Rising Star - Week 5 - Live Blog and Recap - Live Duels, Pt. 2

Welcome to the live blog and recap of Rising Star Week 5! Last week was the beginning of the live duels, as three singers were eliminated and four advanced (after Lisa Punch was saved by the West Coast).

Tonight's matchups include: Adam Jaymes vs. Austin French, April Lockhart vs. Sonnet Simmons, and Macy Kate vs. Gabrielle Nicole!

Who will win each duel? It's going to be an exciting show, so keep it locked right here. Rickey will be adding videos as the night rolls on, and I'll be updating with my running commentary!

Credit: ABC

Let's get this show on the road!

RECAP

-Well, to keep from running overtime and having to skip some judges altogether like last week, we keep judge/Josh banter to a relative minimum next week.

GABRIELLE NICOLE VS. MACY KATE

GABRIELLE NICOLE is up first!

-Ludacris calls this "The Battle of the Extremely Confident Women," but notes that Gabrielle needs to strike a balance between being confident and being cocky. Kesha adds that Beyonce is a goddess and fierce as hell onstage, yet she's the nicest person ever. Gabrielle talks about Macy Kate being the white version of her, and says she prepared for this duel by studying Macy Kate's performances.

-Gabrielle sings "River Deep, Mountain High" and...nope, I didn't like this at all. I don't think any performer has ever dropped so steeply from their first performance to their second. This was just a shouty, inconsistent mess. Normally, this is where being likable helps, in that people might be willing to forgive an underwhelming performance if they like you. But she just comes across so poorly in interviews that her vocals really need to deliver in a huge way. Case in point, she concludes the performance with 49%, 21% of which came from the votes of the three experts, who also gave her a standing ovation. I imagine this was probably better live than it was on TV.

-Ludacris says THAT is how you kick off the show, while Kesha echoes that sentiment by talking about what a fierce singer Gabrielle is. Brad has no idea where Gabrielle gets all this intensity from, and says it feels as if she's been doing this her entire life. He doesn't know why the score isn't higher.

VIDEO: Gabrielle Nicole, "River Deep, Mountain High"

MACY KATE is up next!

-Macy Kate talks about being on her school's swim team, and singing the National Anthem at one of the meets, at which point she discovered her passion for singing. She's over-the-moon about getting to have a mentoring session with the three experts, while also discussing Gabrielle Nicole's strengths as a singer with an "Aw shucks" attitude that makes her fairly endearing. That said, Gabrielle had a better audition than she did, in my opinion. Let's see if Macy has the better duel performance...

-Macy sings "Demons" by Imagine Dragons, and this was the wrong song, in my opinion. It was just too big for her once it hit the chorus. The verses were lovely though. I feel this duel was just about even with Gabrielle's, in that it was similarly inconsistent. Gabrielle has more potential, but I think Macy is winning this.

-Aaaand yup. Macy wins with 80% of the vote. Ludacris and Kesha voted yes while Brad voted no. Kesha talks about what a shame it would be to lose either singer (and also says something that gets bleeped out), while Brad says he voted no because he felt Macy had more to offer, and he wanted to nudge her along. Ludacris, meanwhile, says he hopes that the West Coast will save "my girl" Gabrielle Nicole, but adds that both girls are great singers, and he'd like to see them both again.

VIDEO: Macy Kate, "Demons"

-So, with a final score of 80% to 49%...

MACY KATE WINS THE DUEL AND ADVANCES TO THE NEXT ROUND!

-I wasn't a particularly huge fan of either duel, so this result doesn't really bother me.

-Back from break with some random judge banter, as Josh offers up a ball of yarn for Kesha's cat minions to play with, before Ludacris wonders where his present is.

APRIL LOCKHART VS. SONNET SIMMONS

SONNET SIMMONS is up first!

-Sonnet talks about being terrified for her audition, but also being so thrilled with how things turned out, naturally. Kesha tells Sonnet that she has to prove she wants this more than she's ever wanted anything. She thinks April is incredibly talented, but feels that part of her own journey is bringing down her own walls and showing what she's made of.

-Sonnet sings a version of "Feeling Good" that sounds closer to Muse's version than the original. And...I have no idea what the deal is tonight, but I'm just not feeling any of these performances. Sonnet is sharp through pretty much the entire thing, as she stays in her falsetto, which is a decision that just did not work at all. This bordered on painful, for me, honestly. And I hate saying that, because I like Sonnet. But this was a mess. Granted, it was a mess that earned 73% of the vote.

-Kesha praises Sonnet and talks about how her confidence has grown exponentially since her first audition, which is why she earned her vote. Then, since we're apparently already running short on time, we skip over the other two judges. Gotta get this show finished for that rerun of Castle!

VIDEO: Sonnet Simmons, "Feeling Good"

-Back from break with Josh wondering why the Rising Star twitter account is making fun of him, revealing that Brad Paisley has hacked Josh's phone. THIS IS THE VOICE! DUN DUN DUN-DUN!

APRIL LOCKHART is up next!

-April talks about what a rush of energy she got from raising the Wall, before voicing her concerns over what a formidable opponent Sonnet is, since she's been singing since birth whereas April herself has only been singing for five years or so. However, while she's nervous, she feels that all she can do is deliver her best and hope it's enough.

-April sings "Animal" by Neon Trees, and it starts off with a lovely piano opening...before dovetailing into the original version for no discernible reason. Seriously, April could have had something special if she'd just kept the entire song in the same fashion as the opening. That said, this is the first performance tonight I've actually liked. It's far from perfect, but April has a wonderful voice, so even when she doesn't exactly hit every note, it's a voice that's still lovely to listen to. She raises the Wall at the very last second with 76% of the vote, earning an upvote from each one of the experts.

-Ludacris notes this is the first night where he's voted yes so many times, and says that he went back and forth on April before deciding to give her an upvote for her improved vocal control and all-around performance. Brad talks about April's potential to go far, and suddenly, Kesha is now the unlucky one who must be skipped over, since it's apparently really difficult to time out a one-hour version of this show.

VIDEO: April Lockhart, "Animal"

-So with a final score of 76% to 73%...

APRIL LOCKHART WINS THE DUEL AND ADVANCES TO THE NEXT ROUND!

-This was absolutely the right result, in my opinion.

AUSTIN FRENCH VS. ADAM JAYMES

AUSTIN FRENCH is up next!

-Austin talks about how much raising the Wall meant to him, since each face on the Wall was a fan who voted for him. He says how daunting it is to be facing Adam, since they're both described as "pure singers" who are very similar -- they even got the same percentage of the vote in the audition round! Ludacris feels Austin has the vocal part down, but just needs to work on his performance style. Austin says that while Adam is a formidable opponent, he just has to win.

-Austin sings "I Don't Wanna Be" by Gavin DeGraw, and this is one of the better versions of this song I've heard on a singing show in some time. He oversings it in places, losing himself in all the runs and vocal gymnastics that characterize some of DeGraw's better-known songs. Still, this is a damn good performance, and he earns 81% of the vote, the highest score of the night so far.

-Kesha talks about what a soulful performance that was and how great Austin looks. Austin says he was trying to keep it fresh for Luda, who tells Austin that he's convinced him of his stage presence. And now Brad is getting skipped over. Gotta keep this thing moving!

VIDEO: Austin French, "I Don't Wanna Be"

-Back from break with our final performance of the show...

ADAM JAYMES closes the show!

-Adam says the song he's singing tonight was suggested by a fan named Melissa W. on Facebook. It's "Free Fallin'" by Tom Petty, and it's a pretty intimidating song pick as people have apparently been telling him he has to go all out for a Tom Petty song. In his mentoring session, he goes over the falsetto with Brad, who cautions him about how he and Austin engage songs in the same way. Adam says he likes Austin a lot, but he plans on winning the duel.

-It gets off to a shaky start, and follows in April Lockhart's steps of starting the song out with the chorus instead of the verse. However, as the song continues, it gets considerably stronger. It's kind of a subtle vocal that straddles the line between John Mayer's version and Tom Petty's original. It's one of my favorite performances of the night, and I actually prefer this to Austin's performance. But America doesn't agree, as he only gets 56% of the vote.

-Ludacris explains that his voting "no" doesn't mean that he doesn't think Adam has a future in the music business, but rather that he doesn't think Adam gave the performance his all. Kesha says Adam looks good from "a lady's perspective," and that he has a good voice, but it just wasn't his best. Brad says it was a tough duel since Adam was going up against one of the best singers in the entire competition. He notes that Adam was a beautiful voice, and never misses a note. But it just wasn't his night tonight.

VIDEO: Adam Jaymes, "Free Fallin'"

-And that's a wrap on the show! The back end of tonight's show mostly saved things, because it was really rough in the early going. That said, I think we got the right results, for the most part. Or, at least, we got results that aren't a complete travesty or anything. But what do you think? Did you agree with the results tonight? And which of the three eliminated contestants do you think deserves the one West Coast Save? Sound off in the comments and join us next week when the live duels continue!