After taking a few seasons off, my family has started watching The Voice again this year.
We watched the first two seasons with the original coaching lineup, but missed the Shakira/Usher years as well as the reunion with Christina Aguilera and Cee Lo Green.
This year, Gwen Stefani and Pharrell round out (or square off) the cast, with veterans — and future buddy film stars — Blake Shelton and Adam Levine returning as usual.
In the final episode of The Voice, when all the voting was done and the network just needed to burn 55 minutes before revealing the winner, each of the finalists got to perform with an established artist.
Javier Colon sang ‘Landslide’ with the legendary Stevie Nicks, whose voice is showing signs of age but who still commands the stage with her very awesomeness. Vicci Martinez performed with the guy from Train, one of her favorite groups. Beverly McClellan sang with some guy I’d never heard of before and further established that, no matter how strong her voice is, she can’t command an audience’s attention for more than 20 seconds.
Dia Frampton, the wispy-voiced Winnie Cooper lookalike on Team Blake, was my pick to with The Voice. She wound up coming in second to Javier Colon, who without question has a much better voice than she does. But there’s something about Frampton that drew me in each and every week.
Part of it is that she performed the kind of music I like to listen to, covering artists such as R.E.M. and Tom Petty. Much of it has to do with her coach — it was touching to watch Blake Shelton take Dia and fellow contestant Xenia under his wing like a protective older brother.
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