'Rising Star' ABC Recap and Review: April Lockhart, Macy Kate & Austin French Move on From Duels Round Two

ABC's new reality show Rising Star is now in its fifth week, and even though the wall-raising, Kesha/Ludacris/Brad Paisley featuring live broadcast has markedly improved with each new episode, it still has yet to feature any real, mind-blowing talent. The lack of strong, standout singers has never been more clear than in tonight's (July 20) round two of duels.

Continuing to take a page from The Voice, Rising Star's duels pit two singers against each other. One has to sing to the audience, to the best of their ability. And because ABC invested a lot of money in its massive, multi-tons wall, singer number two has to beat the previous percentage in order to move on to whatever round three has in store.

Last week saw some strong performances from the likes of Jesse Kinch and Megan Tibbits, this week's rounds fell a bit more flat.

Powerhouse diva Gabrielle Nicole started things off with a frisky performance of "River Deep Mountain High." Though she blew all the competition out of the water upon her Rising Star debut on July 6, this week a few factors through her off her game. First, her choice of the Ike and Tina Turner classic didn't properly show off her insane range and vocals. And though Nicole is clearly a seasoned performer, exuding more energy than anyone else this week there's something about her that turns the voting public off: her personality.

You see, after her audition two weeks ago, Nicole was asked who would be her biggest competition in the duels, and she said people needed to be scared of her. If you're trying to win over the American public, being a cocky diva isn't the way to do it.

So, she got 49 percent of the vote and got beat out of the competition by the far inferior singer yet more relatable Instagram singer Macy Kate, who gave a throaty, slightly pitchy performance of Imagine Dragons' "Demons." But her bubbly personality and relatable spirit helped her though with an astonishing 80 percent of the vote.

Duel round two went to former cult member Sonnet Simmons versus one-handed quirky girl April Lockhart.

Simmons started things off the oft-covered standard "Feeling Good." Though her high range was a little bit thin, Simmons was able to show off her range. But the haunting, winding jazz song needs a bit of sauce and sass and attitude, which Simmons had very little of. Despite her lack of enthusiasm, she walked away with 73 percent, a solid showing.

Or so it seemed until April Lockhart walked on stage. Channeling Bjork with her houndstooth shirt and little Minnie Mouse buns, Lockhart took her soulful, jazzy vocals and put them to Neon Trees' "Animal." If that sounds a little awkward to you, that's because it was. One, Lockhart does not have the range to pull off the song's high notes. But more importantly, the song just didn't with her vibes. Somehow the whole wrongness of the situation didn't matter to voters and she passed Simmons, getting 76 percent of the vote.

The final duel, Austin French versus Adam Jaymes was the most basic of the night. Two sort of alt-rocky dudes just being generic alt-rocky dudes. French went first, taking on white dude anthem "I Don't Want To Be" by Gavin DeGraw. He was a bit nasally for my taste, very much saying "MAY" instead of "me" and starting things off with a really gruesome first note.

Luckily for French, he's kind of a cutie and his un-tucked dress shirt/loose tie combo helped him with the lady folk and he got 81 percent of the vote.

The final performer of the night was Jaymes, who is very similar to French in most ways and took on the similarly white bread track "Free Fallin'," originally by Tom Petty. His arrangement really lacked any sort of originality or passion and he was so blah and generic that it's hard to recall anything real about this performance. And America forgot to vote, since he walked away with 53 percent.

So, five weeks into Rising Star and two weeks into the duels... how are things going? Still, really just okay. It seems like Kesha's cat cult, Josh Groban's general adorkableness and the glitz and glamor of live voting on your iPhone still outshines any contestant.

Really, Kinch the funky, wide-mouthed old soul rocker is the only singer I can even remember from week-to-week. The rest of these people are just total middle-of-the-road singers, struggling to connect with an audience beyond the 90-second voting period.

[Photo From: Twitter @RisingStarABC]

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Rising star, Kesha, Brad Paisley, Ludacris, Josh Groban