Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The Voice Season 17 Top 4 includes Jake Hoot, Ricky Duran, Rose Short and Katie Kadan (NBC Photo)

But remember, streaming the songs before 8 p.m. will not count as votes.

Having seen tonight’s playlist, I’m more confident than ever that Jake Hoot will be the Season 17 champ.

His new cover — Lonestar’s “Amazed” — is among the best song choices of the night and a chance for him to deliver a statement performance.

Meanwhile, Katie Kadan’s cover song seems laughably ill-advised and I can’t see Ricky Duran or Rose Short turning their cover choices into a game-changer.

Oh, and we’ll get holiday songs for the coach-artist duets. Once again, I wholeheartedly disagree with The Voice’s approach.

Tonight is the performance finale, a chance for each artist to show why he or she is deserving of The Voice crown.

Hearing Ricky and Blake Shelton cover “Run Rudolph Run” is not going to help one bit in helping me determine where Ricky belongs among the final four.

If The Voice wanted to serve up coach-artist holiday duets, they would be perfect for tomorrow night’s finale, which instead is chock full of performers with no connection to the show. UGH!

On the other hand, I’m eager to hear Jake and Kelly Clarkson cover “Wintersong,” regardless of when that airs. The Apple Music version sounds special.

Here’s tonight’s playlist, complete with links for your streaming purposes.

See also …
Ranking the Top 4 on The Voice
A look back at Jake Hoot’s Voice performances
A look back at Katie Kadan’s Voice performances
A look back at Ricky Duran’s Voice performances
A look back at Rose Short’s Voice performances
iTunes results for the Top 8

New covers

Jake Hoot (Team Kelly) — “Amazed” by Lonestar

Katie Kadan (Team Legend) — “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” by Aerosmith

Ricky Duran (Team Blake) — “Running Down a Dream” by Tom Petty

Rose Short (Team Gwen) — “Border Song” by Elton John

New singles

Jake Hoot (Team Kelly) — “Every Light in the House”

Katie Kadan (Team Legend) — “All Better”

Ricky Duran (Team Blake) — “A Woman Like Her”

Rose Short (Team Gwen) — “Steamroller”

Artist/Coach duets

Jake Hoot and Kelly Clarkson (Team Kelly) — “Wintersong” by Sarah McLachlan

Katie Kadan and John Legend (Team Legend) — “Merry Christmas Baby”

Ricky Duran and Blake Shelton (Team Blake) — “Run, Run Rudolph”

Rose Short and Gwen Stefani (Team Gwen) — “My Gift is You”