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| The S19 coaches of The Voice (all pix except EOTB courtesy NBC) |
To those who produce the show and make the magic happen each week, Will Gill works behind the scenes on the show as part of the audience warmups before taping begins and the spotlight shines on the performers and the coaches. But to us MTV Reality fans, Will is the one who got to score a date with Janelle from Real World Key West and who won Gauntlet III because of Big Easy... and who got roasted for trying to cry to grab her feelings later in the season and heard a mouthful from her on the reunion.
The other instance of The Voice appearing on this site until now isn't actually from that show, but whose use of those chairs came in an early Before They Were MTV Stars. The long-forgotten summer 2012 FOX dating show The Choice brought that concept to the world of reality dating TV, and where it brought four celebrities in touch with worthy singles in an effort to win a date with those like Joe Jonas, Rob Gronkowski and others.
While it was short lived, The Choice did give us a glimpse into the future as it featured the national TV debut of three future MTV Reality stars: Nia Moore of Real World Portland & two Challenges, and Brittany Baldi & Chris Scali who would later be part of the original cast of Are You The One? when Season 1 debuted two years later. Nia and Scali were the last ones standing in their quests for love: her with Jason Cook and him with Singled Out alum Carmen Electra, among other notable celebs that included Mike the Situation, DJ Pauly D. and Romeo Miller.
The son of Master P. has presided over all four seasons of the American version of MTV's totally twisted take on love, Ex On The Beach... if not for COVID we'd be enjoying Romeo's company again in helping to bring torture to the stars who are chosen to find out whose ex is next. And almost two weeks ago, we had another show be added to the many those from EOTB and other MTV shows have crossed over - and it was one who found himself on the most recent season of Ex.
It seems long ago now, but the last time we had to see the sight of exes come walking back into the lives of the stars came back last winter when the global EOTB franchise had its first winter-themed season, Peak of Love in New Zealand... a far cry from sandy beaches, swimwear and the sun. Season 4 of Ex on America was dominated by four past Challengers, an AYTO alum and those from RuPaul's Drag Race, Bachelor Nation and Nickelodeon being represented.
But while Laurel, Nicole, Marlon, Jemmye, Adore and others had most of the airtime as did Georgia S. & Callum from Britain, Michigan singer Ryan Gallagher spent much of the winter largely in the background. Compared to everyone else, he only had to deal with just one ex (Magdalena Ruiz) come into the house where their efforts to rekindle their relationship fizzled out. But as part of a family of six siblings, Gallagher had to temporarily having to leave the chalet due to a family emergency at home, as his mom has been battling MS since he was only 3 years old.
But it's not to say that Ryan has such a great talent: he has been a singer just about all his life, and who had the chance to perform in the background for Josh Groban and then for Carrie Underwood and Michael Bolton. Then came performing on Nashville Star, traveled to the Philippines where he also performed on local television, and performed throughout the Pacific Rim and on Broadway before going onto American Idol. Like any other good performer who goes onto hat show, he boasts a diverse repertoire where he is able to do pop covers but who's in his element in classical & jazz standards. And it's in the ladder category that brought him to the just-premiered 19th season of The Voice.
Some of the biggest names in music have contributed their talents to The Voice over the years, none more so than the budding rivalry of sorts between Maroon 5's Adam Levine and country star Blake Shelton... and it was just this week that Blake successfully proposed to fellow judge, No Doubt's Gwen Stefani. Idol legend Kelly Clarkson and John Legend join Blake & Gwen for this season of the show, with Kane Brown, Miguel, Julia Michaels and Leon Bridges waiting in the wings to mentor their teams' various singers when the blind auditions conclude, and TRL alum Carson Daly presiding as host.
Of course, in this age of COVID things are different in a way for The Voice: while all the coaches have been used to social distancing in their chairs being located a half-foot away from each other, there is no live audience on this season, though they are represented in spirit on video screens behind the coaches. But that doesn't take anything away from where the attention should be: the singers. And on night #2 of the blind auditions over a week ago, Ryan took to the stage and reintroduced himself to everyone in case they didn't catch him on TV almost twelve months ago.
The bio on The Voice page writes on Ryan: "Ryan Gallagher wasn't into singing growing up and only joined his high school choir for an easy A. After singing a solo, word quickly spread about his talent and Ryan was asked to audition for Josh Groban's backup choir. Ryan got the gig and the rest is history. He spent the next few years in a country band and met a concert producer who invited Ryan to Los Angeles for a debut gig. Ryan played a mix of classical and crooner covers at the show and was such a big hit that he started singing full-time. He relocated to Los Angeles and spent the next 10 years performing at private events all over the world. Ryan has exclusively performed covers and hopes to develop his own artistry on "The Voice" to begin creating original music."
For the song he chose to perform in front of John, Kelly & the newlyweds, Ryan stayed true to his classical roots in picking "The Prayer," performed by Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli (and later re-released in a live version by Groban). Below is that performance, with his parents watching on via Zoom from their home in the Grand Rapids suburb of Ada Township.
Should Ryan go all the way and win at season's end, he will not be the first person with MTV ties to ascend to The Voice throne: back during The Real World Brooklyn in 2009, one of the figures Chet Cannon talked to in his hosting audition for Pete Wentz's Friends or Enemies was Cassadee Pope, who was then the front-woman of punk band Hey Monday, but during the week of the bow-tied man making it to the Battle of the Seasons Challenge final with his cast, Casssadee became the first female winner of The Voice when she won Season 3 and later became a country singer afterwards.
For now Ryan is part of Team Kelly, the first step towards what he hopes will be the road that will take him to glory by the time the holidays come around. Not surprisingly, those who shared the EOTB chalet with him lent their support to him, with AYTO Season 5's Tyranny Todd (who herself also crossed over to Bravo's update of Blind Date last year) writing in the Instagram comments, "Proud of you Ry🙌🏽🙌🏽," and both British star Callum Izzard and La Demi also showing love. And he wrote in the pic below afterwards, "Thankful for this amazing stage to perform on! 2020 has been challenging for us all, I hope my performance brought you all as much joy as it brought me! #teamkelly @nbcthevoice WOW!!! I CANNOT BELIEVE I AM ON SEASON 19 of @nbcthevoice 🔥🔥"
This is just the first of two crossovers of sorts involving the Peacock and MTV... and it doesn't take into account Johnny Bananas now entering his third season hosting 1st Look TV, which we focused on in two posts after his Total Madness triumph for his seventh Challenge crown. And if you've been keeping up with the word on the grapevine, a young man who also dazzled America on another of NBC's reality competition shows is also slated to follow a fellow Ninja's steps and cross over into MTV territory... you'll meet him when our coverage of Season 36 of The Challenge kicks off in due course.
- I AM DC @DC408Dxtr
#TheEscapeYouDeserve
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