As Erykah Badu would say, “See, I been having this on my mind for a long time.” Every season, after being deeply disappointed, I swear off watching “The Voice.” And yet, every year NBC makes it impossible for me not to return.
What makes me so disgusted, year after year? The fact that the Black and worthy contestants end up being voted off and sent home for White vocalists, with lesser ability.
But let’s start with the beginning. Two years ago, during season 3, I started watching the show at my sister’s prompting. And, as with most shows my sister recommends, I feel in love instantly. I loved the fact that the judges were choosing people based solely on their sound and not their looks. And the strategy worked. I will always believe “The Voice “has some these best vocalists trying to break the glass ceiling that is superstardom.
The year I started watching, Cee-Lo Green had some really strong contenders Trevin Hunte and Amanda Brown. If you never saw these two sing Mariah Carey’s “Vision of Love,” you missed a moment. It was a battle round so Cee Lo had to choose one or the other. Cee Lo chose Trevin and Amanda was stolen by Adam Levine.
Amanda continued to flourish, most memorably singing Aerosmith’s “Dream On.” But after a while America chose to send her home. It was crushing.
And then weeks later, Trevin was eliminated and I was devastated. And disgusted even.
I swore off of the show, only to be sucked back in later when I learned that one, Usher was going to be one of the coaches and that Michael Jackson’s former background singer Judith Hill was going to be competing.
On the night that Judith was eliminated, Adam Levine said, under his breath “I hate this country.” He later said that he was joking but it was a sentiment to which I could relate.
I was done for real this time.
And then just when I had given up, Jamaica’s very own Tessanne Chin was chosen as the season 5 winner. And instead of waving my black, green and yellow flag, in solidarity and celebration, I had to watch the island country erupt, days later, on YouTube. I’d missed it.
So I decided to give the show another chance.
Again, the Black contestants I loved, like Sisaundra Lewis, (background singer for Celine Dion) and Delvin Choice, were eliminated–by America’s votes. But I was so happy to see my boy from Indiana Josh Kaufman win the whole thing, I wasn’t tripping.
But even still I had to wonder about this voting process. Was America not hearing what I was? Were all of Blake’s [White] country fans voting like crazy? Or… and this is always on the table in this country…was racism playing a role?
I hate to say it y’all but we can’t rule it out.
I say this because last night, America made the decision to get rid of Elyjuh René, after he sang Sam Smith’s “Latch” with perfection. You can watch it below.
And they got rid of him, voting instead to keep Luke Wade, who sang Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On.”
Luke is a talented dude, don’t get me wrong; but his performance on Tuesday, left a lot to be desired.
It was my sister who brought to my attention that in this country, a White man singing soul music, trumps a Black man doing the same, even if his is better.
And while I love me some Justin Timberlake, Sam Smith and alla dem; in this context, on this show, I wish and desperately want to see talented Black people win. Because they’re Black– I won’t lie. But mostly because they’re often better. I know musical tastes are subjective but there have been entirely too many instances where blue-eyed soul won out. And it’s getting annoying.
The only solution to this problem is for more Black people to start watching the show and actually voting for their favorites. So this is my campaign speech. I know, some of you are thinking this is not that important or maybe we should be encouraging people to vote in regular elections. But I already did that. And since the last election proved that people either weren’t listening or voted incorrectly, I’m turning my sights to helping people achieve their dreams on “The Voice.”
Does anyone want to help this frustrated Black girl out? Who’s’ with me?
