Amy Vachal says 'bye to The Voice; hello to her new singing career

IF I HAD HAIR, I'd be pulling it out, right about now. Amy Vachal's gamble didn't pay off. While all the other contestants went big, over the top or in a new direction, she stayed true to herself.

UPDATE (Dec. 10): Amy Vachal and the other 24 contestants will return to The Voice stage next Tuesday (Dec. 15) when the 2015 season's winner will be announced.

In the results of The Voice's semifinals show on Tuesday (Dec. 8), the top three are deemed safe, the bottom three are quickly dispatched and the middle three have a sing-off. To everyone's surprise, Amy was in the bottom three. She didn't even get a chance to sing for her life.

The Voice says goodbye to Amy Vachal

Her emotional and comparatively subdued interpretation of Bob Dylan's "To Make You Feel My Love" was really, really good and played right into Amy's wheelhouse of smooth, dreamy musicality. It was good enough to get the No. 6 spot on iTune downloads showing a lot of people liked it, too.

However, it was not a performance that makes one stand up and cheer as they did for Jordan Smith's gospel-like number. Those showstoppers are the type of performances that win contests like The Voice. It was Amy's bad luck that she performed just before Jordan's performance. The contrast between the two performances couldn't have been more stark.

In these singing competition, in most part, viewers don't vote on superior musicianship or who's the better lyrical interpreter, they vote on how they felt at that particular moment.

A bit of advice to The Voice: I don't want to sound like sour grapes, but, in fairness, maybe the contestants should be allowed to compete on their singing ability, not the production number they happen to participate in. I mean, what went into Jordan Smith's number probably cost more than all the other contestants. It was a spectacular, hallelujah moment. Not to take away from Jordan's performance, but certainly, Amy's performance suffered in comparison.

RELATED: Joining the Amy Vachal bandwagon

Also working against Amy was that she was so unique, her smooth jazzy style didn't fit into any of the popular musical categories with broad built-in fan bases. She was the most original artist in the competition and deserved to be in the finals. Alas, originality doesn't win these popularity contests.

What's next? Will she disappear into the void full of almost-made-it singers that see their dreams die when they walk off the stage? 

First off, Happy Birthday, Amy! The Voice results may be a bit bitter sweet, but as a fellow Capricorn, I know you'll work through the disappointment and through hard work and determination, you'll enter a new exciting phase in your life. The Voice was just the start.

I thank The Voice for introducing Amy Vachal to America. Through it all, the Filipino/American songstress gained fans all across the country. She doesn't have to stick to Brooklyn bistros or Manhattan cafes. 

I also have to thank Amy, of course. Of the top ten posts of the past few weeks, posts I wrote about Amy's remarkable journey took seven spots and I gained readers from all around the world, especially the Philippines, Canada and France (who would've thought?). I hope you continue to read this blog. Salamat!

I look forward to hearing more of her original compositions like "Honey" and "Keeper" below"

Imagine if The Voice allowed her to sing "La Vie en Rose," Amy might have won hands down.

For those who criticized her for sounding the same all the time, when next we hear her she'll be able to let her hair down (or in this case, in pigtails) when she sings this ditty, "Price Tag."

For those of you who are going through Amy Vachal withdrawals, there's always Youtube where there are dozens of Amy nuggets to discover, including the numbers she sang on The Voice.

I don't think this is the last we'll hear from her. The next time you see and hear her sing, it won't be a competition where she's forced to be something she is not. She's a true artist - a singer/song writer - and like all true artists, she can heed guest singer Dolly Parton's advice to the Voice contestants, Amy Vachal can simply be true to her self.

Oh, I almost forgot. The finals on The Voice airs next Monday when Jordan Smith will win ... I mean ... battle it out with Jordan Smith, Emily Ann Roberts, Barrett Baber and Jeffrey Austin, but ... it just won't be the same.

UPDATE (Dec. 9): I reserve the last word from Amy Vachal's Twitter account:

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Amy Vachal sings sweetly on "The Voice" semifinals; did you feel her love?

Amy Vachal went for honest emotion in her semifinal number on The Voice.

AMY VACHAL and her coach Adam Levine chose Bob Dylan's "To Make You Feel My Love" for her semi-final performance. 

While singing, she seemed to really get caught up in the emotion to the point of almost losing control. I hope the audience saw it the same way and didn't interpret that slight blip as a mistake.

All the other artists' performances were over the top, trying to hit a home run to impress the voters. In contrast, Amy opted for a quiet, sweet, emotional moment of honesty. It was like she was back in the coffee shops and bistros in Brooklyn. All that was missing was the proverbial brick wall in the background. Just a girl and her guitar (and two accompanying guitars.) So simple, so refreshing, the strategy just might work.

“That was nice. you’re voice seems like were what beautiful clouds are made of ... It was beautiful, it was light. And honestly, with all the crazy things going on all over the world, we need those crazy people to hear that voice,” said Pharrell Williams, "to see some clarity, to see some good. That's what your voice ignites, you know, like, somebody wants to do the right thing."

“The room just froze and stopped. All the energy in this room was focused on you. What’s special about you is, you do it in a way that is completely different and refreshingly raw,” said Adam Levine.

Once again, Jordan Smith seems to have knocked it out of the park with his interpretation of  "Somebody to Love." He hit the big notes, had a full gospel choir as backup, hands-up in the air ending, standing ovation plus the production and song choice was a big nod to his voting base - the Christian vote. Do you think the producers' biases are showing?

As the judges made their comments, Amy looked resigned to whatever outcome the voters choose. It looks like Amy will have to duke it out for 2nd, 3rd or 4th with the other seven contestants to move into the finals.

Is her emotional performance enough to put her into the finals next week? "My goal is to touch hearts," she said before her performance. "I want to be real. I want to be me." 

We'll find out Tuesday night how many hearts Amy touched.

The Eastern Seaboard has had a three-hour head start in the voting. Only a few more hours left to vote. All you Asian/American social networkers, its time to cast your votes.

How to vote on "The Voice"

There is a strict 14-hour voting window from the end of the show (between 9:55 p.m. ET on Monday to 12 p.m. ET Tuesday). That seems unfair for the voters on the West Coast because their voting period is done at 9 a.m. PST Tuesday. Voters from Hawaii, where Vachal is popular have an even shorter period to vote. Each person can vote up to 40 times total (10 votes per each of the four ways).

1. iTunes: downloading a song counts as 10 votes. (Bonus: if it reaches the top ten on the charts it gets multiplied by 10.) (1 download per person = 10 votes)

2. Facebook: vote on The Voice Facebook page via this link. (up to 10 times per person total)

3. The App : Download The Voice App on your phone (up to 10 times total)

4. NBC.com : (up to 10 times total) #TheVoice

Amy Vachal says 'good morning' from The Voice; a big challenge tonight

AMY VACHAL, the Filipino/American songstress on The Voice singing competition, today (Dec. 7) will be facing her biggest test yet with a trip to the finals at stake. Hey, with all that's at stake, it's good to see she wakes up smiling (via Twitter).

The Top 9 semifinalists will be cut to the final four for the Dec. 14 finale. That means five contestants will be sent home; only four will survive for the finals. Vachal, 26, will have to do better than last week when she finished sixth.

"But this week, no matter what happens, I'm holding nothing back — I'm giving all of my heart," she said. "My one goal is that it touches hearts."

She has been able to touch a lot of hearts in her months-long musical journey. From the first few notes in "Dream A Little Dream," that made three of the four coaches turn their chairs around wanting to mentor her, to her work with current coach Adam Levine, who ironically was the only coach not to turn around because he didn't have any room on his team, Vachal's subtle, sweet and sultry flips of the standards and pop hits have been highly praised.

RELATED: Her mom is a Filipina

Of the artists left in The Voice, Amy is the most distinctive and separates her from the rest. She has been able to pick songs and arrangements that take advantage of her soft, subtle jazzy interpretations of tunes. If the voting viewers based their picks on originality, Vachal would win hands down.

But that's not the way most Voice viewers vote. For many, it comes down to musical tastes, between country, blues, spiritual or pop. Remarkably, Vachal has been able to travel this far without having to be categorized in any of those slots. 

While being unique is a good thing in the real world of music, not being easily categorized might work against her because she won't have any of those large bloc of voters pulling for her to win.

Listen to Amy's performance in the Blind Audition and the judges' exuberant reaction:

When voting left the judges' hands and only 12 contestants were left, Amy was almost eliminated when her then coach, Pharrell Williams chose another contestant over Vachal. Levine became her coach when he "saved" her by putting her on his team. Under his tutelage, the two were clever enough to select current hit songs which were more familiar to the younger bloc of voters but given the special Amy Vachal interpretation.  

Although Vachal has performed really well, I believe we still haven't seen her at her best. Besides being technically on point and outstanding creatively, hopefully she finds a way to connect emotionally with the audience to become the first Asian/American winner of one of television's singing contests.

The Voice airs on NBC at 8 p.m./7 p.m. Central on Monday. It's a two-hour show tonight. The results will be revealed Tuesday.

How to vote on "The Voice"

There is a strict 14-hour voting window from the end of the show (between 9:55 p.m. ET on Monday to 12 p.m. ET Tuesday). That seems unfair for the voters on the West Coast because their voting period is done at 9 a.m. PST Tuesday. Voters from Hawaii, where Vachal is popular have an even shorter period to vote. Each person can vote up to 40 times total (10 votes per each of the four ways).

1. iTunes: downloading a song counts as 10 votes. (Bonus: if it reaches the top ten on the charts it gets multiplied by 10.) (1 download per person = 10 votes)

2. Facebook: vote on The Voice Facebook page via this link. (up to 10 times per person total)

3. The App : Download The Voice App on your phone (up to 10 times total)


4. NBC.com : (up to 10 times total) #TheVoice

Amy Vachal slips into the semifinals on The Voice

Amy Vachal, won't be saying "Bye Bye Bye"

OOPS! Don't be alarmed, but Amy Vachal slipped a little but she has enough standout talent to still win a spot among the Top 9 finalists on The Voice. But that little bit of slippage from top to middle of the pack could spell the difference of making it to the Dec. 14 finals or getting eliminated in the semi-finals next week when five of the remaining singers will be shown the door.

Once again, the Filipino/American songbird took a pop song - "Bye, Bye, Bye" and transformed it into a haunting rendition of what N'Sync performed as an upbeat song that appealed to the preteen gaggle of girl fans. It should be noted that the N'Sync hit was a Grammy award winner way back in 2000. Most of those Tweenies are now in their late-20s/early 30s and have moved on musically. If they wanted to get nostalgic, they would download the original.

RELATED: Her mom is a Filipina

To Amy's credit, her performance was strong enough to garner the No. 8 spot in the iTunes download list during the voting period for the singing competition, so what do I know. No. 8 is good, but it was a drop from last week's No. 4 spot that she was able to get with her flip of Taylor Swift's "Blank Space," which is tops the charts NOW. Landing in the iTune's top ten is critical for Voice competitors because each download counts as a vote multiplied by 10. A word of caution, though, she had five other Voice contestants ahead of her.

A similar drop in the voting next week could eliminate Vachal, At this stage, with the Dec. 7 semi-finals looming, song choice is critical. It's obvious that Amy and her coach, Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine, is carving out a personality for the sultry singer, separating her from the rest of the crowd who are splitting the country, blues and rock voting bases. 

Her biggest challenge seems to be coming from favorite Jordan Smith, who is attracting the Christian voters with his song selection. This week, he did Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" and despite the dicey lyrics open to interpretation, any song with the word "hallelujah" in the lyrics still gets interpreted as a religious tome. 

As the competitors are winnowed down, it may come down to who can pick up the voters who backed the singers who have been dropped. Among the remaining contestants, Amy has shown that her ability to flip any song into something that shows off her smooth singing style. 

Here’s where everyone stood based on iTune downloads as of noon EST, when voting ended on Tuesday (Dec. 1):

2. Jordan Smith, “Hallelujah”
3. Barrett Baber, “I’d Just Love to Lay You Down”
4. Madi Davis, “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”
5. Emily Ann Roberts, “She’s Got You”
7. Jeffery Austin, “Jealous”
8. Amy Vachal, “Bye Bye Bye”
10. Shelby Brown, “Go Rest High on That Mountain”
20. Zach Seabaugh, “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”
27. Korin Bukowski, “Same Old Love”
113. Braiden Sunshine, “Radioactive”

In the end, Korin lost the sing-off to teenager Braiden.

So you can see, as good as Amy is artistically, she is not a sure bet to make it to the finals despite being adored by critics and highly praised by the coaches.

When asked how all the singers are getting along behind the scenes Amy says that the members of Team Adam are all connected by their faith and their thankfulness to God, and that they know God has a plan for all of them for the rest of their lives. 

My, my, my. I think she was speaking from the heart and it wasn't a sneaky ploy to garner support from some of the Christian crowd backing Jordan. She just might connect with middle America.

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Amy Vachal in the Top 12 of "The Voice"

OUR GIRL, Filipina/American jazz crooner Amy Vachal barely made it but she eked into the Top 12 in the singing competition The Voice.

In last week's three-day Playoffs round, she didn't get enough of America's votes but she was "saved" by her coach Adam Levine to be part of this coming Monday's Live Playoff round.

In the last few seconds of the show, coach Adam Levine said he had to "go with his gut" and picked Vachal to complete his team. "Amy has got this smooth, jazzy voice," said Levine, who called his team's performance "epic." "She is elegant and classy. She is amazing."

"I'm going to get poignant — the reason why," Maroon lead singer Levine continued. "I'm not going to talk about all the technical stuff, all that boring mumbo jumbo. We are going to talk about one thing.

Help keep Amy Vachal in 'The Voice.'

Follow Amy's Tweets or on her Facebook page.

"That was watching an artist perform on the show," he said. "We talked about what this needs to be for you. That's precisely what it was. You absolutely did the best job you could possibly do and I'm so thrilled."

Apparently, the audience for this show is not into jazz or Amy's soft, soothing performance of  "classics." Even with the judges tripping over each other in their praise for her singing, she wasn't able to get enough votes from the young set of viewers who prefer more contemporary performers and sounds.

RELATED: More about Amy Vachal's Filipino roots

Should she do more to connect with the audience emotionally, or should she stick to the jazzy style that she is more comfortable in and which got her this far?

We'll have to wait until tonight (Monday, Nov. 16) on NBC to see what she chooses. Tuesday we will find out if her choice and performance impresses the audience as the results are announced. Will Amy make it to the next round?

Here's how you can vote for Amy Vachal on The Voice via email, Facebook, etc. For you Asian American social networkers, get to work!

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