Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Christina Aguilera with Mark Ronson, her team’s mentor on Top 10 night for The Voice. (NBC Photo)

How superlative?

Three singers — Sawyer Fredericks, Kimberly Nichole and Meghan Linsey — cracked the Top 10 on iTunes, earning bonus points in the process.

Four artists — Sawyer, Meghan, DeAnna Johnson and Rob Taylor — landed at number one on genre charts.

And 11 of the 12 songs from last week’s show cracked the Top 100 on the iTunes Top 200 singles chart.

That’s pretty impressive.

To keep the streak going, the Voice brings in four new mentors this week. Mark Ronson will help the members of Team Christina, Dave Stewart will work with the members of Team Adam, Ryan Tedder will assist the members of Team Pharrell and Scott Hendricks will mentor the members of Team Blake.

I’ll be providing song by song grades throughout the show, so keep checking back to see how The Voice Top 10 are doing.

In the meantime, here’s a link to how the singers rank on social media and here’s how I’m ranking the Top 10.

1. Kimberly Nichole: She’s going to perform “Something’s Got a Hold on Me.” She starts stretched out on a red couch. And even from that position, she’s pitch perfect. The music swells and Kimberly goes into rocker mode. Really nice arrangement. Everything is working on this performance, including the background singers. Ms. Kimberly is on fire, folks. This is a great way to kick off the show. That, folks, was a pro performing. Grade A

2. Joshua Davis: He’s performing “Hold Back the River.” He seems to be holding back on this opening. The way Joshua is performing makes me wonder if his voice is okay. Unfortunately, when his vocals do come through loud and clear in the second half of the performance, he runs into some pitch problems. That, folks, was far from Joshua’s best performance. He can do much better. Hope he gets the chance next week. Grade: C–

3. Hannah Kirby: She’s selected “Shout: by Tears for Fears. Interesting pick. She has six drummers on stage with her. And she’s dressed in something that resembles a Janet Jackson uniform. The song is well suited to Hannah’s indie rock style. A nice upbeat performance, and she seems to be having lots of fun with it. Overall, nice job. Perhaps not as good as “Edge of Seventeen,” but certainly solid. Grade: B

4. Meghan Linsey: Will she go country again? Actually, she’s decided to sing “Home” by Marc Broussard. Wow, she sounds fantastic from the first note. This fits the bill — southern and soulful. Dang, her voice sounds so rich on the first run-through of that chorus. Kimberly and Meghan were two of the most impressive performers last week. Gotta tell you, after that performance, I’m expecting the same results this week. That was superb. Grade: A

5. Koryn Hawthorne: She’ll tackle “Make it Rain” by Ed Sheeran. Koryn has been one of the show’s pleasant surprises. Dang, looks like tonight’s going to be another strong one. She’s pouring tons of emotion into this performance. She might not be quite as vocally polished as Kimberly and Meghan, but she’s making up for it on this song with raw emotion. Wow, I expected Koryn to be one and gone after needing a save to make the finals. That performance, folks, was Top 8 worthy. Grade: A

6. DeAnna Johnson: She’s going to sing “Somebody to Love” by Jefferson Airplane. The same song Joey Cook performed on American Idol? How does this song wind up being done twice in one week on singing shows? And what sense does this choice make after DeAnna topped the iTunes Christian chart two weeks running? As always, I liked DeAnna’s tone, but she isn’t going to attack this upbeat number with the reckless abandon that it needs to make it work, especially after seeing what Kimberly and Meghan did with their songs. I did like that semi-growlat the 1:45 mark. Vocally, DeAnna fared better on that that I thought she might. She needed to cut loose more with the performance though. Grade: B–

7. Rob Taylor: He’s asked to sing “A Song for You” by Donny Hathaway. And he’s going to start out on the piano. Strong opening. Of course, Rob won the crowd over with a manic performance last week. This is totally different in tone. After two verses, he gets up from the piano. And unleashes a pretty impressive falsetto glory note. Solid performance. Pharrell calls it an immaculate job. Christina liked the vulnerability he displayed. Grade: B–

8. Corey Kent White: He’s decided to perform George Strait’s “Unwound.” Blake is looking for a faster tempo and more of a rock edge than Corey showed in the rehearsal. Following his mentors’ advice, Corey has dumped the guitar for this performance. The tempo is fine; the rock edge is still missing. Corey delivers a decent vocal on a song that wasn’t super demanding. The violin solo might have been the highlight. Corey flubbed the lyric at one point, according to Blake. Thanks, Blake, for pointing that out after Corey said most fans his age are unfamiliar with the song. Grade: C+

9. Sawyer Fredericks: He’s opted to sing “Iris” by the Goo Goo Dolls. Ryan Tedder wants to see authentic emotion from Sawyer. Nice song choice. I’d actually prefer more Sawyer and less backing musicians. Not sure he needed a full string section to pull this off. Of course, Sawyer is delivering another crowd-pleasing vocal, and when I check later tonight that song will likely be in the Top 10 on iTunes again. Really enjoyed Sawyer’s last run-through of the chorus. Blake compliments the power of his voice. Pharrell says the song went just the way Sawyer intended. Grade: B+

10. India Carney: She needs a boost because, frankly, I’m not sure Voice viewers appreciate how great her voice is. She’s going to perform Whitney Houston’s “Run to You.” She apparently tried performing this song before for an audition and it backfired. Christina wants her to do it anyway. India looks amazing. And she’s doing a fine job on the song, especially as it swells from the midway point on. Of course, you’d expect that. The Voice didn’t save this performance for last without reason. And she caps it all off with a nice sensitive ending. Pharrell calls it a “beautiful performance.” Grade: A–