Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The Voice has shortened the finals this spring so Season 6 can wrap up before Memorial Day.

Hence last week’s triple elimination.

Hence this week’s performance-results combo which will presumably cut the field down to a final three.

The Top 5 on The Voice, Jake Worthington, Josh Kaufman, Kat Perkins, Kristen Merlin and Christina Grimmie. (NBC Photo)

Last week, the show bid farewell to three singers who had turned four chairs during the blind auditions in vocal powerhouse Sisaundra Lewis, returning singer Delvin Choice and Philadelphia gal Audra McLaughlin.

That leaves us with five talented vocalists.

Here’s how I’m ranking them heading into Monday’s show. Last week’s rankings are in parenthesis.

1. Christina Grimmie (1, Team Adam): You don’t get 2 million followers by posting covers on YouTube if you aren’t an incredibly talented singer. And Christina has shown us just how talented she is in the past two weeks with her unique take on a pair of tunes originally recorded by rappers. I doubt she’ll do that three times in a row. I have no doubt she will be singing in next week’s finals since she’s the best singer still standing.

2. Josh Kaufman (5, Team Usher): The guy from Indianapolis has emerged as Christina’s top challenger for the Season 6 crown in spite of lackluster song choices by Usher. “This is It by Kenny Loggins? The oft-done “I Can’t Make You Love Me” by Bonnie Raitt? Regardless, the latter was the best-selling single from Top 8 week and earned Josh bonus points for the second time, matching Christina. No one else in the Top 5 has cracked the iTunes Top 10.

3. Jake Worthington (2, Team Blake): Hey, Jake went up-tempo last week, singing “Hillbilly Deluxe.” Now, I’m not sure he proved he has a “bad-ass” side, which was Blake’s apparent goal, but the crowd loved it and Jake looked more comfortable on stage than the week before when he was performing a ballad. The combination of Jake’s country charm and Blake’s popularity will likely be enough to get the Texas lad into the finals.

4. Kristen Merlin (3, Team Shakira): She has been the surprise of Season 6. Hey, she turned just two chairs during the blind auditions, and here she is a week away from the finals, cracking the Top 10 on iTunes country chart on a weekly basis. Truth be told, she’s a better, more emotional country balladeer than Jake. I just think the country voters are more likely to go for the cowboy hat and Jake’s aw-shucks persona.

5. Kat Perkins (7, Team Adam): How talented and popular are the contestants on The Voice? Just ask Kat. She has topped the iTunes rock chart for three straight weeks, and she still needed two instant saves to advance this far. That means the odds get even longer this week on a show where a female rocker hasn’t made the finals since Season 2 when Juliet Simms finished second.