Idol Chatter & Voice Views

It took us a month to watch the blind auditions.

And another month to watch the battle rounds.

But The Voice is going to whittle its field of contestants from eight to four in a matter of two nights.

Seems like a silly format, but it’s the one we’re stuck with, so let’s examine how it will work and who should advance.

Each of the final eight contestants — two per team — will perform a solo number Monday night.

At some point, each team’s mentor will score the two contestants, divvying 100 points between them.

That will be combined with the percentage of the viewers’ votes each contestant receives to determine who advances to next week’s finals.

Confused?

Let’s take an example from last year, when Blake Shelton wimped out and split his 100 points evenly between Dia Frampton and Xenia, 50-50. Dia won 56 percent of the public vote, so she advanced with a final score of 106-94.

Now, the more interesting question: Who should advance?

Team Blake:

Jermaine Paul vs. Erin Willett:  Jermaine’s the good-looking guy who used to sing backup to Alicia Keys.  He’s yet to deliver a moment, but turned in solid performances of “Living on a Prayer” and “Against All Odds” to make it this far, even though I’m not sure either song fell into his wheelhouse.  He’ll be going up against Erin Willett, who delivered a moment of the wrong sort two weeks ago when she tried to take on Adele’s “Set Fire to the Rain” and failed, miserably.  Yet, inexplicably, Blake picked her for the semifinals over teen country singer RaeLynn.  Erin is something of a sentimental favorite, since her dad died of cancer during the course of the competition.  Who should advance: Jermaine, in a landslide.

Team Christina:

Chris Mann vs. Lindsey Pavao:   If this show were truly based solely on voice, Chris Mann should win the whole thing.   His operatic training has served him well, and I doubt many of The Voice semifinalists could match him note for note.  But what kind of music would he record post-Voice?  He performed Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” two weeks ago, and it just didn’t fit his vocal style.  Lindsey needed a judges’ save to advance this far, but it wasn’t too many weeks ago that she turned in a rather possessed version of “Somebody That I Used to Know” that scored big on the iTunes singles chart.  She’s got a quirky tone and a look that reminds one just a little of Katy Perry.  Who should advance: Lindsey, by the slimmest of margins, only because she’s got a better chance of being a post-Voice success.

Team Adam

Tony Lucca vs. Katrina Parker:   Katrina got an Adele-like makeover prior to last week’s show and looked like a star.  More importantly, she sounded like a star for the first time with a brilliant vocal on “Jar of Hearts.”  Unfortunately, she’s going up against one of the most experienced musicians in the competition, Tony Lucca, who scored his own moment a week ago by turning Britney Spears’ “Baby, Hit Me One More Time” into a rock song It was quite a change of pace for the singer-songwriter, but certainly proved he’s not as one-dimensional as Christina Aguilera thought. Shame he won’t get a chance to perform some of his original music on the show.  And, of course, we all know by now that he, Britney and Christina were once Mickey Mouse Club buddies.  Who should advance: Tony, unless he falters very badly and Katrina can recapture the “Jar of Hearts” magic.

Team Cee Lo

Jamar Rogers vs. Juliet Simms:   This might be the most intriguing matchup. Jamar’s been dubbed the second-chance kid by The Voice, because he’s survived HIV, not because he’s a former American Idol contestant.  His performances have been high-energy, and he’s clearly a show favorite.  But his vocals have come off a little less than genuine to me.  And let’s remember, he wasn’t deemed good enough to make the voting rounds on Idol.  Then there’s Juliet, the black-winged rocker, whose gritty, passion-filled performances have been highlights.  Her version of “Roxanne” checked in at number 21 on the iTunes chart, the best of any Voice performance so far; Jamar was 85 the same week.  Last week, her version of “Cryin'” checked in at 38; Jamar’s performance was the 60th most downloaded single.  Yet Juliet needed a save to advance.  Go figure.  Who should advance: Juliet, without a doubt.  For one thing, she doesn’t cry after every performance.  If she doesn’t make the finals, we should all be cryin’.

Check back the next two nights. I’ll be live blogging both shows of The Voice.