I really should have ranked him last... his saving grace was his duet with Teresa during the Battle Rounds. Congo was such a fun song, but it was really Teresa's performance more then his that made it so good.
Anyway, moving onto Julio, my main problem with him is that he was Blake's golden boy for NO reason. He SOMEHOW made it past Teresa in the battle rounds and MarissaAnn in the Knockouts even though he gave subpar performances in both and was completely outshined by his opponents. Not only that, but I think Blake was going to send him through those rounds no matter what Julio's performances were like, because for some reason Blake had a hard-on for Julio. He gave Julio a HUGE advantage in the Battle Rounds by giving him a fast-paced latin song, and even though Julio STILL got outperformed by Teresa, Blake gave him the win. And then Blake paired Julio with MarissaAnn, a girl who he had just recently stole from Team Christina.
(Going off on a side note, the steal system this season got completely abused. The only coach who really gave his Steals a chance was Adam, all the other's paired their favorites with the steals in the knockout rounds in order to advance their favorites to the playoffs.)
Anyway, back to Julio, Blake paired him with MarissaAnn basically to give Julio a free round. In fact, Blake's reasons for eliminating MarissaAnn were precisly, "I've just invested more time in Julio." Um, EXCUSE me? It doesn't matter that MarissaAnn kicked ass, it doesn't matter that Julio was a one-trick pony, what matters is that you "invested more time in Julio". MarissaAnn was CLEARLY the better performer, but Blake kept Julio simply because he knew Julio better. Um, that completely defeats the point of the Steal System in the first place! The point is to give good singers a second chance, not eliminate them because you didn't have a lot of time to get to know them. How is that their fault?
Ugh, just thinking about it gets me angry. Anyways, Julio was a decent singer, but a subpar performer. He had an annoying habit of closing his eyes when he sang and didn't really move around much. (Congo was the PERFECT song for dancing, but he didn't move his upper body at all).
The reason Julio isn't dead last is because he was the first person to audition with a song completely in spanish. It set him apart and was a unique choice. He had a specific demographic and there were a certain group of people who could really relate to him. I appreciate that in a contestant, so it saved him from the dead last spot. But still, even his originality can't save him from the fact that he really didn't even deserve to make it past the Battle Rounds.
Best Performance: El Rey
I prefer the Congo performance, (I just love that song so much OMG), but it was mainly because of Teresa. In terms of Julio's personal performance, he seemed most comfortable during this song.
Worst Performance: Somebody to love
One of the worst performances of the entire SEASON. MarissaAnn totally should have won... UGH.
