YouTube
Last week on ‘The Voice,’ Bostonian charmer James Massone seemed to come into his own and fully realize how magnetic he seems to be with the ladies. Playing on this realization, his coach Cee Lo Green went full-speed ahead into the land of crooners, and the results were mixed.
Talking before the show, Green and Massone connected on the fact that they’re both soft-spoken and laid-back, but confident once they get onstage. Green gave him some pointers on being a ladies’ man, adding, “You don’t want to be fixing cars for the rest of your life.” Apparently not seeing his future in his family’s body shop, Massone agreed, earning the new moniker from Green as “Lady Killer No. 2″ (referring to Green’s own 2010 album ‘The Lady Killer’).
Once he took the stage, though, Massone didn’t look capable of killing a fly. Clad in his signature letterman jacket but with a little Cee Lo pizzazz — was that jacket bedazzled with spikes? — Massone started out the slow ballad on an onstage set of steps, looking at a girl through a window on the set. Descending the steps during the song and crooning his heart out to BIlly Joel’s ‘Just the Way You Are,’ Massone nailed the performance but it really just begged the question of whether the performance had much potential to begin with.
It just didn’t seem like a great choice for a young kid trying to reach out to his own generation. Don’t get us wrong — the girls still screamed from the audience; it just wasn’t super inspiring. But it did leave the judges divided.
“I’ve been a big fan of yours from the beginning, and I don’t know …” Blake Shelton began. “You sang that song great, but I don’t know how I feel about that.”
“I actually agree with Blake,” Christina Aguilera offered. Though she admitted Massone has a special voice, she ended up concluding, “I think just for me personally I would have wanted something a little different … but it sounded good.”
Though Adam Levine wasn’t even asked for his opinion, he cut out Green to say, “Can I say something? I loved it … a lot.” Green agreed, defending his team member and suggesting that only the single coaches could really get it (“Blake’s a married man …”).
“It’s natural,” he told the young performer. “Do what comes natural to you … Reciprocate that love and give it right back. I enjoyed the performance. I enjoyed it!”
Watch James Massone Perform ‘Just the Way You Are’ on ‘The Voice’
Open all references in tabs: [1 – 6]