Idol Chatter & Voice Views

We’ll hear performances from the eight semifinalists tonight on The Voice.

And we don’t even know the names of all of those semifinalists yet.

Frenchie Davis and Beverly McClellan have nailed down spots from Team Christina. Dia Frampton and Xenia have done likewise from Team Blake.

From Team Cee Lo? Javier Colon is a sure bet. He’s probably the best male singer in the competition. The other spot should go to Nakia or Curtis Grimes?

From Team Adam? Vicci Martinez seems like another sure thing after shining on “Jolene.” I’ll be rooting for Casey Weston for the second spot. But since that would leave the semifinals awfully female heavy, my bet is that the second spot will go to country singer Jeff Jenkins.

And, as I suspected, we’re getting right down to the results from Team Cee Lo and Team Adam.

First up, Team Cee Lo: Hooray, Vicci Martinez gets the most votes. Wise choice, Voice voters.

And Nakia is Cee Lo Green’s pick to advance. Another very good selection.

Next up, Team Adam: The Voice voters are nailing this. They pick Javier Colon.

Another hooray. Adam Levine picks Casey Weston to advance. Fell in love with the tone of this gal’s voice when she sang “Leather and Lace” a couple weeks ago.

That leaves The Voice with six gals and two guys in the semifinals. And quite an interesting mix.

Sounds like only four contestants will advance from these semifinals. The judges will score the contestants.

Frenchie Davis, Team Christina: She’ll sing Madonna’s “Like a Prayer.” And Christina tells us it will be a “churchy” version of the song. Given that lead-in, this isn’t as a churchy as I expected. Well, except perhaps by that final note. OK, well Frenchie showed us that there’s a good deal of talent in these semifinals. She wasn’t even voted through. There were a couple of shaky moments. But for the most part, she did a fine job. Grade: B.

OK, so more on how this will all work. Voting this week ends at 10 a.m. EST tomorrow. Apparently, there’s going to be a special results show tomorrow night. Whether contestants advance will be based half on fan voting and half on judges’ scores, which will be revealed at the end of tonight’s show.

Nakia, Team Cee Lo: My, my. Nakia is going to sing “Whataya Want from Me,” the Adam Lambert song. This is going to be tough. Adam Lambert is such a great singer with such amazing range. Stage fright sure isn’t a problem for Nakia, is it? You’ve gotta love his showmanship. Vocally, that didn’t match Adam Lambert. But it was pretty darn good. I enjoyed the performance more than Frenchie’s. Grade: B+.

Dia Frampton, Team Blake: She’ll sing “Losing My Religion.” There’s nothing shy about this performance from the formerly shy girl on Team Blake Shelton. I wasn’t a big fan of her quite popular version of “Heartless.” I enjoyed that performance much, much more. Very nice performance from an aspiring singer-songwriter. And a very distinctive sound. Grade: B+

Casey Weston, Team Adam: Casey will sing “I Will Always Love You.” And he’s got good advice for her: Don’t sing it like, Whitney Houston. Make it her own. Dang. Casey has that chorus down pat. Sounds simply marvelous on it. Unfortunately, she didn’t sound nearly as good singing the verses. And that’s going to come off just a wee bit boring after the performances we’ve seen so far. Grade: B-

Beverly McClellan, Team Christina: Beverly will sing “The Thrill is Gone,” showing her softer side, according to Christina. Heck, she had me with the first line. This is her softer side? She has a knack for picking the perfect song to showcase her voice. And that’s some voice. That might have been the best performance we’ve seen yet tonight. Grade: A.

Javier Colon, Team Adam: Javier is singing “Fix You” by Coldplay. I’ve said before he’s the best male vocalist on the competition, and nothing about that performance changes my mind. Very nice vocal. And nice control, which I thought was a problem for Javier during the semifinals. Again, The Voice has found some awfully good voices. Grade: B+

OK, THAT IS VERY DISTRESSING. I lost my satellite signal for no good reason and missed the last two performances on The Voice. Plus whatever the judges had to say about the performances.

Oh, well, I’ll have to catch up in the a.m. The Voice will likely pull through and post all of the performances online.

UPDATE: I have Dish Network at home, and apparently the loss of satellite signal wasn’t a problem limited to southcentral Pa. There’s a comment on The Voice website from an Xenia fan in Georgia who lost her satellite signal at the same time. Now I’m wondering how widespread the problem was and whether it will affect voting for the final two contestants.

Xenia, Team Blake: The only teen contestant left performed “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved.” You know what, Xenia did pretty darn well on that song. I figured putting her in the finals was a mistake considering her performances to date, but she has a very nice tone to her voice. Her problem is that her performance will come off as sleepy when stacked alongside some of the others we’ve seen tonight. And it didn’t feature that glory moment that, for example, Casey Weston had on the chorus of her song. Grade: C+

Vicci Martinez, Team Cee Lo:  Wow, the members of Team Cee Lo certainly aren’t bashful stage performers, are they? First Nakia, now Vicci. With her hair scooped into a sort of mohawk. Beating on drums through the early portion of “Dogs Days Are Over.” Blake Shelton called it the best performance of the night. Personally, I preferred Beverly’s. But I imagine that had more to do with the song than anything Vicci did wrong. And what a showmanship. I’ll rate her performance as the second best of the night. Grade: A-