Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Lana Scott performs on Monday’s Top 10 episode of The Voice. (NBC Photo)

The Top 10 performed Monday night on The Voice, with spots in the Season 21 semifinals on the line.

Eight singers will advance to those semifinals, with the top seven vote-getters after tonight’s show automatically advancing.

Tuesday night, the bottom three finishers in the fan voting will compete for an instant save and the final spot in those semifinals.

Monday was genre-challenge night on The Voice, meaning singers were supposed to sing songs from outside their own genre.

Here are Monday’s song by song grades.

Holly Forbes (Team Ariana), “Last Dance” by Donna Summer: I loved Holly’s opening on this. She’s never sounded better. But then the music swelled, the dancing started and the performance became more forgettable. Which is unfortunate, because it was also the first performance of the night. Grade: B–

Wendy Moten (Team Blake), “Jolene” by Dolly Parton: A perfectly fine performance of the Dolly classic, which is what I’d expect from a women who released an album of country covers last year, has appeared on the Grand Ole Opry stage and was supposed to be doing a genre challenge song Monday night. Grade: B

Jeremy Rosado (Team Kelly), “Freedom Was A Highway” by Jimmie Allen & Brad Paisley: I’m not sure country was the best direction for Jeremy to take with the genre challenge. Jeremy delivered another heartfelt performance. He showed off his range and his ability to hit big notes. But I don’t see that performance scoring big with the show’s country fans. Grade: B–

Jershika Maple (Team Legend), “Ain’t It Fun” by Paramore: Hey, it was fun. Because watching Jershika command the stage has always been fun on The Voice and she did it again tonight. But she’s known for emotional, impassioned vocals, and that was missing from this genre-challenge song choice. Which made it seem less special than some of Jershika’s previous performances. Grade: B

Lana Scott (Team Blake), “The One That Got Away” by Katy Perry: I was about to give up on Lana after last week’s performance of “I Hope.” Then she delivers this wonderful vocal, showing off that tremendous lilt in her voice. This was easily one of my favorite performances of the night, more distinctive and more impassioned than her more highly-touted female teammate. Grade: A–

Joshua Vacanti (Team Legend), “If I Ain’t Got You” by Alicia Keys: For my taste, this was too theatrical, too frill-filled and lacking the soul that makes it a great song. In other words, a misfire, though Joshua nevertheless showed off some impressive vocal chops. Grade: C+

Jim and Sasha Allen (Team Ariana), “Stay” by Rihanna: One week shy of being on the verge of elimination, the father-son team delivered by far their best performance since the live shows began. Singing a Rihanna hit? Who would have thought? Jim started it off with a great opening and Sasha did his part as the song progressed. Based on season-long performances, I still think they should have to sing for Tuesday’s instant save to “stay.” But if they perform like that again, they just might. Grade: B

Paris Winningham (Team Blake), “Amazed” by Lonestar: This song has been overdone on singing shows, so I sorta cringed when I saw it was Paris’s choice for Monday night. But, damn, he made it work. I can’t remember the song being done better on The Voice or Idol. And, just like the song says, his performance “just keeps getting better” as he heads toward the song’s ending. Grade: A–

Hailey Mia (Team Kelly), “Peter Pan” by Kelsea Ballerini: Hailey set an incredibly high bar for herself with last week’s show-closing performance of “Elastic Heart” and couldn’t quite clear it tonight. There were some minor pitch problems, but she did deliver a couple of great glory notes near the end and sounded best when the background music faded to a whisper. Grade: B–

Girl Named Tom (Team Kelly), “Viva La Vida” by Coldplay: This was my least favorite Girl Named Tom performance since the lives began. The harmonies were fine. The solo vocals didn’t seem as on-point as they have been, and they fell shy of creating the show-closing moment they were shooting for. None of that changes my opinion that they’re the best group The Voice has seen in 21 seasons. Grade: B+