Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The Voice Season 17 final four of Jake Hoot, Ricky Duran, Rose Short and Katie Kadan. (NBC Photo)

Unless The Voice throws an unexpected curve at us, each of the Season 17 finalists will perform three times Monday night.

That will include two solo performances, both of which will be on Apple Music and count as votes when fans stream them.

One will be a duet by each contestant and his or her coach. Those will not be eligible for streaming.

The winner will be crowed in the live finale, set to begin at 9 p.m. Tuesday. There’s also a one-hour preview / clip show set for 8 p.m. for diehards.

Here are the Voice rankings heading into Monday’s finale.

1. Rose Short (Team Gwen): Do not fret, Jake Hoot fans. A black female has never won The Voice, and Rose won’t be the first. Heck, she needed an instant save to survive last. But that doesn’t change the fact that she’s a skilled and powerful vocalist who has taken more risks — and made them work — during the live shows than any other singer on the show. Splendid covers of Blake’s “God’s Country” and Foreigner’s “I Want to Know What Love Is” in back to back weeks by a female R&B singer? That’s impressive.

2. Jake Hoot (Team Kelly): Jake should have this in the bag. If he doesn’t win, fans should demand a recount and suspect vote-counting shenanigans on the part of The Voice, which has suspiciously not revealed the bonus points winner the past two weeks. On social media, Jake says he won those. If so, he should enter the finale with a nearly insurmountable lead in the voting. A couple more performances like his wonderful cover of “Desperado” from the semifinals, and it will be a well deserved victory and the first ever by a Voice artist who was a one-chair turn in the blinds.

3. Ricky Duran (Team Blake): By the end of Monday’s semifinals, it was pretty obvious who deserved the fourth spot in the finals alongside the undeniables — Rose, Jake and Katie. Turns out, fans agreed and bestowed that honor on Ricky, who has turned in his best two performances on The Voice over the past two weeks. Lost in the shadows of Jake’s chart success if the fact that Ricky’s cover of “Let It Be” hit number two on iTunes. And in four weeks of finals so far, Ricky has been tops on the rock chart twice and tops on the blues chart once.

4. Katie Kadan (Team Legend): John has promised a big ballad from the early-season front-runner Monday night. But it doesn’t change the fact that the song choices to this point have been wholly predictable. What’s more, Katie’s probably coming off her weakest night on the show — and certainly her weakest showing on the charts since the lives began (she slipped to number four among the Top 8). That said, I doubt it was her choice to sing Madonna’s “Express Yourself” in her semifinal duet with Rose.

See also …
A look back at Jake Hoot’s Voice performances
A look back at Katie Kadan’s Voice performances
A look back at Ricky Duran’s Voice performances
A look back at Rose Short’s Voice performances
iTunes results for the Top 8