Juliet Simms holds upper hand on The Voice?

Photo Credit: http://www.baltimoresun.com

Juliet Simms, with her ripped jean vest and tattoos, walks onto the stage of The Voice blind auditions belting out the rough vocal of “Oh Darling” by The Beatles.

                With her scratchy voice and edginess it did not take long before three well known artists turned their chairs around to have Simms on their team, however to the public, Simms has a familiar face.

                Simms, being front woman for the rock band Automatic Loveletter, formed back in 2007 while Simms also performed in solo tours.

                Automatic Loveletter released; three albums, one digital EP, 36 singles and performed on three major tours including; Bamboozle, Bamboozle Left and Warped Tour.

                Simms has also appeared in songs with other bands like Secondhand Serenade, Every Avenue and All Time Low.

                Simms now holds the spot as a tough competitor on The Voice.

                The Voice can be described as a reality singing competition. In this competition the four judges, Christina Aguilera, Blake Shelton, Adam Levine of Maroon 5 and Cee Lo Green choose contestants to be on their teams.

The judges will be their coaches and guide them through the three phases of the competition and lead one lucky team member to victory where they will win $100,000 and a recording contract with Universal Republic.

The show starts out with blind auditions where competitors walk onto a stage in front of thousands of viewers and four coaches chairs faced away from them. The contestant will sing their song of choice and if one of the coaches likes the performer’s voice they will press a button and their chair will turn to face them.

Once their chair turns around it means the coach wants the contestant on their team.  If multiple coaches turn around during the song the performer gets to choose their coach. With such different personalities the coaches verbally battle each other for the performer and make it entertaining.

                Once the teams of 12 are made, the show moves on to the battle phase.

In this phase, the coaches will choose two members of their team to sing the same song in a battle in front of the coaches.

After their performances on a boxing ring themed stage, the coach will choose who sang it better and eliminates the other from the show.  This phase will continue until the final eight are left on each team.

                In the final round, the show moves on to live performances where the fate of the performer lays in the hands of the coaches and the live audience.

                Once it comes down to the final four, one performer left on each team,  the decision becomes the viewer’s choice on who will be the next winner of The Voice.

                With such strenuous phases in this competition it could be a lot for any performer to handle especially for someone who has never had the experience of singing in front of a large crowd or performing on a stage.

                Simms, belonging on team Cee Lo, has previously toured and released albums.

Simms holds the upper hand in this competition based solely on her previous experience.

                With The Voice being a competition to allow up and coming artists the ability to get an opportunity at making an album and having a record contract, should the offer really be given to those whom have already had the advantage of doing so?

                Although being the most known out of the 48 competitors, research shows that other competitors have musical history as well.

                Nine other competitors in the competition have musical history with some even releasing up to four albums up to this point thus far.

                When self-producing your own albums, it can be difficult to get the advertising you need in order to be successful.

                However, The Voice is not a show that was created to make artists more famous, it was created to give aspiring musicians the opportunity to make an album and be successful.

                Although, while playing devil’s advocate, having artists in the competition that already know how to sing, allows for the performances and battle rounds to be more intense.

                With this advantage you find yourself making the tough decision along with the coaches on who should be cut, instead of muting the television and believing that anyone could be on this show.

                In the end does the competition become unfair when it allows those whom have already released albums and performed the opportunity to compete in this show?

                As much of a fan as I am of Simms and a few of the other competitors, I have to say no.

                In the battle rounds, Simms took on Sarah Golden, whom had no previous singing experience. Simms and Golden were assigned the song Stay with Me by Faces.

                Both performers sang the song well, but Simms held the upper hand from the second the song started. She knew how the work the stage as well as how to manipulate the song to match her voice. Golden, who sang the song good as well, seemed a little lost in the performance constantly having to come from behind Simms to get in the spotlight.

                With this being a competition there are no harsh words against Simms, however I believe that if Golden had been paired with another artist at her experience level the fight would have been a little more in Golden’s favor.

                In the end, I believe that for the competitors the competition can be unfair to those with no past experience to have to perform with contestants who have already had their time in the spotlight.

Watch The Voice Mondays at 8p.m. on NBC.