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koganbotWoo Hye Mi, on The Voice, well-trained blues, soul, and jazz singer (etc.), sartorially restless, not just putting on different styles on different days (which it seems almost all Korean singers do), but seemingly inhabiting genuinely different cultural categories with each, from post-punk shape-shifter to tough pop waif to after-dinner elegance to god knows what. Paradoxically, in her singing, it's when she goes for playfulness and experiment (like the yelp here in "Maria" at 1:13, and the final 30 seconds) that her music gets in trouble; whereas when she settles into conventional power and passion she knocks us dead. I hope that as I hear her more this turns out not to be a tradeoff she'll have to make, that the adventure and passion will feed each other to the benefit of each.
Yu Seong Eun, a strong ballad singer, previously floated in and out my ears without leaving any residue. This time she was pure feeling; got more votes than Kang Mi Jin, who'd done a typical wisp-to-scream thing on "Ugly," did it well but what she did was maybe too expected. One of those two eliminates the other in a couple of weeks; they're both reliable; my guess is that it'll depend on song choice.
Of the others I've been particularly following, Jang Eun A, who was in that fun version of "Hoot" in the battle round, was eliminated by two better singers this time up (incl. Woo Hye Mi). The rest — Lee So Jung, fun blues in the battle round; Son Seung Young, strongest of the two Weather Girls; Bae Geun Seok, audacious and androgynous (I've got embeds or links to them in my previous Voice roundup) — all made it through the first live round but have yet to do the round of sixteen. Thought Bae Geun Seok, after being so ridiculously brilliant in his audition, stunk up the joint last week, at least for the first two thirds of the song; rescued himself with daredevil moves at the end, but he was lucky to get through. I think that Kang Mi Jin is set to be the K-pop star she almost was no matter what happens, while who knows what'll happen with Bae Geun Seok, whether he finds a style and a career for himself.
Btw, over on Kpopstar there's a young r&b singer who matters, Lee Ha Yi, acts like a kid but has a singing voice that knows everything. Her "Bust Your Windows" in her audition got to the underlying sadness more than Jazmine Sullivan's original, and she was even better a few weeks later on the ballad "For You":
She's not been as consistently sure of herself as the show runs her through various gamuts, but she's deservedly in the final two. Did a strong version of "Baby Good-Bye," duetting well with her competitor Park Ji Min.
Dropping in on the States for a moment, we find Lindsey Pavao, who's often enough been weaker and less unique than in her audition, finally finding her sketchy self again on Mike Posner's sketchy "Please Don't Go," staving off elimination:
