Filipino-American Amy Vachal impressed the judges on the American edition of The Voice during this week's semi-final – but it was not enough to earn her a spot in next week's final after she lost out in the public vote.
Nine contestants performed during Monday’s show but there were only places for four of them in the final: country singers Barrett Baber and Emily Ann Roberts (coached by Blake Shelton), Jordan Smith (coached by Adam Levine) and Jeffrey Austin (coached by Gwen Stefani). None of Pharrell Williams’s acts reached the final.
Vachal, who has been putting her soulful spin on pop tracks during the previous rounds, this week covered Bob Dylan's Make You Feel My Love.
“I wanted to play a song that would come straight from my heart to the audience,” she said.
After her performance, Pharrell told her: “That was beautiful. Honestly, with all the crazy things going on in the world, we need those crazy people to hear that voice, to see some clarity and see some good because that’s what your voice ignites.”
Levine, Vachal’s coach, said: “If you guys noticed, and everybody watching at home too, this room completely froze and all of the energy was focused on you.
“There are so many different ways to sing, especially on this show, because it’s very big and over-the-top all the time. But what’s special about you, Amy, is you do it in a way that is completely different and refreshingly raw and honest and beautiful. I’m so proud of you.”
Despite her elimination, the recording of Vachal’s performance peaked at No 5 on the US iTunes charts.
“I’m just realising what a blessing this has been,” said Vachal. “I’m just thankful.”
Villanueva’s debut album tops charts
Fresh from winning The X Factor Australia two weeks ago, Cyrus Villanueva released his debut record this week. Less than 24 hours after release, the album, titled Cyrus, shot up to the No 1 spot on the Philippine iTunes chart, overtaking chart-toppers Adele and Justin Bieber.
“#1 in the Philippines. Thank you,” Villanueva posted on Twitter. “A huge thanks to Sony and everyone who worked with me to produce my very first album.”
The 19-year-old Filipino-Australian singer told Philippine news programme Bandila last week that he will soon visit the Philippines "to personally thank my fans for their support", though no dates have been announced.
The album features his original single, Stone, which has been on top of the ARIA Australian Artist Singles Chart for the past two weeks.
“My very first song ever recorded in a studio,” Villanueva said. “Rightfully so, it’s the first track of the album.”
His performances from The X Factor Australia are also featured on the album, including covers of mentor Chris Isaak's Wicked Game, The Weeknd's Earned It, Labrinth's Jealous, James Bay's Hold Back the River and Robyn's Dancing On My Own, which Villanueva described as "probably the most emotional I've ever gotten performing" on The X Factor.
After performing the song during the competition’s early rounds, Villanueva cried on stage after the judging panel and audience gave him a standing ovation.
“It was the first time I experienced so much love from a crowd – and was a huge turning point for me in my musical career,” he said.
Villanueva (below) toldNews Corp Australia that he was now busy writing original songs. "Hopefully I will get a new single out early next year. I have learnt from Guy [Sebastian, a judge on The X Factor] that when you come off a reality show, you just don't stop the hard work and you don't wait for things to come to you," Villanueva said.
“I don’t want to be a one-hit wonder.”
AlDub is one of the top Twitter trends of 2015
A hashtag popularised by AlDub, a fictional couple who appear on a daily variety show in the Philippines, ranked third on Twitter’s year-end list of trending TV topics. The hashtag, #ALDubEBTamangPanahon (The Right Time), was created in October when the couple met in person for the first time in front of an audience of their fans at the Philippine Arena, the world’s largest indoor venue.
It yielded 41 million tweets and set a record for the most-discussed single topic on Twitter, beating the 37.6 million tweets from the World Cup 2014 semi-final between Brazil and Germany.
This year’s trends list was topped by #KCA (for the Kids’ Choice Awards) and #TeenChoice (Teen Choice Awards).
AlDub is a combination of the duo’s names, Alden Richards and Yaya Dub, played by actress Maine Mendoza.
artslife@thenational.ae
