Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Round two of the battles begins tonight on The Voice.

That’s right, round two, for the first time ever.

Can’t say I’m thrilled about that. As much as I enjoy The Voice, the battles have always been my least favorite part of the show.

After all, we’re supposed to be judging these singers on how well they sing and perform as solo artists. The last time I checked, the show wasn’t called The Voice Duets.

And when you put a duet — like Dawn and Hawkes — in a battle round setting — well, it just gets messier.

In a Voice battle, artists already have just a small portion of a shortened song to shine singing solo. Divide that into a duo, and it’s quite a challenge.

If there’s a silver lining in this ominous gray cloud it’s that the singers must agree on which song they’re going to sing in this round, so we won’t have any of those situations where the song seems so much better suited to one artist than the other.

With all that said, here’s a recap of what we can look forward to and what’s happened so far …

The four-chair turns: There were 11 entering the first phase of the battle rounds, 10 remain. Only Cary Laine was eliminated, though Biff Gore needed a Blake Shelton steal to remain in the competition. Biff joins three other four-chair turn singers — Kaleigh Glaton, Ryan Whyte Maloney and Audra McLaughlin — on Team Blake. The others to prevail in battles include Christina Grimmie, Josh Kaufman and Delvin Choice of Team Adam, Bria Kelly of Team Usher and Clarissa Serna of Team Shakira.

The upset kids: Two singers upset artists who had turned four chairs in the battle round. That leaves T.J. Wilkins of Team Usher and Sam Behymer of Team Adam with lots to prove moving forward.

The stolen: In addition to Biff, the stolen include Tess Boyer on Team Blake, Brittnee Camelle and Jake Barker on Team Adam; Josh Murley and Patrick Thompson on Team Shakira and Cierra Mickens and Ayesha “Music Box” Brooks on Team Usher.

Their prospects: Those stolen by Blake and Adam are going to run into a buzz-saw of talent, though it looks as though Brittnee and Jake might be paired up in this round, ensuring one of them will advance. I won’t be surprised it Shakira matches up Patrick and Josh; they’re similar style singers. Cierra might have the best chance of making an impact long term; she was very impressive in her battle against Emily B.

The upstarts: Two other singers to watch are the competition’s youngsters, Madilyn Paige and Deja Hall. Singing for Team Usher, Madilyn has done well on iTunes with both of the songs she’s performed so far. Deja defeated “Music Box” in the battles and showed lots of composure to go along with impressive range for a teenager. I’ll be surprised not to see her in someone’s final five.

The match-ups: Thanks to The Voice promos, we already know some of the pairings. It looks like Blake will pit Biff Gore and Sisaundra Lewis against one another; Adam will do the same with two of his four-chair-turn singers — Delvin Choice and Josh Kaufman. Other pairings I caught in the promo include T.J. Wilkins versus Cierra Mickens, Christina Grimmie vs. Sam Behymer and Kristen Merlin vs. Emily B.

Check back tonight and tomorrow night for live blogging of those battle round matches. And for profiles of all the Season 6 contestants, go here.