Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Koryn Hawthorne with part of her girl group on The Voice, from left, Mia Z., India Carney and Caitlin Caporale. (NBC Photo)

The Voice always puts on an entertaining Season finale, and Tuesday night was no exception.

Of course, your finale had better be entertaining when everyone knows how the results are going to turn out at the end of the evening.

Sure enough, the Season 8 title went to Sawyer Fredericks.

But my picks for best moments from the finale go to lots of other folks.

As usual, this finale included lots of guest stars, each of the finalists inviting some fellow contestants back for a performance and a pairing of a guest star with a finalist.

Best bring-back performance: The honor goes to Koryn Hawthorne, who took the stage with gal power friends Mia Z, Lexi Davila, Caitlin Caporale, Tonya Boyd-Cannon, India Carney for a fun version of “Uptown Funk.” The way 17-year-old Koryn took center stage on that performance shows how incredibly much she’s improved during her time on The Voice. Oh, and I have to mention Sarah Potenza’s vocal on her duet with Meghan Linsey. Now there’s a case of a singer being eliminated from The Voice far, far too soon. They sang “Piece of My Heart,” and Sarah was vocally dazzling.

Not the best idea for a guest performance: That would be Maroon 5, with Adam Levine out front, showing up to sing their new single, which has a word in the chorus (and title) that they couldn’t say on TV and that I can’t type in this blog. Surely, somewhere out there, there’s a song that could have taken that spot with lyrics appropriate for TV, right?

Best non-musical moment: Who knew Christina Aguilera could be so funny? She immitated Britney Spears, Sia, Cher, Lady Gaga and others during a pretend audition for a new coach on The Voice. Her Lady Gaga wanted to decorate the big red chair with bacon. And Britney wondered how the singers would wonder if a coach had turned around “if everyone is blind.” Missed it? Here it is.

Best guest artist performance: Do I have to pick just one? I’ll pinpoint two. Luke Bryan, Blake Shelton’s country music pal, showed up to perform a fun new single called “Kick the Dust Up” that I’d download before any of the other guest artists’ songs, and I’m not a huge fan of country music. Meghan Trainor was also a delight with her acoustic version of “Dear Future Husband.”

Reminder of why they’re coaches: Weren’t The Voice coaches great on that closing number, a cover of “The Thrill is Gone”? Missed it? If so, or if you just want to hear again, here it is.

An Idol sighting: Kelly Clarkson, the original American Idol, showed up on The Voice stage twice during Tuesday’s finale, belting out “I’d Rather Go Blind” with Koryn Hawthorne and “Invincible” with Meghan Linsey. The latter is from Kelly’s new “Piece by Piece” album.

Oh, and then there was the winning announcement …