Idol Chatter & Voice Views

 

These single-elimination weeks on The Voice tend to be less suspenseful than the double eliminations of previous seasons.

But don’t worry. The Voice will make up for it next week when nine singers compete for four spots in the season finale.

In the meantime, we’ve got to get down to that Top 9, which is what this week will be all about.

Will Jordan Smith bounce back after being topped on the charts for the first time last week?

Will another contestant be able to string together enough impressive performances — with only three weeks left — to challenge Jordan for the Season 9 title?

Jeffery Austin, Team Gwen: Live playoffs — He sang “Say You Love Me.” The song hit number 25 on iTunes, sixth best among the 24 live playoff songs. Top 12 — He sang “Let It Go.” The song hit number 9 on the iTunes Top 200, third best of the night. Top 11 — Jeffery performed “Dancing On My Own” and hit number 27 on the iTunes Top 200, fifth best of the night.

Tonight: My initial post said he’d be singing Nick Jonas’s “Jealous.” Actually, he’s singing “Jealous” by Labrinth, a great song that I just listened to for the first time and is closer to what Jeffery’s been doing to this point. Thanks to Ellie Lawrence for alerting me about that. Jeffery calls this one of the most beautiful songs he’s ever heard and says he thinks it will show off his vulnerable side. Another splendid, heartfelt vocal from Jeffery. Really nice sound choice and I like the fact that he and Gwen introduced us to a song we haven’t heard a mllion times. I’m a little confused over why Jeffery was forced to open the show. Jordan didn’t have to do that the week after he got the pimp spot. Hopefully, Jeffery will make the Top 9; he deserves to be there. Grade: A–

Emily Ann Roberts, Team Blake: Live playoffs — She sang “In the Garden.” The song hit number six on the iTunes’ Top 200, the second best performance of 24 live playoff songs. But Emily Ann needed the Team Blake save to make the Top 12. Top 12 — She sang “Blame It on Your Heart.” The song hit number 20 on the iTunes Top 200, fifth best of the night. Top 11 — She cracked the Top 10 on iTunes for a second time, reaching number 10 with her cover of The Judds’ “Why Not Me.” That was the third best performance of the week on iTunes.

Tonight: More throwback country from Emily Ann as she slows it down singing “She’s Got You,” recorded by Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn. I understand Emily wants to sing classic country, but I’m wondering about this song choice. She’s 17 and she’s singing about a mature woman’s heartbreak. I would have liked to have seen a little more heartbreak in that performance. Vocally, the performance was solid once again. And at this point I think Emily Ann deserves to be the last country singer standing. That just wasn’t my favorite of her performances. She’s getting lots of praise from the coaches. Pharrell called the performance “fantastic.” Grade: B

Braiden Sunshine, Team Gwen: Live playoffs — He performed “Everything I Own.” The song hit number 62 on iTunes, 11th best among 24 songs from the live playoffs. Top 12 — He performed “Renegade.” The song hit number 75 on the iTunes Top 200 (worst of the night), but number 1 on the rock singles chart. Top 11 — He sang the 1980s hit “True.” The song hit number 63 on the iTunes Top 200. Only one song did worse on the charts, but Braiden was voted into the Top 10.

Tonight: Braiden returns to the rock route, singing “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons. Remember, he got his start covering rock songs in a cover band. And Braiden says this song choice is his attempt to show he can do something more current. Another week, another new look. The curls are back, but his hair is shorter now. Braiden sounded really good on the opening and again on the bridge, but I still have trouble believing him as an alternative rocker. He scores points for stage presence and, let’s face it, he’s doing better with voters than his iTunes performances would suggest. Grade: C+

Shelby Brown, Team Adam: Live playoffs — She sang “You’re No Good.” The song hit number 66 on iTunes, 12th best among 24 live playoff songs. She was voted into the Top 12. Top 12 — She sang “In Color;” the song hit number 35 on the iTunes Top 200, eighth best from the night. Top 11 — She performed a country version of the Lady Gaga hit “You and I.” The song hit number 96 on iTunes, ranking last among the songs from Monday’s show. But Shelby was voted into the Top 10.

Tonight: Shelby returns to her country roots, singing Vince Gill’s “Go Rest High on that Mountain.” Shelby says she wanted a song she could be more emotionally connected to and she’s dedicating this to her late grandfather. Mission accomplished in terms of the emotional connection. Mission accomplished in terms of picking a song that should register with country fans at home. Mission accomplished in turning in a fine vocal. My only complaint is that there were several spots where I couldn’t make out the lyrics. Grade: B

Korin Bukowski, Team Gwen: Live playoffs — She sang “Adia.” The song hit number 181 on iTunes, ranking 23rd among 24 live playoff songs. But Korin advanced to the Top 12 thanks to Gwen’s save. Top 12 — She sang “Titanium,” landed in the bottom two, but advanced to the Top 11 via the instant save. The song hit number 55 on the iTunes Top 200, ninth best of the night. Top 11 — She sang “Only Hope” and hit number 56 on the iTunes Top 200, ninth best of the night. But she needed another instant save to advance to the Top 10.

Tonight: Earlier today, Korin tweeted to fans that as much as she likes singing an extra song for them each week, she’d prefer to avoid doing so this week. She’ll try to prevent it by covering Selena Gomez’s “Same Old Love.” Gwen is pushing her to be more sassy with this performance. Glad to see the platinumn blonde hair is gone. But I’m not sure this reworking of the song is working. Korin is showing more stage presence and sass than normal, but perhaps not as much as the song required. As for the vocal, it was fine. But her save-me vocal last week was better. I’m guessing she might land in the bottom two again. Grade: C

Amy Vachal, Team Adam: Live Playoffs — She sang “The Way You Look Tonight.” The song hit number 29 on iTunes, seventh best among 24 live playoff songs. But Amy needed the Team Adam save to make the Top 12. Top 12 — She performed a stripped down version of “Hotline Bling.” The song hit number 6 on the iTunes Top 200, second best of the night. Top 11 — She covered Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” and hit number four on iTunes, best of the night.

Tonight: After two weeks of tackling very current hits and scoring a hit on iTunes, Amy and Adam will deviate a bit this week. She’ll sing “Bye Bye Bye,” a song released by *NSYNC back in 2000. Amy says she was a big fan of *NSYNC when she was growing up. Hey, Korin and Gwen, this is what a smart reworking of a popular song sounds like. I’ll be shocked it Amy doesn’t find herself very high on the iTunes’ charts again after this performance. There was a transition at one point in the song that got/sounded very messy. Otherwise that was another really nice performance. Grade: A–

Jordan Smith, Team Adam: Live playoffs — He sang “Halo” by Beyonce and scored the week’s biggest hit on iTunes, hitting number three on the Top 200. Top 12 — Jordan sang “Great is They Faithfulness, and the song soared to number one on the iTunes 200. Top 11 — He sang Jessie J’s “Who You Are” and cracked the iTunes Top 10 for the third straight week. The song hit number eight, second best on the show.

Tonight: It’s been done over and over again on singing shows. Now Jordan Smith will give us his version of “Hallelujah.” As much as I like this song, I think it should be retired from singing competitions. Well, Jordan delivered vocally. No doubt about that. For some reason, I wasn’t nearly as moved by that performance as I have been by some other versions of that song. Maybe it’s because what we got was what was expected by that match of singer and song. But let’s face it: Jordan fans will love it. And it’s going to hit the Top 10 on iTunes again. Grade: B+

Zach Seabaugh, Team Blake: Live playoffs — He sang “Brand New Girlfriend.” The song hit number 21 on iTunes, fourth best of 24 live playoff songs. Top 12 — He sang “My Love.” The song hit number 26 on the iTunes Top 200, sixth best of the night. Top 11 — He sang “Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not” and landed at number 31 on the iTunes Top 200, the seventh best performance of the week on that chart.

Tonight: Blake and Zach are wisely staying in the fun lane. The teen will be performing Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.” Blake is constantly comparing Zach with Elvis, and Zach says this is a sort of Elvis-y song. There were some strange things going on early in this performance, like when the background singers broke in for the first time. But Zach the hip-shaker is back, and this is a crowd-pleasing perofrmance that will ensure the teen has a shot at making the finals next week. And then Zach kicks it into high gear for the last 30 seconds or so. I’m wondering where that energy was earlier in the performance. Not a fabulous vocal, but I’m pretty sure that won’t matter. Blake thinks Zach will make the finale. Grade: B

Madi Davis, Team Pharrell: Live playoffs — She sang “Songbird” by Fleetwood Mac and hit number 22 on iTunes. That was the fifth best among 24 songs from the live playoffs. Top 12 — She performed “Who Will Save Your Soul.” The song hit number 34 on the iTunes Top 200, seventh best of the night. Top 11 — She sang “Love is Blindness” and hit number 16 on the iTunes Top 200, fourth best of the night.

Tonight: Well, if Madi registers a moment tonight, it won’t be because of an imaginative song choice. She’ll be performing the oft-done “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” Hopefully, with a unique twist. Madi says this is one of her all-time favorite songs and one of the first she ever covered. This started off sounding magical, but I would have preferred an even more stripped-down version. Another reworking of a song that just missed for me. But I still appreciate the fact that Madi takes chances like that each and every week. She gets a great reception from the audience. And Pharrell is encouraging everyone to download her version of the song. Grade: B–

Barrett Baber, Team Blake: Live playoffs — He sang “I Drive Your Truck.” The song his number 17 on iTunes, third best among 24 live playoff songs. Top 12 — He performed “Right Here Waiting for You.” The song hit number 11 on the iTunes Top 200, fourth best from the night. Top 11 — He performed a rock version of the classic country hit “Delta Dawn.” The song hit number 29 on iTunes, sixth best of the night.

Tonight: Barrett goes classic country again, tackling Conway Twitty’s “I’d Just Love to Lay You Down.” Barrett says he’s making this song a tribute to his home state of Arkansas, where Conway is from. Blake says this is his favorite song Barrett has attempted. Well, another fine vocal form Barrett too — one of the best of the night — though my favorite part was actually when he went very soft for a couple of lines. I would have liked to have seen him extend that for a bit longer. It certainly will be interesting to see how the four country songs do on iTunes tonight, because all four country singers on the show did well. Grade: B+