why or why not?

 

Jorge Eduardo:    Yes, definitely.  It was funny because since the beginning, when I stepped on that stage in my blind audition, I was just thinking about giving my best performance.  If I had a chair or chairs, it would be great.  If not, I will go home happy about it.  But it was funny because I’ve always thought about picking Kelly since the beginning. Because I don’t know, I kind of the like the fact that she was on a singing contest.  So I think, I just thought that she could be more in our place and I think all those things I could learn from her would be more useful, or I could use more of the things that she could teach me than the other coaches.  So it was funny that I got her.

 

 

*CONFERENCE CALL*