Backstage Pass

“The Voice” semifinals was filled with surprises, though most of them didn’t turn out too well.

Maybe it was Usher’s odd performance of “Twisted” that started things off on the wrong foot. It’s only natural that he releases that song as a single now, considering that it is set to become the summer of Pharrell, who already has hit collaborations with Daft Punk and Robin Thicke.

However,...

Oh, it’s on now.

This season, “The Voice” has taken a turn into mainstream country – partly because of the popularity of coach Blake Shelton and partly because of the collapse of “American Idol,” previously the singing competition of choice for the older, Southern, country-loving voting block.

With last week’s elimination of one-time front-runners Judith Hill and Sarah Simmons (as well...

With Monday night’s show, “The Voice” moves into the part of the season that could end “American Idol” dominance for good.

What “Idol” has held over “The Voice” is its ability to create superstar success – something that has eluded the first three winners, Javier Colon, Jermaine Paul and Cassadee Pope. Now, it looks like “The Voice” is serious about changing that, with its Top 8 getting to...

It was an off night for “The Voice.”

Maybe it was the news of the deadly tornadoes in Oklahoma, home to coach Blake Shelton and contestants The Swon Brothers, that set the show on edge. Maybe it was the insistence of Adam Levine that Judith Hill pay homage to her mentor Michael Jackson, even though it clearly still makes her uncomfortable for a variety of reasons. Or maybe after a season of...

This is probably the toughest of “The Voice” performance shows because there is so little time for all 12 contestants to perform. It’s the one show of the season where “The Voice” becomes very much like “American Idol” — without, you know, all the dysfunction.

The show is also the first one where mentors can no longer save their teams — only votes determine who moves forward. It’s also the...

The results from the first public vote on “The Voice” turned out weird.

The show brought out their vote accounting firm Telescope’s chief executive Jason George to say there were “inconsistencies” in the week’s voting data and that the text and online voting results were thrown out. However, Carson Daly said that “Telescope certifies that removing those votes did not affect the outcome for...

Night Two of “The Voice” playoffs didn’t pack the same punch as the first night.

And even though Blake Shelton told his team to be on the lookout for big “moments” that they could use in their own performances, they didn’t really come out with major “moments” of their own. That may have been more Shelton’s doing with his ultra-country song choices than the finalists’ fault, though.

Shelton...

“The Voice” has finally moved into the live rounds, where the audience starts to vote for the show’s next winner.

“Teamwork makes the dream work,” says Usher, who brought his team (in matching Team Usher sweats, no less) to a kickboxing gym to train. He has them sing while they exercise to build their endurance, which may be one of the best suggestions a coach has ever made on a singing competition.

Adam...

The final knockout round of “The Voice” had its surprises, with coaches Blake Shelton and Usher having to make tough decisions when previous favorites didn’t quite perform to their potential. What was most interesting, though, was how Usher chose a winner based on the actual knockout round -- not his previous performances -- while Blake clearly picked one of his favorites over the better singer....

The knockout round started on “The Voice” last night and there was the usual angst as Team Adam and Team Shakira were cut down to the four artists who will face off in next week’s live rounds.

Adam Levine really did have the best team and some of his cuts really were painful, while Shakira seemed to have made a couple of strategic errors where she pit two strong singers against each other.

Here’s...