Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Members of Team Dan + Shay — Tae Lewis, Olivia Rubini, Anya True, Madison Curbelo and Karen Waldrup — await results on The Voice. (NBC Photo)

The Voice playoffs began Monday night with performances by Team Legend and Team Dan + Shay.

And after everyone performed, Dan + Shay had to choose three singers from his team to advance.

Those spots went to Madison Curbelo, Karen Waldrup and Tae Lewis.

Madison and Karen have been two of the consistenty outstanding performers on the show. Dan + Shay had just stolen Tae in the knockout round.

That meant the elimination of Anya True and Olivia Rubini.

Here are song by song grades for team Dan + Shay.

Karen Waldrup, 36, of Mandeville, La., “Heart Like a Truck” by Lainey Wilson: Karen’s got such a classic country voice. And she starts off the night with a must-advance performance for Dan + Shay. She did a great job of building the dynamics of a song that tells the story of her own career as a 12-year veterans of Nashville. Her voice resonated in those last 30 seconds or so. John said he thought he was listening to a country star. Reba called it spectacular. Dan called it her favorite performance from Karen. Grade: A–

Anya True, 17, of Encinitas, Calif., “All Too Well” by Taylor Swift: Anya’s got a distinctive tone and it’s working really well on the opening of this song. But she had a little trouble capitalizing on the momentum of that great opening. Her voice betrayed her a bit when the song went big and she still performed with her eyes closed during key moments. Chance called it a “cool performance.” John found the performance compelling. Dan called it his favorite Anya performance. Grade: C+

Olivia Rubini, 24, of Wilmington, Del., “I’ll Stand By You” by The Pretenders: Really nice opening. Trying to figure out what the hell The Voice cameras are doing, zooming out when they should be zooming in. Come on, guys, Olivia’s delivering emotion. Let us see it. Olivia turns in a solid, impassioned performance. Her voice broke two or three times. Not sure if that was intentional or not. For this show, she gets very mixed feedback. Chance wanted more dynamics. John thought it might have been the wrong song for the occasion. Dan called her awesome. Grade: B

Tae Lewis, 31, of Goldsboro, N.C., “Runnin’ Outta Moonlight” by Randy Houser: Tae says he opnes his own shows with this songs. He shows off his perfomance skills in a fun upbeat performance. For all the moving he’s doing, Tae is also delivering a very good vocal. He nailed a heck of a glory note midway through the song. He’s Dan + Shay’s knockout round steal, but just made a pretty convincing argument that he belongs in the lives. Chance calls it his most soulful performance. Reba said he belongs in the lives. Grade: B+

Madison Curbelo, 21, of Westfield, Mass., “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac: Madison sounds nothing like Stevie Nicks, but she’s making this work. She’s another singer we haven’t heard from in a while because of the playoff pass. Solid performance, with a nice little vocal wrinkle near the end. Reba says she loves Madison’s voice. Chance wants a copy of that performance so he can listen to it again. Shay says Madison’s voice gives him the chills. Grade: B+