The Voice: Who’s through to the Semi Finals?

There were some big surprises in the first live show of The Voice as the remaining 12 singers competed for a place in next week’s Semi Finals.  

After each coach saw their team sing, they had to choose which performer to save from the viewers’ vote by giving them a Fast Pass to the next stage of the competition. Then, after all the Teams had performed, it was the turn of the viewing public to get voting for the remaining performers.

However, it wasn’t just the booting off of performers that would shock and surprise but some of the actual performances, too!  

After weeks and weeks of watching the acts perform on an empty stage, there was now a troupe of dancers bounding around the place and other elements of staging to add a bit of theatrical zhoosh to the proceedings.  

Team Rita’s Joe Woolford was seen singing in a box that resembled The Cube from Phillip Schofield’s ITV game show, while Team Will’s Vikesh Champaneri seemed to be dressed as a circus ringmaster and ended his performance by being hoisted into the air on a giant hoop!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooicuJEZT3g

The show, which began later than advertised, kicked off with Team Ricky. After seeing his acts perform, Coach Wilson gave his Fast Pass to Steve McCrorie, thereby putting Autumn Sharif and Emmanuel Nwamadi up for the public vote.

Next up it was the turn of Team Tom to give it their all. After Sasha Simone's performance of Sail by Awolnation got a standing ovation from all four coaches, Tom decided to give her his Fast Pass, meaning that Howard Rose and Lara Lee faced the public vote. 

Team Rita were next to perform, but it was 17-year-old Karis Thomas who secured her place in the Semi Finals by getting a Fast Pass from her coach. That left Clark Carmody and Joe Woolford in the hands of the viewing public.

Finally, it was time for Team Will to perform and the coach  was at a loss over who should have his Fast Pass. It took him an age to decide and turned to Twitter and the audience for guidance.  In the end, he chose his classical act Lucy O'Byrne over his other two performers Sheena McHugh and Vikesh Champaneri.

With all the performances over, it was the turn of the viewers to vote for their favourite performers. The four with the highest votes were Sheena, Emmanuel, Joe and Vikesh, meaning that Autumn, Clark, Howard and Lara got the chop.

The show also included performances from the coaches singing EMF’s Unbelievable, Olly Murs singing his new single Seasons and last year’s winner Jermaine Jackman performing How Will I Know.