- The "blind auditions" continue and are held in front of the celebrity panel of coaches, who each hand pick vocalists for their individual teams. The strongest vocalists from across the country compete to be selected by one of the coaches and fight for a chance to win the title.—NBC Publicity
- Oct. 15 Battle Rounds
The first battle is Team Blake, Mariachi singer Julio Cesar Castillo versus soul singer Terisa Griffin. They met with Blake and their coach Michael Buble to sing "Conga" by Gloria Estefan. The speed trips both of them up and Michael advises them it's all about breath control. Terisa thinks Julio has the upperhand because it's a Latin song. She goes to Blake and Michael with her concerns, fearing that she was paired with him because Blake wants to get rid of her. He essentially tells her to get out of her head.
They go back to practicing, where Julio continues to stumble over the lyrics and get intimidated by Terisa. The night of the battle, Julio fights off tears thinking of performing to make his dad proud. They battle it out.
Christina struggles for words and passes it to Cee-Lo, who liked seeing Terisa singing soul. "I like your voice, I really do," he says. "Blake, you've really outdone yourself on this one," Adam says. "It was odd and it worked."
He tells Terisa that he clearly scared Julio at one point during the song because she's so "fierce," but he'd go with Julio just for variety sake. Blake complements them both and stalls. "Even as I talk right now, I don't really who won," Blake says.
He thinks back to rehearsals and Julio really struggling and decides to pick Julio because he put the most work into it.
Carson reminds the coaches that Terisa is available to steal. Ceelo takes him up on it. "That connection with people, you can't pretend that. So stay on, help me win this show," Ceelo tells her.
The next battle match up is Dez Duron versus Paulina on Team Christina. Last season, Dez failed to make a team but he impressed everyone this year. Paulina describes her voice as "sweet but kind of sassy."
They head to rehearsals where Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day is their adviser. Christina chooses "Just the Way You Are," which seems high to Dez. She advises Dez not to over-pronounce and then, flying in the face of everything she's ever sung, advises Paulina not to ad lib with melissima. Billie Joe likes the vocal choices Paulina makes and advises them not to blow it.
At their final rehearsal, Christina tells Paulina to be sure to stay on pitch when she plays with melody. Christina worries about Dez getting too nervous and Paulina playing around with the song too much.
The battle starts. Dez's parents try to clap along on beat in the audience. Paulina sings around the original melody. And, of course, they hug at the end.
Ceelo likes Paulina's quirky voice, but goes with Dez. Adam thinks both performances were a little inconsistent, but Dez was more "seasoned." Blake thinks Dez has come a long way in a year, and Paulina would stand out more on the radio, but he takes Dez based on experience.
Christina tells both of them she's proud of them. She likes Paulina's quirky falsetto and thinks Dez was very polished. Paulina lacked consistency at times, so Christina goes with Dez.
That makes Paulina available to steal, but she makes it all the way off the stage un-stolen.
On Team Adam, the adviser is Mary J Blige. The battle pits Benji against Sam James. Adam picked Bon Jovi's "You Give Love a Bad Name" to get them out of their comfort zones. Mary J gives Sam advice on how to hit notes out of his range, like using emotion instead. He knows he has a lot of work to do.
In final rehearsal, Adam tries to reign in Benji's roars. Adam calls Bon Jovi "a deceptively good singer."
Going into the battle, Benji thinks he might quit music if he loses. Benji does indeed yell.
After the battle, Blake opens: "Calm down, you were pissed off a second ago." He thinks Sam has a comfort zone and stays there and Benji either has a bigger range or is more willing to explore, so he'd take Benji. Christina tells Sam he did a good job with consistency, but "I'm down for some yelling and screaming, so it's Benji." Ceelo thought it was even at first, but Benji pulled away.
"Benji, you have one of the best screams I've ever heard. You scream like a bat flying straight out of hell, that's very hard to do and it harkens back to the real rock singers of the day. Now the one problem I have is the fact that in between your lower register and your scream there's a little bit of a lack of control," Adam says. He tells Sam he got very close to the notes he couldn't hit and stuck to his own style. Adam announces the winner is Sam.
"It means so much to me that Adam saw something in me that the other coaches didn't," Sam says.
Back on stage, Benji is up for stealing. The coaches applaud him as a classy guy, but he don't steal him.
Adam explains it came down to Sam having a little more control of his voice.
Ceelo's adviser friend is Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty. The battle pits Nicholas David against Todd Kessler. Ceelo picked "She's Gone" by Hall and Oates because Daryl Hall's "blue eyed soul" reminds him of his team.
Rob thinks Nicholas sounds like Bill Withers. Rob and Ceelo show them how it's done and Ceelo urges them to personally connect to the song. Rob thinks Todd has a soulful voice if he could only tap into it more.
Later, Ceelo and Rob meet privately with Nicholas, wanting to make sure he's in it to win it. Nicolas confesses that part of him just wants to sing "with" Todd. Ceelo hopes Nicolas will get serious about winning.
The night of the battle Nicolas wears his best white tie, but doesn't bother brushing his hair. They sing it out.
Adam proclaims it awesome and particularly likes Nicolas' totally unique voice. Blake tells Todd he's in the "upper upper" percentile of great vocalists. Nicolas has the Barry White thing if he wants it and "you look like Jesus and people like that," Blake says. Christina likes both of them together, but likes the attitude Nicolas put on it.
Ceelo tells Nicolas he's fantastic then paradoxically tells Todd he's "equally incomparable" (Ed note: "incomparable" literally means "without equal.") Ceelo proclaims the winner is "St. Nic."
That, of course, leaves Todd up for stealing. He thanks Ceelo for the coaching and says he's happy he has his wife and baby to go home to. He leaves without being stolen, but Ceelo tells him "call me, we'll talk."
"I'm full of joy, so full of happiness, man," Nicolas says backstage.
More Team Blake, with Michael Buble, which is fun because Blake pronounces his name "Boob-lay", emphasis on the "boob."
Lelia Broussard faces off with Suzanna Choffel, who are not at all surprised to be paired together. "Here's two chicks, kinda indie artists, play guitar, that kind of have gypsy souls," Blake says. The song is "Dog Days are Over" by Florence and the Machine.
Michael and Blake enjoy watching Lelia put her emotion into the songs. Suzanna worries about letting go of focusing on technique.
Later, Blake and Michael meet with Suzanna, advising her to cut loose. In their final rehearsal, Blake stops Lelia and warns her to watch her pitch. He suggests Suzanna try to stick with one style.
At the battle, Suzanna actually dresses like Florence.
Christina calls it "beautiful" and likes Lelia's falsetto. Ceelo thinks Lelia missed an opportunity to run with it. Adam regrets not fighting harder for Suzanna. Blake mentions Suzanna's chameleon quality and that he loves watching Lelia sing. He decides the winner is Suzanna. Lelia does not get stolen.
Going into Christina's next pairing, Joselyn Rivera versus Sylvia Yacoub singing Beyonce's "Best Thing I Never Had." Billie Joe advises Sylvia not to over-power the song. "With having great power comes great responsibility," he cracks. Christina advises her to watch her ad libs and runs so it doesn't seem sloppy. Christina thinks Joselyn has issues with volume.
In their last rehearsal, Joselyn gets over-powered by Sylvia and Christina warns Sylvia to pull back on the power at times. (The battling ladies do not seem to particularly like each other.) They head into battle.
After, Ceelo says Jocelyn really impressed him, but he won't pick either. Adam calls them "gnarly good singers," but says sometimes it was a few too many notes and Jocelyn had Sylvia a little on performance. Blake prefers Jocelyn's smiling sweet approach. Then Ceelo weighs in, saying he would have picked Sylvia.
Christina tells Jocelyn she had a few "deer in the headlights" moments and that Sylvia did her proud. She's annoyed she paired them because she wants to keep them both. But, when nagged by Carson for a winner she stalls, hems and haws, says she's torn, lets the audience start shouting and -- (we go to commercial) -- announces she's going to go with "fire" and picks Sylvia.
Christina tries to convince her fellow coaches to steal Jocelyn and with urging from the audience, Adam steals her, followed by Blake.
Adam thinks what she does well, she does better than other people. Blake calls Adam on his "bull crap" and reminds her that wanted to pick her originally. "Jocelyn, I love you," Blake says. But she goes with Adam. "It's the end of her career!" Blake jokes.
"It was a clear, obvious person to try to steal and I can't believe that little bastard took her from me," Blake complains.
Adam notes that he has "like, 100 girls on my team now." "Isn't that how you like it?" Christina asks.
Adam is now out of steals, as is Ceelo.
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