Season Five of Vocal Edge launched on 19th February 2017 and auditions for the season were the strictest yet, with the coaches voting from the outset for their pool of potential contestants to be personally responsible for.
This season, we wanted to give a break from all the seriousness with our usual brand of optional challenge.
Vocal Edge offered a little fun this season with direct Round 1 bonus points,
with customized scores based on the number of specified novelty songs performed of varying difficulties.
We also offered a bonus to any returning competitor from previous season or spinoff that was banked and could be used in any round from 1-3...
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Perform the following songs for the corresponding amount of points:
Barbie girl - One Point
Star Trekkin' - Two Points
Macarena - Three Points
The Ketchup Song - Four Points
Gangnam Style - Five Points
Round One
Amuse-Bouche
Contestants of Season 5 were tasked with serving us a musical
'amuse-bouche'; An amuse-bouche is a single, bite-sized hors d’œuvre. These are served to prepare the guest for a meal and to offer a glimpse into the chef's approach to the art of cuisine. For this musical equivalent, the whole song was meant to be packed full of skill and talent, and in order to spot check this in 'one bite-size mouthful', the judges will only listen to ONE MINUTE of the song - known to contestants only after the deadline had passed.
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Round Two
Duets
Coaches paired the contestants and they were required to perform a duet from a given selection of popular duets from various genres.
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Round Three
Musical Drama
Contestants now had to perform any song featured in one of our chosen popular TV dramas; Empire (RnB/HipHop), Nashville (Country/Folk) or Smash (Musical Theatre/Pop).
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Round Four
Rivalry
Contestants faced off in a head to head battle, against an artist that had a famous (or infamous) rivalry with their own; for example, Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears, or Eminem and Mariah Carey.
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At this point, the contestants were chosen by coaches, and formed the teams in which they would remain in for the rest of the competition.
The coach war began, and by battling in advantage challenges each week, the successful coaches could either sabotage other teams, or gain additional positive effects for their own team.
Round Five
British Groups
Each team chose a British Group, and split their teams of fifteen members into three teams, all of which had to perform songs by the chosen group.
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The first advantage challenge required the coach to sing lead vocals, but the focus of judging was the backing vocals, provided by a selection of their team members.
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Round Six
Classic Motown
With required three-part harmony, contestants had to perform a Motown song from the 1960s or 1970s.
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The next advantage challenge seemed impossible.
A single nominated team member had to perform a song which originally included both singing, and rap... but when performing they had to
defy the music; perform the rap as singing, and the singing as rap!
Round Seven
RIAA Diamond/Platinum Singles
The Recording Industry Association of America® was the source for our next theme, and the contestants had to sing songs which had been classified by the RIAA as Diamond or Multi-Platinum songs.
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Sing in a choral style - the advantage challenge seemed simple...
The reward was extremely powerful... The power to initiate the
VE Time Warp, and to choose a past VE theme for every team in the next round.
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Round Eight
The Time Warp
Every team had a past theme from VE chosen for them.
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Both coach and a nominated team member had to sing a song from 1994 for the next advantage challenge. ANY song from 1994.
Round Nine
Dance Music Mashes
Mashups of 3+ songs, and the theme was dance music!
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For the final advantage challenge, the chosen contestants had to perform an acapella piece, including beatboxing and a dubstep style
breakdown too... we weren't asking much?!?!
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Finals
Two songs...
Singled Out - A full version of any song featured in the contestants dance music mashup from the semi finals.
The Main Course - A full version of the amuse-bouche that was served up in Round 1 of the competition.
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