Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Team Blake Shelton entered Monday’s Top 24 show with more remaining singers than any other team.

His eight-singer lineup included country standouts Andrew Sevener, Dexter Roberts and Gyth Rigdon. Rounding out his Top 24 team were Kim Cherry, Selkii, Oliv Blu, Carter Lloyd Horne and Kendra Checketts, the singer he stole during the cross battles.

Of the 24 singers who performed Monday, eight will advance via fan voting when results are announced Tuesday night. Then each coach will be able to save one artist.

Here are song by song grades for Team Blake from Monday’s show.

Dexter Roberts (Team Blake) Ain’t Nothing ‘Bout You by Brooks & Dunn — Look, with his fan support, Dexter could have come out and performed “Mary Had a Little Lamb” and still advanced. I don’t think he needed the night’s pimp spot. But this was a solid performance that got better as it progressed and show he deserves the spot he’ll get when the fan favorites are announced Tuesday. Grade: B+

Gyth Rigdon (Team Blake) I Want to be Loved Like That by Shenandoah — Smart song choice that The Voice’s many country fans are going to love and that will almost assuredly earn Gyth a spot in next week’s Top 13 show. Liked that little quiver in his voice and Gyth turned in a heartfelt performance. In fact, it was my favorite from his so far in Season 16. Grade: A–

Andrew Sevener (Team Blake) Boots On by Randy Houser — I won’t be the least bit surprised if Blake takes three male country singers into the Top 13 — without using his save, no less. This was another all-out-attack of a performance from Andrew, who has on-stage energy to spare. The vocal wavered from time to time. But again, The Voice country fans — and there are lots of them — will love that performance. Grade: B–

Carter Lloyd Horne (Team Blake) Heartbreak Hotel by Elvis Presley — Was Carter wearing red boots? Or did they just look red in the stage lights? Either way, I guess that ruled out “Blue Suede Shoes” as a song choice. Look, this was a perfectly fine performance and vocal, it just came off as a bit more forgettable than the three Team Blake country numbers. Grade: C+

Kendra Checketts (Team Blake) Bad Guy by Billie Eilish — Vocally perfect? No. But I really liked this song choice and this performance by Kendra. She doesn’t seem like a natural fit for Team Blake, but he’s had her on his team twice now. And, after watching that performance, I think he might be onto something. Great ending too, Miss Checketts. Grade: B

Kim Cherry (Team Blake) Waterfalls by TLC — She sees herself as the wild card on Team Blake. And, remember, he said he always wanted a singer who raps on his team. Kim rapped just fine on this odder than odd Team Blake song choice. The problem was that her vocal was quite all over the place, and the problems started right with the opening lines. Grade: C–

Oliv Blu (Team Blake) The Girl from Ipanema by Stan Getz — I’m going to be kind her and say I loved the hair style and Oliv’s on-stage demeanor. I’ll avoid analyzing the singing except to say Oliv has sounded much, much better. Grade: D

Selkii (Team Blake) Iris by Goo Goo Dolls — There were moments when I thought this was going to come off very well. In the end, it didn’t quite work, in spite of a really nice ending by Selkii. Oh, well, she’s one of the artists I’m most eager to hear from in terms of post-Voice music. Grade: C–