The Voice Australia: Thomas Bleach recaps The Play-Offs

The Voice Australia is blitzing through its ninth season with a whole lot of memorable performances, competition firsts and classic reality TV drama. 

Over Sunday, Monday and Tuesday night, they went into The Play-Offs which saw contestants going head to head competing for a spot in The Finals. 

With COVID-19 travel restrictions limiting Boy George and Kelly Rowland’s involvement with this season, The Veronicas and Marcia Hines stepped in to help coach the artists. 

Nerves were high with some artists cracking under pressure like Siala, who forgot the lyrics halfway through the song, while Jimi The Kween and Elishia struggled to find the magic in their Play-Off and were both immediately sent home. 

Soma Sutton had a fiery altercation with the judges after she lost her Play-Off against Stephanie Cole. Following Guy Sebastian’s comment saying that she might not be artistically ready for the competition, she quipped back saying that she didn’t really want to do the show in the first place and was convinced to come on by producers. 

Questioning the judges intent and the show’s lack of time for judges and the audience to really get to know the artist, Sutton actually brings an interesting talking point to the surface. 

Viewers have already quickly turned on her by commenting on social media that she was ungrateful and a poor sport. But behind this talent show is a reality TV format that ultimately pulls the strings, and aimlessly tries to create explosive content. 

Throughout the sixteen Play-Offs, sixteen artists successfully made it through to The Finals including Clarissa Spata, Adam Ludewig, Alex Weybury, Masha Mnjoyan, Johnny Manuel, Siala, Angela Fabian, Mark Furze, Goldi, Timothy Bowen, Jesse Teinaki, Steve Clisby, Virginia Lillye, Stephanie Cole and Chris Sebastian.

Thanks to The Wildcard twist, Stellar Perry, Lyric McFarland, Despina Sava, Elyse Sene-Lefao and Matt Gresham joined these artists after being given a second chance. 

TMN’S TOP 5 PERFORMANCES FROM THE PLAY-OFFS

5. Masha Mnjoyan VS Elyse Sene-Lefao

From being given the challenge by Boy George to perform the same song, both Masha Mnjoyan and Elyse Sene-Lefao dived deep into their hearts to give individual stand out performances. 

Masha intertwined her native Armenian language into her beautiful rendition of Whitney Houston’s ‘I Have Nothing’, while Elyse began the song in complete acapella and highlighted her raw vocals. 

4. Chris Sebastian VS Lyric McFarland 

All-Star favourites Chris Sebastian and Lyric McFarland went head to head in a Bruno Mars inspired Play-Off. 

Kelly Rowland gave each contestant the challenge of stepping out of their comfort zones by having Chris sing an upbeat song, while Lyric then performed an emotionally charged ballad. 

3. Alex Weybury VS Despina Spata

Kelly Rowland set another challenge for two of her contestants by giving them each others song choice. This bold move saw Alex Weybruy performing Julia Michaels’ ‘Issues’ and Despina Spata performing Kim Carnes’ ‘Bette Davis Eyes’. 

Stripping each song back to sonically represent their unique artistry, they ended up creating some beautiful moments. 

2. Timothy Bowen VS Matt Gresham 

Timothy Bowen is one of the season’s front runners, and for good reason. Every performance he delivers is emotionally charged and excitingly engaging, and his Play-Off with Matt Gresham was no different. 

With both contestants taking on Dean Lewis songs, they brought their own singer-songwriter flavours to their respective renditions. 

1. Jesse Teinaki VS Stellar Perry

Taking on a Billie Eilish song is always going to be a huge feat on a platform like The Voice because she is such an individual artist in her own right. But Jesse Teinaki and Stellar Perry successfully brought their own artistry to the forefront respectively through her songs ‘Everything I Wanted’ and ‘I Love You’. 

Both artists gave incredible performances, but it was shocking to see Stellar Perry originally not go through to the next round as she has been named a frontrunner for the competition. However Delta made sure she picked Perry to be her Wildcard, and cited her to not let her emotions get in the way. 

The Finals begin on Sunday night on Channel Nine.