Idol Chatter & Voice Views

And the first-ever wild card spot on The Voice goes to: Damien Lawson.

Carson Daly made the announcement this morning on the Today show.

“This is incredible. I couldn’t ask for anything more,” Damien said on the show. “It means the world to me. I always said I wanted to make the Top 4 since the very beginning.”

The announcement was a bit of a surprise. Taylor John Williams, not Damien, had the most successful wild card performance on iTunes. (See all the song rankings here.)

But Damien’s cover of “Grenade” was right behind at number 42 on the iTunes singles chart and number two on its R&B/Soul chart. He has scored four number ones on that chart since the finals began.

Tuesday’s performance had coach Gwen Stefani praising the sincerity with which Damien sings. His own coach, Adam Levine, declared that the wild card should belong to Damien and that anyone who thought differently was “insane.”

The wild card win puts Damien in next Monday night’s Season 7 performance finale alongside Matt McAndrew, Craig Wayne Boyd and Chris Jamison. That means all three Team Adam finalists will be pitted against a lone representative of Team Blake.

It also means the end of The Voice road for York’s DaNica Shirey, who turned in one of the best wild card performances Tuesday when she closed the show with a cover of “Without You” that was the night’s third most popular out of nine songs on iTunes.

DaNica advanced to the Top 8 before being bumped from the finals along with Luke Wade and Ryan Sill on a triple elimination episode.

DaNica will still likely perform in the group numbers on the Season 7 finale next Tuesday night.