Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Wow, The Voice redeemed itself tonight.

OK, there were incomprehensible moments.

Like when Cee Lo Green and three buddies donned 21st century golden gladiator costumes and stomped around the stage singing some new song.

Once again proving The Voice still hasn’t learned the importance of keeping the focus on the contestants, not the mentors.

But after a horrific show a week ago, more went right than wrong Monday night.

One singer surprised big-time, in the best possible way.  One singer sang a surprise song, and it actually worked.  One singer acted possessed.  And that worked too.

And when it came time for Cee Lo Green and Adam Levine to make their “shocking instant eliminations,” we said goodbye to James Massone and Pip.

Which proved that maybe The Voice isn’t trying to vie with Idol as king of the cute guy singing shows.

The recap:

The surprise:  When I was looking over the remaining contestants of Team Adam, I didn’t give Katrina Parker a second thought.  I mean, no way, she’d survive this week. Not after needed a judges’ save to survive two weeks ago.  So what does Katrina do?  She gets an Adele-style makeover, which helped.  But this is about the voice, and on Monday, she delivered what was probably the best pure vocal of the night, singing “Jar of Hearts.”  Now I’d classify it as a crime is she doesn’t advance to the semifinals.

The surprise song:  In the first live round, Christina criticized her old Mickey Mouse Club buddy Tony Lucca for being too one-dimensional.  So how did Tony and Adam respond?  They dusted off a hit song from another Mickey Mouse Club colleague named Britney, then turned it into a rocker and had Tony stomp around the stage like he’s probably never done at one of his singer-songwriter shows.  “Hit Me Baby One More Time” should buy Tony one more time on the show, and I don’t mean by having to sing for a save tomorrow night.  Finally, an out-of-the-box song choice that worked on The Voice.

The possessed:   I have no idea why Juliet Simms was wearing black wings during her performance Monday night.  Except that she’s a member of Team Cee Lo, which explains away lots of excesses. Remember the guitarists on stilts?  But I digress.  Juliet acted possessed, ripping into Aerosmith’s “Cryin'” in a way that would make me a little concerned for his health if aging Steven Tyler tried it.  Now that was an impassioned vocal.  The best part — Juliet screamed a lot, but she didn’t try to imitate the Steven shriek.  And she wound up with the best performance of the night.

Comic relief:   Have I told you lately that Blake Shelton is my favorite singing competition judge.  To Pip:  “Where in the hell is the bow-tie?  That’s like me without alcohol.”  To Juliet, as white feathers dropped from the sky at the end of her performance (another Cee Lo touch, I’m sure), he said the performance was a double delight.  He loved her vocal.  And the reminder of duck season.

Team Cee Lo recap:  I’ve gotta think voters will send Juliet Simms flying into the next round, black wings or not.  That would leave Jamar Rogers and Cheesa battling for the judges’ save.  Based on everything we’ve seen and heard so far, the spot should go to Jamar, the former Idol contestant.

Team Adam recap:  I’m hoping Tony Lucca gets voted into the next round.  That would leave Mathai and Katrina to vie for the save.  And it should go to Katrina, based on what we heard last night.  Mathai turned in the night’s clunker performance.  If Mathai winds up as the top vote-getter … well, Adam’s going to have to make a tougher decision than the one he made Monday night.

If you missed the song-by-song grades from tonight’s show, go here.