When Tessanne Chin won season five of “The Voice” Tuesday, she not only started weeping, she nearly dropped to her knees and let out an unearthly wail. And when the fireworks banged behind her, she jumped.
Tessanne, the strong voiced Jamaican import who scarcely had a bad night all season, then had to gather herself up and sing the winner’s song, “Tumbling Down,” as the credits were rolling and tears were still falling. It was probably her worst performance of the season.
Tessanne’s win was no surprise to those who looked at iTunes charts earlier in the day; one of her two performances was No. 1; the other in the Top five, while her competitors, Jacquie Lee and Will Champlin, who finished second and third respectively, were nowhere to be found.
Her win not only gives honor to her native island, but also to Adam Levine, who scored his first win as a mentor since season one.
But unlike most singing competition winners, it’s not as if she was plucked from obscurity to TV fame. She simply follows a career where she opened for Jimmy Cliff, recorded with Shaggy and Third World and issued a handful of singles and an album. Soon there will be more.
Her chaotic crowning – with mentors, singers, her mother all crowding the stage as she was preparing to sing — capped a languorous finale will all manner of guest stars, Top 12 collaborations and bona fide time wasters.
It began with a cover by the top three of Outasight’s “Tonight is the Night” in which they were soon joined by the Top 20. Who were some of these people? Some looked vaguely familiar, but others didn’t ring a bell at all. They all sounded fine, though.
Better were the small group collaborations, in which each finalist chose their backing group. Some early finishers were clearly more popular to work with than others.
In the first Jacquie Lee may have been the weakest link in a surprisingly effective cover of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” in which Cole Vosbury, the last to go on Blake Shelton’s team, added a Brian May lick as well as vocal parts alongside the other chosen participants Caroline Pennell, James Wolpert and Matthew Schuller.
Later Will Champlin had a sing-along to the Old Crow Medicine Show anthem “Wagon Wheel” with Cole and Caroline once more as well as Austin Jenckes and Jonny Gray.
Tessanne’s “bring back” performance of Sam and Dave’s “Hold On, I’m Coming” had James again as well as Preston Pohl, Olivia Henken and Grey.
As if to include those who didn’t get chosen, the other guys from the Top 12, Ray Boudreaux, Josh Logan and Nic Hawk joined Preston and Matt for a version of Bruno Mars’ “Treasure” that made one glad that, unlike “X Factor,” “The Voice” didn’t assemble boy bands out of failed solo acts.
The unused women group that sang Kelly Clarkson’s “My Life Would Suck Without You” was practically a convention: Kat Robichaud, Tamara Chauniece, Amber Nicole, Grey, Stephanie Anne Johnson and Shelbie Z.
After singing with judges Monday, the three finalists got to duet with actual recording stars, the biggest of which was Celine Dion, singing her 20-year-old “Love Can Move Mountains” with Tessane, whose reaction to having a duet with her idol reduced her to tears as well.
(Why not have her duet with her onetime headliner on tour, Jimmy Cliff? Well, they never did play up her earlier career).
You have to wonder how groups like Paramore feel about sharing their songs with contestants. But Jacquie Lee held her own opposite Hayley Williams, though the latter was clearly more loose and professional.
The oddest matchup was Will Champlin with newcomer Aloe Blacc, who clearly held the stage more convincingly for his single “Wake me Up.”
There was payback for two acts. Celine Dion got to sing her new single with Ne-Yo, “Incredible,” which may have been the musical highlight of the night: Two professional singers!
The other payback was OneRepublic, who got to play their new single “I Lived” because their Ryan Tedder wrote that awful winners song.
Lady Gaga’s appearance would seem to be a big deal, except she’s been appearing on nearly as many TV shows as Will Ferrell in promoting her new product. That she had the surprisingly similar-sized Christina Aguilera join her on “Do What U Want” seemed an insult to the entire premise of “The Voice.” They could not allow a mere contestant to sing with La Ga, they had to bring in a judge.
It was such an odd pairing, though, that they were interviewed by Carson Daly about it afterwards (well he did have two hours to kill).
For her part, Aguilera sounded a little like Ed Sullivan did more than a half century ago when he brought Elvis on his show and said “this is a real decent, fine boy.”
“She’s the most down to Earth, real person I’ve ever met in this business,” Christina said of Gaga. Which is exactly what she had said earlier in the show about Jacquie.
There was no time, by contrast, to interview or get a single line out from the actual winner of “The Voice” at the end of the two hours. She’ll be able to talk Wednesday on the “Tonight” show.
Also, she’ll sing at the Rose Bowl Parade, on a Voice float probably powered by Kia hamsters.
And amid the load of commercials was the start date for next season: Feb. 24, when once more Usher and Shakira will return as judges to temporarily take the chairs of Cee Lo Green and Christina. Are those the only two judges with outside careers to tend?