Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Adam Cunningham performs during the playoffs on The Voice. (NBC Photo)

We get to sit and watch and wish we could vote.

And hope he does a better job of picking songs than Blake Shelton and Jennifer Hudson.

Yikes, some of those Monday night song selections were ghastly. Or at least a very poor match of singer and song.

The good news is that fans seemed to agree with their decisions on who to advance. The six advancing singers — Red Marlow, Chloe Kohanski and Keisha Renee for Blake and Davon Fleming, Noah Mac and Shi’Ann Jones for Jennifer — were also the top performers on iTunes.

Speaking of iTunes, or Spotify, or wherever you listen to music, you’ve got to check out some of the new music coming from former Voice contestants lately.

And if you want to know the stories behind the songs, Voice Views has posted recent interviews with Billy Gilman, Ricky Manning, Todd Kessler, Brian Nhira and Jared Blake.

On to tonight’s song by song grades:

Adam Cunningham
The song: “Have a Little Faith in Me” by Joe Cocker
My take: Nice song choice for Adam C., who Adam L. might want to advance to challenge Blake with a country singer. Dang, great start to the song and a really nice start for tonight’s show. Wow, that was a powerful performance by Adam C. He might just have forced his way into the finals. Grade: A–

Whitney Fenimore
The song: “If It Makes You Happy” by Sheryl Crow
My take: The sound mix is a bit off on this. The band is coming in too loud to hear Whitney on the opening verse and she seemed to be straining a bit on the first run-through of the chorus. In theory, this might have been a good song choice, but I’m not sure it suits Whitney’s voice. That’s s shame. I really like Whitney’s original music and can’t wait to hear what she’ll serve up after the show. Grade: C

Emily Luther:
The song: “Lovesong” by The Cure
My take: Gotta say, the iTunes version of this is really impressive. The live version is starting off ridiculously well too. Emily Luther just made decision time tougher for Adam with a very good rendition of that song. There was a bit too much going on at the end of that performance, but dang, Emily can sing. Look the look and the attitude too. Grade: B

Anthony Alexander
The song: “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran
My take: Adam is pushing Anthony to be more confident. Not sure he’s quite there yet, or quite ready for The Voice finals. At spots, it seems like you can hear the nerves through his performance. With two of Adam’s best singers coming up and two great performances already in the books, I give Anthony zero chance at advancing. Grade: C–

Jon Mero
The song: “When We Were Young” by Adele
My take: Hmm, so Jon picked this song. What makes him special that he gets to pick when other singers get handed songs that might not fit? And the lead-in talks about what a great performer and dancer Jon is, then he performs a ballad? Who the hell is editing this show? Anyway, this is easily my least favorite Jon performance so far. And it just might cost him a spot in the finals. Emily and Adam were both much better. Grade: C

Addison Agen
The song: “Angel from Montgomery” by by Bonnie Rait
My take: Sounds like Adam picked this song, but it’s a nice fit for Addison — a touch of country, a touch of folk. I wish she could sing her own originals, because she’s a heck of a songwriter at such a young age. Nice, solid performance by a young lady with a unique tone. The fact that she got to close the show tells me she has a good chance of advancing. Grade: B+

The three singers to advance tonight should be Adam Cunningham, Addison Agen and Emily Luther.

And Adam will advance.

Addison, Jon, Adam

Emily got robbed. She sang Adele better — and made the song much more her own — than Jon.