The “battles” of season 13 of “The Voice” begin this Saturday at 9:10 p.m. on TF1. “It’s full of first times,” confides Oléma, who passed his blind audition with flying colors with a captivating cover of Mad World. The competition really begins, it is more tangible, we meet the other candidates… It’s a very special stage. »
Lize, who joined the Zazie team seduced by her version of the girl de Louane, confirms: “The adventure begins at that moment. It’s a jump into the deep end. » If there is a taste of the new for the talents in the running, the faithful of the telecrochet know well this test consisting of making the candidates of each “team” oppose each other, two by two, so that their coach decides to the one who will move on to the next step.
“We must not try to crush others”
In certain seasons, the antagonistic dimension of the face-to-face encounter was underlined by the staging of each duel taking place in a sort of stylized ring. This aspect has been softened over time. Since last year, the originality of this stage is that the coach concerned takes a seat in the chair in the middle of the stage, immersed in the performance of his two protégés.
According to the talents who answered questions from 20 minutes, the state of mind is always more towards fair play and constructive competition. “We have to succeed in standing out so that the coach chooses us but we must not try to crush the other because it will show and it doesn’t make for a good battle,” believes Shanys, from the team of Zazie.
“It tears our hearts”
“You have to adapt to the person you are facing. The adversary gives us something and we also try to give him weapons so that it is a great TV moment,” supports Gabriel Lobao, from the Mika clan. “This is the stage where we start to build relationships with the other candidates. Being against someone tears our hearts, but it’s beautiful too. You have to, it’s the game,” he adds.
The “battles” are also the moment when participants must demonstrate their ability to step out of their comfort zone, especially when they have a fairly defined universe. Young Lillian, whose favorite register extends from the 1920s to the very beginning of the 1970s – he qualified by taking up My legionary by Édith Piaf –, confides that he was very apprehensive about the revelation of what he should sing, and against whom…
It is up to coaches to make the right choices. According to Zazie, this season is the one “where [elle s’est] the hardest part in putting together the duets.” It’s about avoiding heartbreak as much as possible. Sometimes, the decision is easy to make when a talent does not keep the promises seen in blind auditions or when the gap in level is obvious, sometimes, the three minutes on stage provoke a dilemma. There remains only one hope: that the eliminated candidate will be drafted by another coach. This rule is renewed this year so that the “battles” are not just a series of hard blows.