Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The Voice Season 26 Top 5 of Sofronio Vasquez, Sydney Sterlace, Danny Joseph, Shye and Jeremy Beloate. (NBC Photo)

The Top 5 perform in the Season 26 finale of The Voice Monday night, beginning at 8 p.m.

Each singer will take the stage for a pair of solos, a ballad and an up-tempo song.

The episode summary is also promising “special Sting-themed duets by the artists.”

Which could be interesting, since there are five artists and five doesn’t divide evenly with duet.

Tuesday’s schedule for The Voice includes a one-hour recap at 8 p.m. of what happened Monday.

Then at 9 p.m., the true two-hour finale begins. Lots of guest performers will be on hand. The only one I care an iota about is Season 24 champ Huntley.

Fans can vote for their favorite after Monday’s show. Again, it’s one vote per valid email address per method, which means either via The Voice app or The Voice website.

See also …
Song by song grades for the Top 8
Song by song grades for the instant save

Here’s how Voice Views is ranking the Top 5.

1. Sofronio Vasquez (Team Michael): After his performances in the playoffs and semifinals, I’ll be shocked if Sofronio doesn’t win. Let’s look at numbers. As Thursday at 6 p.m., his semifinal performance had been views 648,000 times on YouTube. Next best among the Top 5: Jeremy Beloate with 165,000. How about for the playoffs, you might ask? Sofronio racked up 1.2 million views for his cover of “Crying.” Next best among the Top 5: Jeremy with 586,000. Sofronio also has at least twice as many Instagram followers as every other finalist. And he’s almost certain to deliver two more solid performances Monday night.

2. Shye (Team Michael): I’m not as certain that she’ll finish as runner-up. She lands here because she has the most unique voice among the Top 5. Her playoff performance of “Story of My Life” was one of my favorites from Season 26. And for someone who’s still a teen and doesn’t have nearly the performance experience of the guys on this list, she shows impressive confidence.

3. Jeremy Beloate (Team Snoop): Jeremy’s not the first stolen contestant to make the finals. Jacquie Roar did it as recently as Season 24. But it doesn’t happen that often. And based on those YouTube numbers above, Jeremy might be the singer most likely standing beside Sofronio when the winner is announced on Tuesday. I’d like to see more emotion and less theatrics in his performances, but it’s hard to argue with a strategy that’s gotten him this far.

4. Sydney Sterlace (Team Gwen): One of Season 26’s youngest contestants (she recently turned 16) turned in a nice comeback performance Monday night after a bit of a stumble in the playoffs. My guess is she’ll impress again Monday, especially for her age. But for all the formatting problems with Season 26 (led by just 2 chances for fans to vote), it’s also a season filled with very impressive vocalists, including the three above her on this list.

5. Danny Joseph (Team Reba): With nary a country singer in sight in this year’s finale, will Danny try to tackle a country song Monday night? It wouldn’t be a bad strategy, and might be his best bet to move up on this list when the results are announced. He’s the guy who needed the instant save to get this far.