Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The Voice finals begins tonight at 8 p.m.

And that means it’s time to rank the 12 finalists.

The Team Blake Shelton finalists — Jake Worthington, Audra McLaughlin and Sisaundra Lewis — at a post-playoff celebration for contestants on The Voice. (NBC Photo)

That, folks, is not easy. And it’s complicated by that second battle round, which robbed us of one chance to see these singers performing solo.

So here goes, with no promises that this list won’t change dramatically come next week this time.

I’ll be blogging live tonight, with song by song grades, so check back then.

If you want to know how the contestants stand in terms of social media support, head here.

The links below will take you to full bios on each singer, complete with their views on the finals.

And I’ve also indicated how many chairs each singer turned in their blind audition.

1. Christina Grimmie (Team Adam, 4 chairs): Forget the huge pre-Voice fan base. I listened to her pre-Voice album (“With Love”), marveled at the range she showed (from a beautiful ballad like “I Bet You Don’t Curse God” to a great pop song like “Tell My Mamma”) and wondered why she’s not a star already.

2. Sisaundra Lewis (Team Blake, 4 chairs): The best voice on The Voice. Her biggest problem: She’s so good it’s going to be tough for her to top herself, surprise anyone and show the type of growth fans love to see on a show like this.

3. Bria Kelly (Team Usher, 4 chairs): The full-throttle rasp she demonstrated in her blind audition and the playoffs was as good as we’ve heard on the show, and she was so good in the battles that both her opponents were stolen. She’ll need to demonstrate versatility to win.

4. Jake Worthington (Team Blake, 3 chairs): His earnestness has impressed me as much as his singing, and that could make him a fan favorite as the only male country singer, and a contestant on Team Blake no less. Hey, and the youngster is showing improvement.

5. Josh Kaufman (Team Usher, 4 chairs): He doesn’t look like a star, but neither did Nicholas David or Will Champlin, and they wound up in the finals. What Josh does is deliver a great vocal every time he hits the stage. That should keep him around for a while.

6. Kat Perkins (Team Adam, 3 chairs): She’s got a great rock voice and I’d rank her higher if lady rockers did better on the show. But Juliet Simms was the best singer in Season 2 and didn’t win, and Kat Robichaud was awfully impressive last season and didn’t sniff the finals.

7. Delvin Choice (Team Adam, 4 chairs): He ditched his trademark “lobster” hairstyle, but remains one of the most charismatic of the Top 12. The vocal embellishments he displayed singing “Let’s Stay Together” in the playoffs were downright impressive.

8. Dani Moz (Team Shakira, 1 chair) “Edge of Glory” was fabulous in the playoffs, but Dani grabbed my attention with her powerful voice in the battle rounds as well. Thing is, she’ll probably need a couple of “Edge of Glory” style performances to establish herself … or face early elimination.

9. Tess Boyer (Team Shakira, 1 chair): Twice stolen and still around despite turning only one chair with her blind audition, Tess is already well-established as the show’s dark horse. She has tons of talent, but lacks the well-defined musical identity of contestants higher on this list.

10. Audra McLaughlin (Team Blake, 4 chairs): The “other” country singer on Team Blake has yet to top her own four-chair turn blind audition performance of “Angel of Montgomery.” But she’s a country singer on Team Blake, meaning one knockout performance could take her a long way.

11. Kristen Merlin (Team Shakira, 2 chairs): Her playoff performance was so good, I wondered why The Voice had been hiding Kristen. But they had been hiding her; neither of her battles aired in full. That lack of airtime could hurt her when the fan voting begins.

12. T.J. Wilkins (Team Usher, 3 chairs): My least favorite pick of the Top 12. I thought his spot should have gone to Melissa Jimenez or, better yet, Stevie Jo. That said, he beat two great singers — Biff Gore and Cierra Mickens — to make it that far.

It’s selfie time for the finalists on Team Usher, Josh Kaufman, T.J. Wilkins and Bria Kelly. The Voice finals begin tonight. (NBC Photo)