Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The members of Team Adam and Team Pharrell take the stage tonight as the live playoffs continue on The Voice.

The top two vote-getters from each team automatically advance to next week’s Top 12 show.

Then each coach will select an additional artist to save. We’ll get the results tomorrow night at 8.

I’ll be providing song by song grades for the members of Team Adam in this blog. For Team Pharrell, head here.

And did you miss the song by song grades for Team Christina or Team Blake. If so, just follow those links.

Also, here’s a look at how the songs from Monday’s show did on iTunes.

Laith Al-Saadi: With three albums already on iTunes, Laith is one of the most experienced performers of Season 10. He’s also got one of the most distinctive voices on the show, though I thought his attempt to show his versatility by tackling Peter Gabriel’s pop tune “In Your Eyes” during the knockout round nearly backfired. Tonight he’ll sing “With a Little Help from My Friends” by Joe Cocker. And Adam is encouraging Laith to “be a man possessed” on this performance, presumably both with his guitar playing and his vocals. Wow, love that opening. Dang, Laith. Go, Laith, go. There’s a brief guitar solo. That was a superb performance. Probably my favorite of the live playoffs so far. Blake calls it “incredible.” Christina says she loves Laith’s “raw, gritty soul.” Pharrell encourages everyone to vote for Laith. Grade: A

Owen Danoff: Yep, his dad wrote the 1970s smash hit “Afternoon Delight,” but Owen has written some pretty good music of his own. Just check out his “Twelve Stories” album from 2014. On The Voice, he’s the only four-chair turn singer still with Team Adam. He was matched with Ryan Quinn in the knockout round and prevailed with a version of “She’s Always a Woman.” And his cover of “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” by Bob Dylan was one of the show’s best-performing songs from the blind auditions on iTunes. Owen’s live playoff song is “Hero” by Family of the Year. He says he’s selected a more contemporary song because he’s performed classic songs so far on The Voice. Adam thinks Owen is about to turn a corner in terms of confidence. Really nice singer-songwriter performance from Owen. Really liked the ending. Blake says he made the song sound like something he wrote. He calls it a “great job.” Pharrell says he felt like Owen provided “a magical moment.” Adam says Owen is one of the show’s best as delivering a song like that. Grade: B+

Shalyah Fearing: To date, she’s been the most impressive minor on the show, holding her own in the battle round against Tamar Davis, then turning in a splendid version of an off-genre song, “Broken Wing,” in the knockouts. That earned her a steal from Adam Levine, meaning that like Lacy Mandigo for Team Pharrell, she’s performed for three different coaches on The Voice. Oh, “Broken Wing” also cracked the Top 200 on the iTunes singles chart, something that only about a half dozen songs from The Voice did during the knockouts. Shalyah’s live playoff song is “Listen” by Beyonce. Immediately, Shalyah shows off the power in her voice, but I’m not liking her voice on this as much as I did “Broken Wing.” It almost sounds like she’s oversinging the song and shouting at us. Hey, but you can’t argue with the passion or the reckless abandon she showed over the second half of that performance. In fact, that ending brought all four coaches and the audience to their feet. Blake calls Shalyah a front-runner. Pharrell is pleading with viewers to vote for Shalyah as well. Adam calls her performance incredible. Grade: A–

Nate Butler: Okay, if you haven’t caught on by now, all four comeback artists are guys, and I’m pretty sure who came back had a lot to do with gender since the Top 20 was female heavy. Shame on the show that prides itself on putting The Voice first. Not that Nate wasn’t solid previously, I just find it hard to believe their wasn’t one female singer worth bringing back. Three of my top four choices would have been ladies. Anyway, Nate previously bowed out of the competition after singing “Let’s Stay Together” against Brian Nhira in the knockout round. Tonight, he’ll go with “Sara Smile” by Hall & Oates. Poor Nate has a tough act to follow. And I can tell you after three lines, this is not a performance that’s going to get him into the finals on Team Adam. When he hit the chorus, his voice faded and was overtaken by the band. There had to be at least a dozen female contestants who could have delivered a better performance than this. Carson calls it “smooth and silky.” Not really. Adam thinks Nate is “going to be here for a while.” Grade: C–

Caroline Burns: She’s one of three singers to make it this far after auditioning for The Voice in Season 9 and failing to turn a chair (Bryan Bautista and Joe Maye are the others). Caroline was the teen so proud of hitting the 5-foot mark this past year. I’m not sure how proud she should be of her knockout round performance of “Human.” It was good enough to topple Katherine Ho. It was also the only knockout round match not shown on The Voice. Caroline’s live playoff song is “All I Want” by Kodaline. Adam is pushing Caroline to let loose with her emotions and show confidence during this performance. Hey, really like Caroline’s tone at the beginning of this. I think I under-rated Caroline as cute cannon fodder. This is not a cannon fodder performance. And she delivers a very tender ending. Blake says Caroline is one of his favorites. Pharrell says this was a totally different level for Caroline. Adam calls her performance a “wonderful job.” Grade: B

Brian Nhira: All that time serving as a worship leader at Oral Roberts University has certainly paid off or Brian, who’s been one of the most consistently impressive male singers on the show. An aspiring pop singer, Brian sang “Grenade” to make it to the live playoffs. Before that, he performed a pair of judges’ songs — “Happy” by Pharrell and “Sugar” by Maroon 5. Tonight? He’ll try Sia’s “Alive.” Brian says the song requires him to be as vulnerable as he’s ever been. Brian’s showing tons of passion in this performance, but I’m not loving the match of singer and song. In fact, this is probably my least favorite Brian performance to date. Of course, I’ve really, really enjoyed most of his previous efforts. Christina loved it. Pharrell loved the range Brian showed and encourages him to keep going. Adam calls it an excellent job, saying Sia’s “Alive” is a really difficult song to sing. Grade: B–

Summary: Laith and Shalyah would deserve to advance based just on tonight’s performances, but they’ve also been solid in the past. They need to be in the finals. If I’m Adam, I award the third spot to Owen. I think he’s one of the better male singer-songwriters to appear on The Voice.