Meleana Brown was a late replacement for Johnny Gray on the first season of Duets. Her celebrity partner is John Legend. There were three weeks of Top 8 performances, and Meleana came in during the 2nd week. The show then strangely decided to count only the scores in the third week to determine the elimination sing-off.
Regardless, she has done enough to make the Top 7 by tying for first place in her first performance and dropping a bit to 5th last week.
Based on what I have seen so far, it appears that Meleana’s main strong point is her vocal tone. She probably has the prettiest female voice in the contest. However, I am wondering if she is going to end up sounding the same every week. She seems to be sort of like that Hollie Cavanagh, who was just on American Idol 11. She can hit some beautiful notes but doesn’t sell or interpret the song so well unless she is hitting those notes. There is nothing wrong with Meleana’s singing. In fact, she is probably the third favorite at this point (behind J Rome and John Glosson). But unless she does more to tell the story of a song from start to finish, she is probably not going to win.
John and Meleana are singing Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone.” Meleana says she is not used to rocking out. Well, she did need more power in spots. But she hit some great high notes and interpreted the song pretty well. Overall, I am putting her first on the week with only John Glosson left to go.
The judges’ scores were horrid. They put her 5th out of the first 6, and John will almost certainly be safe. So Meleana and Olivia will be in the Top 7 sing-off.