Actual people I liked on The Voice tonight. What? I loved the last dude with the beard and was surprised by the coach he chose. I also really liked the Black girl in the red dress who sang Dixie Chicks and was once again surprised by her choice of coach. And I thought the two young girls (the country one with the cute dimples and the Cuban girl who sang Selena) were both just adorable and had decent voices and I wasn't surprised at all by the coaches they chose. And I liked the quirky country girl with the Priscilla Presley hair who sang These Boots Are Made for Walking. In fact, there were very few people that I didn't like and the ones I really hated didn't get picked for teams, so yay!

I'm still loving the vibe of all the coaches this season. So much better than watching Cee-Lo hit on all the pretty girls or watching Christina hate flirt with Adam while her breasts did their level best to share themselves with the world. I really wouldn't mind of Shakira and Usher just stayed on all the time from now on. I guess Cee-Lo could come back, too. He was delightful with Nicholas David, after all, and I miss the cat.

I really wouldn't mind of Shakira and Usher just stayed on all the time from now on.

So much this.

Shakira and Usher bring a lot of positive energy to the show, which was sorely needed IMO.

I agree with all of you people re: The Voice.

I was thinking about how people who have great voices do or don't make it, and was reminded of a thing on Fresh Air a while ago about Aretha Franklin before she became ARETHA, and there really were a ton of terrible choices and bad arrangements and whatnot that didn't show her off for years. Also in the really early stuff, maybe her voice wasn't quite there yet? But it's hard to tell with what she's being told to do. [link]

Also, I always feel SO BAD for the women who get lipstick all over their faces/teeth.

Having watched all of last night's episode of The Voice, my comment is this: people contort themselves too much. They tighten up their vocal cords, they do weird things with their lips and mouth, to create these artificial sounds.

They think it's "style."

I'm going to be interested to see what the chick with the Priscilla Presley hair sounds like on another kind of song. Her style on "These Boots" was really annoying after about 30 seconds for me.

I actually do wonder if the producers are getting a feel for the response to Shakira as opposed to Christina. I don't miss Christina at all -- she always looked peeved to be there.

Shakira is such a huge upgrade over Christina, I can't even. I hope and pray that they quietly work something out where Christina can just be officially "too busy" to come back and we can keep Shakira. And I say this as a huge X-tina fan. Her appearance on the show was painful.

ETA: More Buble! Do you see how if you sing Buble for your audition songs, you don't get picked? Kill it, AI/The Voice wannabes. Kill it with fire.

I loved the last woman's voice, but also, man, she has gorgeous skin/complexion.