Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The Top 10 on The Voice include, from left, Kaleb Lee, Kyla Jade, Spensha Baker, Brynn Cartelli, Christiana Danielle, Jackie Foster, Britton Buchanan, Rayshun LaMarr, Jackie Verna and Pryor Baird. (NBC Photo)

It’s Challenge Week for The Voice Top 10.

Don’t worry. It’s a nice broad theme that allows contestants to choose any song that poses a challenge to them in some way.

And they’d better choose wisely. Two singers go home Tuesday night, setting the stage for next week’s Season 14 semifinals.

In addition to the Top 10 performing tonight, Kelly Clarkson will sing her new single “I Don’t Think About You.”

I’d prefer to hear from a former contestant, but I don’t mind that nearly as much as tomorrow night’s performances by Charlie Puth and 5 Seconds of something.

The songs we’ll hear tonight follow. I’ll be back when the show starts with song by song grades.

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2018 releases by past Voice contestants

Britton Buchanan (Team Alicia) “What’s Love Got to Do with It” by Tina Turner — This will mark the first time Britton has done a song by a female artist, and he’s reworking the tune. I like the fact that Britton took a risk by rearranging the song. I’m not sure it was a complete success, either vocally or as a performance, but let’s remember, the guy reworking that classic is only 18. Britton belongs in the Top 8. Grade: B–

Brynn Cartelli (Team Kelly) “Fix You” by Coldplay — Her mother has faced some health challenges, which is why this song is so personal to Brynn. Yep, a young lady who just turned 15 did that. How does a 15-year-old get that kind of stage presence? I’ll tell you this, Brynn is going straight back to #1 in my weekly Voice rankings later this week. Dang, Brynn. Her best performance since the live playoffs by far. Grade: A

Christiana Danielle (Team Alicia) “Ain’t No Sunshine” by Bill Withers — Wow, I thought that was Christiana’s best performance in weeks. A very soulful, sultry version of that song. Kelly Clarkson calls it her favorite performance by Christiana. I might agree. Will it be enough to keep Christiana out of the bottom three tomorrow night? I doubt that it will. But I wouldn’t put her there. Grade: A–

Jackie Foster (Team Alicia) “Gravity” by Sara Bareilles –Jackie’s been singing rockers every week lately. She’s showing her tender, vulnerable side this week. The was a pretty solid vocal from Jackie. Alicia said it was hard for Jackie to hold it together. I would have liked to have seen even more emotion. Here’s the thing: I’m not sure how much of a crowd please / iTunes hit that’s going to be. And that has to be part of the strategy at this point. Grade: B–

Jackie Verna (Team Adam) “Love Triangle” by RaeLynn — Really like this song choice for Jackie. Jackie’s challenge is telling a story that isn’t true to her own experience. Is Jackie having trouble projecting? On the opening of the song, it was a bit difficult hearing her vocals over the backing bad. That didn’t work out quite as well as I hoped it might. Jackie hit a couple of big notes, but that song really is more about emotion than glory notes. Grade: B–

Kaleb Lee (Team Kelly) “Boondocks” by Little Big Town — Kaleb went upbeat last week and it didn’t go over great with fans, so I really expected him to sing a heartfelt ballad this week. Nope. This is a challenge, Kaleb says because he’s singing a song normally done by a quartet. Very solid performance. Of course, I liked last week’s and Kaleb finished fourth among four country singers on iTunes. Kaleb lost the guitar for this performance. I would have suggested losing the hat. You can see Kaleb’s eyes when he sings. Grade: B

Kyla Jade (Team Blake) “This Is Me” from “The Greatest Showman” — Apparently, Kyla getting bullied a bit online; Blake tells her to “ignore that stuff.” That performance, folks, is without doubt Top 8 worthy. She delivered a great opening. She connected with the song. And she’s got one of the biggest voices on the show. That was much better than her performance last week. Grade: A–

Pryor Baird (Team Blake) “My Town” by Montgomery Gentry — Pryor had been putting a country flavor into his recent performances. This week, he goes full country with the Montgomery Gentry tune. I honestly did not like this nearly as much as the “Night Moves” performance. But Blake calls the performance incredible and Pryor certainly poured plenty of passion into the performance. Grade: B–

Rayshun LaMarr (Team Adam) “Grant Green” by Mr. Jukes — So this song choice is Adam’s? And he thinks it’s going to be a game change, not to mention Top 5 on iTunes. Rayshun’s delivering his usual high-energy performance, but I do not like this song choice at all. For one thing, it leaves Rayshun with big breaks in his vocal. Strong ending, but it can’t salvage a misguided idea. Grade: C+

Spensha Baker (Team Blake) “Red” by Taylor Swift — This is one of my favorite song choices of the night. Spensha says she’s never performed a song like this before. Hey, if every Spensha performance was that solid from start to finish, I’d say she’s finals material. That was a very, very nice performance. Unlike Carson, I wouldn’t call it a “moment.” I would definitely call it Top 8 worthy. Blake says Spensha is going to be a country music star. Grade: B+