The Voice

Song by song grades for the Top 11 on The Voice

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The Top 11 on The Voice include (from left) Shane Q, Joana Martinez, Myracle Holloway, Rose Short, Will Breman, Marybeth Byrd, Jake Hoot, Hello Sunday, Katie Kadan, Kat Hammock, Ricky Duran. (NBC Photo)

The Top 11 on The Voice include (from left) Shane Q, Joana Martinez, Myracle Holloway, Rose Short, Will Breman, Marybeth Byrd, Jake Hoot, Hello Sunday, Katie Kadan, Kat Hammock, Ricky Duran. (NBC Photo)

 

Editor’s Note: Grades will be coming after tonight’s show.

It’s fan night on The Voice.

That means each member of the Top 11 will be singing a song suggested by a fan.

It’s also a single-elimination week. Tomorrow night, the show drops down to a Top 10.

That means nine singers will automatically advance based on fan voting; the bottom two will sing for tomorrow’s instant save.

This week’s songs are again available on Apple Music, and a bonus goes to the singer who has the most streams during the overnight voting window.

Jake Hoot earned those bonus points last week, and they could prove crucial. That’s because they carry over to the cumulative voting for the Season 11 champ.

Here are tonight’s song by song grades. The links take you to the song on Apple Music.

Katie Kadan (Team Legend), Without You by Badfinger — That voice of hers can go so big, Katie has to be careful to make sure the power of her vocal doesn’t mask the emotion of her performance. Tonight, she struck a very pretty nice balance, though I could have done with a couple fewer glory notes. Grade: A-

Kat Hammock (Team Blake), I’ll Fly Away by Alison Krauss — It might not have lived up to Blake’s over-the-top critique, but Kat delivered a very pleasant performance, though I couldn’t tell whether she was straying off key or just showcasing her unique sound in a couple of spots. And you can count on Kat for an unexpected song choice. Grade: B

Shane Q (Team Kelly), Mercy by Shawn Mendes — This was marginally better than Shane’s performance last week, but not necessarily a cover of “Mercy” that I want to hear again. Shane still sounds nervous as hell when he performs, but give him credit for maintaining eye contact with fans even when he was going to the big notes. Grade: C–

Joana Martinez (Team Gwen), Dreaming of You by Selena — So, let’s take a charismatic teen with a big voice and give her a song to sing that was released before she was born and doesn’t give her much of a chance to showcase that big voice. Sounds like a great plan, right? Nope. Not by a long shot. Grade: C–

Will Breman (Team Legend), Light My Fire by The Doors — Will gets kudos for the most original performance tonight. He started off strong, strumming his guitar. And just when the performance was starting to get a bit sleepy, he threw in some scatting, then raised the energy level of his vocal and started working the stage. Grade: B–

Rose Short (Team Gwen), Maybe I’m Amazed by Paul McCartney — This was my favorite vocal of the night, which is saying something because this song is done way too often on singing shows. But Rose has a really pleasant singing voice and used the growl in her vocals to great effect. She’s a heck of a show woman, but did just fine letting her vocals take center stage Monday night. Grade: A

Hello Sunday (Team Kelly), The Middle by Zedd, Maren Morris & Grey — “How did we get into this mess?” Hello Sunday sang. Well, let’s start with an arrangement that would have kept this song from being a hit. Let’s add way too much shouting and a touch of off-key singing. That about does it. Hello Sunday has improved greatly; it just didn’t show with this performance. Grade: D

Myracle Holloway (Team Gwen), Everybody Hurts by REM — In two weeks, this is the first Team Gwen song choice I’ve liked. It was very well suited to that ache in Myracle’s voice, and I loved her ending. I was anticipating a wee bit more emotion. Grade: B

Marybeth Byrd (Team Legend), Stars by Grace Potter & the Nocturnals — It was going to be tough for Marybeth to match last week’s emotional performance, but this was perhaps the shakiest vocal we’ve heard from her yet. She sounded lovely on the verses; the chorus seemed a little sharp, making me wonder whether the song was a good match for her voice. Grade: B–

Jake Hoot (Team Kelly), Every Light in the House by Trace Adkins — Another solid performance for Jake, who’s likely finals bound as the only country singer in the competition and the guy who won week one’s streaming bonus. There were a couple of spots in the ballad where he reminded up how much power he has in those vocals and he deliver a nice glory note near the end. Grade: B

Ricky Duran (Team Blake), Downtown Train by Tom Waits — Liked the song choice and Ricky delivered a solid, up-tempo show-closing performance. And he reminded us of his range right there at the end. That should certainly ensure he gets a spot in the Top 10 tomorrow night, though I’m not sure that was ever in doubt. Grade: B+

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