Idol Chatter & Voice Views

During each live show of The Voice in Season 9, I’ll be live blogging.

And I’ll be grading each performance as it occurs, just as I have in past seasons.

Over the course of the show, I reserve the right to alter the grades based on the performances that follow.

Representing Team Gwen in the live playoffs will be Braiden Sunshine, Jeffery Austin, Korin Bukowski, Regina Love, Viktor Kiraly and a mystery candidate we’ll find out about later tonight.

Regina Love: At 51, she’s the oldest contestant in the live playoffs at age 51, but don’t underestimate her. That was a pretty incredible vocal she delivered during the knockout round when she sang “Midnight Train to Georgia.” Her cover was the third most popular song from that night on iTunes. Regina also did very well in the battle round when she was paired up with Jordan Smith and they performed “Like I Can.” That’s the night she was stolen by Gwen Stefani. Regina had turned two chairs with her battle round performance of “Rock Steady.”

Tonight: She’ll sing Adele’s new hit, “Hello.” Nice choice. Regina is thrilled to find out she’ll get to sing this song. She says she’s performed songs from the 1970s and 1980s, but says this is the type of music she’d sing if she made an album right now. Regina starts off well, but she seemed to lose control once she hit that big chorus. The crowd really liked it. I didn’t think it was one of her better vocals. Added to that, there might have been a few too many vocal frills once the song soared. But Pharrell calls it dramatic and moving. Grade: C.

Korin Bukowski: This young woman has certainly turned into a pleasant surprise for Team Gwen. She’d done very little as a solo performer before trying out for The Voice. Yet during the knockout round, she recorded the most popular song from night two, hitting number 75 on the iTunes Top 200 with “All I Want” by Kodaline. Her battle round duet of “Samson” with Chase Kerby also cracked the Top 100 on that chart. Not bad for singer who turned just one chair when she performed “Cecilia and the Satellite” for her blind audition.

Tonight: She’ll sing “Adia” by Sarah McLauchlin. Gwen says she wanted to pick something emotional for Korin. During rehearsals, she’s pushing her to deliver more dynamics. Gwen also calls her style team in to help Korin. There goes a big chunk of her hair. Right now, I’m wishing the singers were picking the songs tonight. Korin was brilliant the last two rounds. This isn’t working at all though. That was, simply, a struggle. That said, Korin is still one of my favorites. Grade: C–

Ellie Lawrence: A wonderful coach comeback choice by Gwen. Ellie, 26, was clearly one of the show’s most popular singers before stumbling in the knockout round when she sang “Cool for the Summer” and lost to Braiden Sunshine. The young woman from Georgia sang “We Don’t Have to Take Our Clothes Off” in the blind auditions and turned three chairs. It also turned into one of the most successful songs on iTunes, hitting number 58 on the iTunes’ Top 200. And she cracked the iTunes’ Top 200 again in the battle round, when she sang “Sweater Weather” with Tim Atlas and was declared the winner.

Tonight: A great song choice — she’ll be singing “Ex’s and Oh’s” by Elle King. Gwen is pushing her to tell the story as she performs and urging her to be more “tomboyish.” That opening was rough because you could barely hear Ellie over the backing band. Fortunately, she started working the stage and that became less of a problem. That was a little more disjointed than I had hoped. But Ellie’s rasp worked really well near the end of the song. Adam calls it her best performance yet. It was the best Team Gwen performance so far tonight. The iTunes version of that cover is excellent. And I’m guessing it will do very well. Grade: B–

Jeffery Austin: This is the guy from Chicago who took something like six years off as a performer after high school while he worked a public relations job in Manhattan. You’d never know it from his knockout round performance of Adele’s “Turning Tables.” It wound up being the most popular song on iTunes from the third night of the knockouts. Prior to that, Jeffery, 24, defeated Noah Jackson when they sang “Can’t Feel My Face” in the battle round and earned a spot on Team Gwen with a blind audition performance of Sam Smith’s “Lay Me Down.”

Tonight: He’ll perform Jessie Ware’s “Say You Love me.” Gwen is encouraging Jeffery to make sure he connects with the lyrics. She’s encouraging him to wear a black suit for the performance. You know what, Jeffery delivers on the connection. He’s also making leaps and bounds as a performer. And that was a really nice vocal. There was a little too much embellishment at one point for my taste, but that was a solid performance. Adam calls it a great performance and says he thinks Jeffery could win the show. Grade: B+

Braiden Sunshine: The youngest singer in the competition scored back-to-back mild upsets to get to this point. He defeated Lyndsey Elm when they sang “No One is to Blame” in the battle round; then topped Ellie Lawrence with a performance of “Looking Good” in the knockout round. That song hit number 63 on the iTunes Top 200 for 15-year-old Braiden. Both Lyndsey and Ellie had turned more chairs than Braiden’s two in the battle round, when he sang “The Mountains Win Again.”

Tonight: He’ll perform Bread’s “Everything I Own.” We find out that Braiden got to perform with the band that originally performed his blind audition song. Braiden says he likes singing classic songs; Gwen has served up another. She’s also stripped him of his glasses and his curls. Braiden starts off well. But his voice is not up to pulling off this chorus. And Braiden’s attempt to go big on the end of the song doesn’t quite come off. Decent performance, but not one of Braiden’s best. Grade: C

Viktor Kiraly: Viktor, 31, a pop star back in Hungary, is the polished performer on Team Gwen. But he’s still working on building that fan base in the U.S. judging from his iTunes results so far. Back in the blind auditions, he turned all four chairs singing “What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye. He defeated Cassandra Robertson in a close battle round match, but lost to Jordan Smith in the knockout round. But Viktor’s version of “If I Ain’t Got You” was good enough to hit number 94 on iTunes and earn a steal from Gwen.

Tonight: He’ll sing “All Around the World.” But Gwen wants to change the arrangement to make it more up to date. And she wants Viktor to show off his soulful flair with this performance. I’m not a big fan of this song choice or this arrangement either. Viktor gets high marks for his showmanship and range. There were a few too many frills for my taste, but that’s what happens when you give a singer 90 seconds to make an impression. Grade: B–

Who should advance? Based on tonight’s performances, the trio who should advance are Jeffery Austin, who delivered the night’s best vocal on Team Gwen; Ellie Lawrence, for her spirited comeback performance; and Viktor Kiraly. I didn’t like the song choice for Viktor, but he certainly showed off lots of stage presence and vocal frills. All that said, I wouldn’t be at all disappointed if Korin Bukowski slipped into the Top 12. She was done in tonight by an ill-fitting song choice.