By Karen Moul
The Voice’s second night of blind auditions brought another group of impressive performers and winning personalities, none more engaging than Nelson “Nelly’s Echo” Emokpae. A native of Nigeria, Nelly was the highlight of the evening, impressing the judges with his rendition of Bill Withers’ "Ain't No Sunshine" and with his personal story.
Sixteen years ago, when Nelly was just 15, his family fled political persecution in Nigeria but were forced to leave his imprisoned father behind. They settled in Baltimore, where thankfully the father eventually joined them. Although it was in Baltimore that Nelly developed his musical talent, his African roots have been a great influence.
“I’m a product of different cultures and geographies,” he explained, “so it allows me to sound like everything you’ve heard but nothing [you’ve heard]. And also coming from where I came from in Nigeria, it allows me to draw from that and gives me strength to go through the tough times you go through as a musician in this business.”
While fans compare Nelly’s Echo to Seal or Sting, he credits a number of Nigerian influences including the legendary Fela as well as newer artists such as P-Square and 2Face.
The Voice’s second night of blind auditions brought another group of impressive performers and winning personalities, none more engaging than Nelson “Nelly’s Echo” Emokpae. A native of Nigeria, Nelly was the highlight of the evening, impressing the judges with his rendition of Bill Withers’ "Ain't No Sunshine" and with his personal story. Sixteen years ago, when Nelly was just 15, his family fled political persecution in Nigeria but were forced to leave his imprisoned father behind. They settled in Baltimore, where thankfully the father eventually joined them. Although it was in Baltimore that Nelly developed his musical talent, his African roots have been a great influence.
“I’m a product of different cultures and geographies,” he explained, “so it allows me to sound like everything you’ve heard but nothing [you’ve heard]. And also coming from where I came from in Nigeria, it allows me to draw from that and gives me strength to go through the tough times you go through as a musician in this business.”
While fans compare Nelly’s Echo to Seal or Sting, he credits a number of Nigerian influences including the legendary Fela as well as newer artists such as P-Square and 2Face.
I’ve long said that the only way this season could make sense is if Annie’s experiences and choices were being driven by superiors for a larger purpose. My suspicion was that it had more to do with Arthur and Lena working together to investigate Jai’s death, putting Annie into something of a double-blind deep cover role. This episode makes it clear that it’s not quite that complicated, which helps maintain the integrity of some characters, while undermining others.
This episode sure did take me by surprise. I knew that it would involve boxing, in some way, which left me a bit worried. The whole "fight club" trope is one that has suffered from heavy overuse in episodic television. So the title, "Gloves Off", seemed appropriate enough. But the title has a secondary meaning associated with the overall direction of the storytelling. "White Collar" takes the gloves off, and the results aren't pretty.
Fringe Episodic Photos - 09/28/12
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Bones returns to Fox for season eight starting September 17th with all new episodes. The premiere episode, "The Future in the Past," picks up three months after it left off - Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel) is still on the run, a murder suspect staying out of sight. After the real murderer, Christopher Pelant (Andrew Leeds), digitally created evidence of her guilt, there seemed to be no way out. Meanwhile Special Agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) and the rest of the team must do everything in their power to find the proof of his misdeeds to clear her name.