The Bachelor Presents: Listen To Your Heart Finale begins in Nashville with the last three couples (Bri and Chris, Matt and Rudi, and Jamie and Trevor). There were quick recaps of all the couple’s time together up to that point. The couples will each have a dates and the opportunity to have a fantasy suite together, then they will have to sing two songs in front of a live audience before the winners are selected.
A chunk of Listen To Your Heart Finale is watching the couple’s practice their songs and talk to each other, as well as the confessionals, about their plans with each other after the show. This led to some drama being reignited with Matt and Rudi. They’ve had a rocky relationship through this whole journey, so I’m not surprised that there’s still drama between them.
Matt told Rudi that he doesn’t feel like their relationship is at the same level as the other couples, and he admitted that he doesn’t think he can get to the point this far along in the competition. Rudi was obviously upset by that, so she was crying. Because we can’t have an episode of a Bachelor show without someone crying. Then there was an amount of time, that felt like a lifetime, of the cameras panning over closed doors and the sound of Rudi sobbing. They told the other couples that they were leaving, and Jamie freaked out when she heard the news. They then told Bri and Chris that they weren’t at the same place that they were, and I can’t help but imagine that would feel like a lot of pressure for Bri and Chris. Rudi and Matt left before they had the opportunity to spend the night in their fancy Nashville hotel.
Then, as if that didn’t just happen, the show jumped right into a date between Jamie and Trevor. During the date they talked about how much they admired each other, and how happy they were together. Overall it was a pretty generic and boring date. They got their fantasy suite card with a key, and he grabbed her thigh as if he’d been dreaming of that moment since their first date. Then there was the generic scene of them rolling all over each other in the bed and making out, as per the Bachelor fantasy suite norm.
The show then jumped to Bri and Chris’s date. They were sitting in front of some beautiful, uneaten steak, and got the envelope for the Fantasy Suite. Bri told Chris that she wanted to get to know him on a personal level before getting to know him any deeper than that, and Chris agreed with her. So, they did not go to the fantasy suite. They said they’re at such a good place that they didn’t want anything to compromise that. Bri felt pretty strongly that it was the right choice.
The next day Bri and Chris went to rehearsal and practiced their first song “Make You Feel My Love” by Adele. They kept getting critiqued by the music producer, and I think that put Bri in a foul mood, because she seemed to have a hard time getting in sync with Chris, which was very different than the other times we watched her performing with him on stage. I think maybe the finality of it might have gotten in her head a little bit.
We finally make it to the performances on the Listen To Your Heart Finale. The entire Nashville audience was just packed to the brim with enthusiastic moms. The judges for the finale were: Taye Diggs, Kaitlyn Bristowe & Jason Tartick, Jewel, and Rita Wilson.
Jamie and Trevor were on stage first. They sung beautifully, but I couldn’t help but notice how much the guitar player was overpowering their singing in the beginning. It was honestly pretty funny. I thought their performances were fine. I wasn’t blown away by either’s singing, but they did all of the things they should do in a couple performance. They stared at each other, almost to the point where they rarely looked at the audience. They winked at each other, held each other, and touched each other’s faces. The judges really enjoyed the couple’s performance, but mentioned that it seemed like they were performing just for each other and not at all for the audience.
Bri and Chris did amazingly. They just have amazing chemistry on stage. They were a little stiff, probably from nerves, but also because their first song was pretty slow. Their second song was a bit faster and they seemed to get into a better groove, but Bri was still a bit stiff. I’m sure she was in her head too much. They did a better job at engaging the audience, which was a benefit of going second and hearing all of the judges’ comments from the first performance. The judges seemed to love Bri and Chris and the most negative thing said about them was about how there was a hint of nerves showed by them.
The judges got to make the final decision about who won the competition, which was an interesting choice on the producer’s part. The winner would be working with a recording producer to record original songs and head out on tour together.
The winning couple was Chris and Bri.
I’m not surprised, and almost a little bored, by the winner because it was so apparent from early on that the two of them were going to win. They never doubted each other, they had great stage chemistry, and they were very cute together.
At the end of the show, there was a clip showing Chris and Bri a few weeks later – It was them in a recording studio recording original music and being super fucking cute together. It was a very sweet way to end the show.
Overall Listen to Your Heart Season 1 Thoughts:
I think if you’re a music lover, as well as a reality TV show lover, this would definitely be the show for you. That being said, I am a huge fan of the Bachelor series – including The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, and Bachelor in Paradise, and I was not really a fan of this show. There were some points I found really interesting. The dramatic bits in particular were the most flavorful to me. All of the dates felt very repetitive though because they were all music dates (obviously). On the Bachelor, the dates range so drastically that it keeps the show refreshing. Usually there are dates where the couple goes to an amusement park, or goes sky diving, or horseback riding, or mud wrestling. The range of dates is SO wide, that every episode is refreshing to watch. The dates on this show got boring to watch because it was always roughly the same formula for each date – write a song, then perform it. If you’re a music lover, you may find this to be very fun and interesting to watch, but after a few episodes I was pretty done with it.
My favorite parts of the show were the dramatic bits. Throughout the season, when people changed or tried to change partners, it always caused a ton of interesting drama, which very much felt like Bachelor in Paradise. But as the season neared the end, the drama got fairly basic and uninteresting to watch. The ending was nicer than the Bachelor or Bachelorette because the losing couple still left happy because they had each other.
Overall, I would only recommend Listen to Your Heart if you’re a fan of competitive music shows as well as reality TV shows. I’d give the next season another shot to see what they do differently, but I won’t be heartbroken if they decide to cancel this series.
