Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The Top 11 on The Voice include (from left) Pryor Baird, Kaleb Lee, Jackie Foster, Christiana Danielle, Brynn Cartelli, Britton Buchanan, Spensha Baker, Kyla Jade, Jackie Verna, Rayshun LaMarr and Sharane Calister. (NBC Photo)

If you’re going to have themes on a singing show, nice broad themes are best.

And that’s just what The Voice has been serving up.

Last week, the Top 12 got to sing songs that inspire them. This week, they get to sing a song suggested by fans.

Which should leave every member of the Top 11 with enough flexibility to select a song that falls in his or her wheelhouse.

D.R. King left the show last week, leaving Team Kelly with just two contestants.

Here are this week’s rankings, with last week’s rankings in parenthesis.

The top two remain the same. Elsewhere, there are lots of changes.

1. Brynn Cartelli (Team Kelly) (1): Brynn did nothing but solidify her position as one of the show’s front-runners with last week’s cover of “Up To The Mountain.” And to think, prior to Season 12, she would have been too young to audition.

2. Britton Buchanan (Team Alicia) (2): Britton’s performance of “Small Town” seemed a bit more tentative than the splendid “Some Kind of Wonderful” cover from the live playoffs, but I still think Britton’s likely to be standing beside Brynn in the finals.

3. Pryor Baird (Team Blake) (9): Has Pryor arrived? The only four-chair turn remaining needed a breakout performance to remind fans why he turned four chairs. He delivered just that with his high-energy performance of “Pickin’ Wildflowers,” which became Top 12 week’s biggest hit on iTunes.

4. Jackie Foster (Team Alicia) (4): The Berklee student showed up in full rocker mode last week, delivering a re-creation of Britney Spears’ “Toxic” that came from her band, The Self Portraits. She’s still looking for her “Total Eclipse of the Heart” moment. Might I point out that Chloe Kohanski covered that song in Top 11 week.

5. Kyla Jade (Team Blake) (6): The vocals have always been there, now Kyla’s starting to surge on the charts too. In fact, last week she was right behind Pryor until a late surge by Brynn bumped her down to number three.

6. Sharane Calister (Team Adam) (3): Another singer in need of a breakout moment. I mean, Sharane’s convinced me of her star power, but she was one of only three singers who didn’t crack the iTunes Top 200 last week.

7. Kaleb Lee (Team Kelly) (5): It looked like Kaleb would corner most of The Voice country vote. Now I’m not so sure. Covering overdone songs like “Amazed” won’t help his cause. And he needs a lesson from the Red Marlow school of connecting with fans.

8. Spensha Baker (Team Blake) (12): One of the reasons I’m not so sure is that Spensha made quite the comeback last week with her impassioned performance of “Down on My Knees.” It doesn’t hurt that she has Blake by her side. You might say he’s helped a country singer or two navigate their way through the live shows.

9. Christiana Danielle (Team Alicia) (7): How did Christiana wind up all the way down here? It’s not her fault. I like her unique tone and last week’s “Say Something” was another solid performance. It’s just that this is a very talented Season 14 cast.

10. Jackie Verna (Team Adam) (11): The fans are suggesting the songs this week, but Adam might want to patch up his bromance with Blake so he’ll offer up some future cover choices for Jackie. Last week, Jackie cracked the Top 200, but her song was fourth among four Voice tunes on the country chart.

11. Rayshun LaMarr (Team Adam) (10): It’s just a matter of odds, folks. The instant save was introduced in Season 5. That season — and in every single season since — the first recipient of the instant save was back in the bottom two or three the following week. Not a single exception yet.

See also
Social media rankings for the Top 11
Top 12 iTunes results
Top 12 song by song grades