Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Everyone watching The Voice knows Danielle Bradbery is doing very well, both in the voting and in downloads of her songs from the show.

As a matter of fact, she’s one of just three contestants left on The Voice who have ranked in the top six among Voice competitors on the iTunes chart each of the last two weeks.

Who are the others?

Sarah Simmons, shown with Carson Daly, has been one of the most successful Voice contestants on iTunes. (NBC Photo)

Glad you asked.

The Swon brothers had the most downloaded single two weeks ago and the fifth most downloaded single last week.

Sarah Simmons finished fourth both weeks.

Everyone else has dropped below the top six once, which makes this week’s episode and cuts very interesting as The Voice narrows the finalists to a Top 6.

Judith Hill

1. Judith Hill (Team Adam): She says she’s ready to show America who Judith is. She’s going to sing Will.i.am’s #thatPOWER. Interesting song choice. And it sounds as though she’s going to change it up. Get ready for the most current performance we’ve seen from Judith, who looks like some sort of warrior princess in that outfit she’s wearing. She promised funk and she’s delivering, showing off her big voice. Here’s one singer who we won’t have trouble hearing over the backing music. But on a show where country music seems to do fabulous every week, I’m going to be very interested to see how that goes down with fans. By the way, that hair style puts Sanjaya Malakar’s “ponyhawk” to shame. Grade: B (but the hair gets an A)

Holly Tucker

2. Holly Tucker (Team Blake): Holly’s song choice last week (“How Great Thou Art”) was fabulous. This week she’s going in the complete opposite direction, singing The Band Perry’s “Done,” the song Janelle Arthur and Kimberly Perry hammered on the American Idol finale. Well, I was wondering where the attitude was, but Holly rocked it out for the second half of that performance. Not quite as hard as Kimberly Perry rocks it, but certainly good enough to show her versatility. And she nailed a couple of fabulous notes in the process. That glory note at the end was sensational. And the song choice, again, was much better than Judith’s. This young lady keeps surprising me. Grade: B+

Now we get a group performance of Rihanna’s “Diamonds” by Michelle Chamuel, Judith Hill, Sarah Simmons and Sasha Allen. Very nice. Judith in particular sounded superb.

Colton and Zach Swon

3. The Swon Brothers (Team Blake): After lots of warm thoughts for the hardships being felt by the tornado victims in Oklahoma, they’re singing “Seven Bridges Road” by the Eagles. Potentially very nice choice. And they sound sensational at the start of this, singing a cappella with a backing choir. Heck, they’ve even got a campfire going in the middle of the stage. I think the Swon Brothers are finding their groove. Those harmonies were absolutely spot on. And, look at that, they go a cappella again for the ending. Dang, the only guys left standing on The Voice clearly want to hang around. That was another very fine performance from the duo that’s enjoyed more success than any other on the show. Grade: A–

Sasha Allen

4. Sasha Allen (Team Shakira): Shakira nails it on the head: Sasha needs a breakout moment. And she’s trying to accomplish it by singing Usher’s “Without You.” And Sasha says she’s going to relate to the song by thinking of her separation from her fiance while she performs on the show. Love the staircase prop. But that’s the least of what’s happening on the stage right now, because Sasha Allen is delivering an absolutely blistering vocal, the best we’ve heard tonight, ranging from plaintive to soaring. That folks, was the best performance so far tonight, and we’ve seen some very nice ones already. And I loved the fact that she sang something current this week. Grade: A

5. Sarah Simmons (Team Adam): Hmm, interesting song choice by Sarah, who rocked it out last week. She’s singing Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know.” Another current song choice. Keep them coming, Voice. That said, this presents something of a challenge for Sarah because the song isn’t as rangy as she likes to be vocally. See what I mean, she’s having trouble containing her growl, and couldn’t help throwing in a big glory note there in the middle. I’m just not sure that song was a good fit, or that fans will like the way she changed it up. But who knows? Adam says it’s impossible not to love Sarah. We shall see. She delivered a good vocal, but good might not be good enough tonight. Grade: B–

Time for our country group number as Amber Carrington teams up with Team Blake — The Swon Brothers, Danielle Bradbery and Holly Tucker — to sing Sugarland’s “Something More.” Not bad, not great. Not as good as the four ladies did on “Diamonds” earlier.

Michelle Chamuel

6. Michelle Chamuel (Team Usher): She’s the last artist left on Team Usher, and she’s going to change up Bruno Mars’ “Grenade.” And she starts off singing to a mirror. In fact, the stage is filled with mirrors. I’m constantly surprised by the composure and dramatic nature Michelle shows on stage, considering she claims to suffer from stage fright. She’s one of the best at selling her connection to her songs. Wow, the singers on The Voice are on fire tonight. Michelle Chamuel just did a wonderful job of recreating that song. Great range, great performance. The crowd loved the song. The judges loved it, too. And Michelle probably just bought herself another week on the show. Grade: A

Danielle Bradbery

7. Danielle Bradbery (Team Blake): This young lady has done everything right to date. She’ll sing “Grandpa.” And Blake says he wants this to be a song that shows Danielle can sell a lyric. Danielle seems to struggle a bit with the lyrics in rehearsal. Nice sets tonight on The Voice. They’ve got Danielle sitting on a swing in front of a pretend house, wearing snazzy red boots. This young lady just has a pristine country voice. That wasn’t tonight’s snazziest performance, but Danielle is going nowhere. She just delivered another very nice vocal. And, yeah, she sold it, Blake. It’ll be very interesting to see whether that tops iTunes for The Voice again this week. Grade: A–

Amber Carrington

8. Amber Carrington (Team Adam): OK, the country singer is going to take on Adele’s “Skyfall.” Adam says she needs to be adventurous and take risks, not just sing country-pop. And he encourages her to shove this performance into the crowd’s face. Amber says she needs to find her inner actress. Amber looks lovely and she’s dripping in jewels. But I’m not sure about this song choice. She’s certainly got a big enough voice to pull it off, as those closing glory notes show, but there were a couple of spots where the performance seemed to stray just a wee bit. Blake says she turned in the diva performance of the night, but scolds Adam for trying to cover up her country. Adam calls it “incredible.” Grade: B