Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The Voice Season 14 Top 12 includes (from left) Pryor Baird, Kaleb Lee, Spensha Baker, Kyla Jade, Jackie Verna, Jackie Foster, Brynn Cartelli, Christiana Danielle, D.R. King, Sharane Calister, Rayshun LaMarr and Britton Buchanan. (NBC Photo)

The Voice Top 12 take the stage tonight in the first show of the Season 14 finals.

Tomorrow night, two singers will be put at risk of elimination and one will receive an instant save as the show cuts to a Top 11.

As for voting tonight, after last week’s live vote fiasco, it returns to normal.

That means you can vote for your favorite until noon tomorrow by all the standard methods — via The Voice website, by downloading tonight’s songs, by stream them on Apple Music and by voting through The Voice app.

Here’s a link to the official voting rules.

And, since the songs have already been posted on iTunes, here’s what we’ll be hearing tonight. That said, PLEASE REMEMBER, for a download to count as a vote, it must occur during the voting window, which runs from 8 p.m. tonight to noon tomorrow. So don’t start dowloading yet.

I’ll be back after the show with iTunes results and song by song grades.

Ranking the Top 12
Top 12 social media leaders
iTunes results (live playoffs)
Exit interviews

Rayshun Lamarr (Team Adam), “When Love Takes Over” by David Guetta: How can you not admire the energy Rayshun takes to the stage. Leading up to that big song-ending glory note, he became something of a whirling dervish on stage. Unfortunately that wasn’t his best vocal. It started a bit sharp and every time he hit the chorus I wondered if the song was a good match for his voice. Grade: C+

Kaleb Lee (Team Kelly), “Amazed” by Lonestar: I truly believe someone should count how often songs are covered on singing shows. Once the number hits 10, the song is taken off the books and can’t be performed again. Guarantee “Amazed” would have been retired already. That said, Kaleb delivered a solid enough performance that he’s sure to be around next week. Two notes: If he’s singing an emotional tune, losing the cowboy hat would be a good idea. Wanna see the emotion in those eyes. Second, Kaleb admits he still has a little rust to knock off after not performing for so long. When he stretched for a couple of those big notes, you could tell. Grade: B–

Jackie Foster (Team Alicia), “Toxic” by Britney Spears: Hey, look at that, rocker Jackie showed up decked out in a leather jacket, jeans and tall boots as opposed to her Sunday finest. That arrangement of “Toxic” comes from her band back in Boston (The Self Portraits) and while I liked Melanie Martinez’s Season 3 re-creation of the Britney it a bit better, I’m not going to complain about anyone who takes a risk as opposed to serving up the same-ole same old. Here’s hoping Jackie’s around for a while. Grade: B

Spensha Baker (Team Blake), “Down on My Knees” by Trisha Yearwood: After last week, I felt like Spensha needed to deliver a performance that proved herself Top 12 worthy. She accomplished that, turning in the best vocal of the night so far. She was powerful. She was passionate. She was invested in teh song. And she sounded oh, so much better than a week ago, which I’m going to chalk up to a bad case of the live-playoff pressure jitters. Grade: B+

Christiana Danielle (Team Alicia), “Say Something” by a Great Big World: I’m a fan of Christiana’s distinct vocal tone. I’m a bigger fan of the emotional connection she had to that performance. There a couple of vocal wobbles, but that was the most impassioned performance we’ve seen so far tonight and should certainly advance Christiana to the Top 11. Grade: B

D.R. King (Team Kelly), “White Flag” by Dido: I’m pretty sure D.R.’s incredible range and vocal power is what prompted Kelly to save him last week. He tried his best to put those traits on display at the end of this performance, but I’m thinking it was an ill-advised song choice and an ill-advised arrangement of that song choice. Put simply: It just didn’t come together very well. And that last note sounded more like a hiccup. Grade: C.

Sharane Calister (Team Adam), “In My Blood” by Shawn Mendes: I know she was voted through last week, but I still think Sharane is one of Season 14’s most under-rated performances. She’s stylish, attacks every performance with passion and delivers powerhouse vocals week in and week out. This one wasn’t pitch perfect, but I liked the song choice and will look forward to see Sharane again next week. Grade: B–

Pryor Baird (Team Blake), “Pickin’ Wildflowers” by Keith Anderson: I’ve been saying Pryor needed a statement moment on the show. He might just have found it. Here’s betting that goes over very, very well with The Voice’s large country fan base. The song was a great match for Pryor’s gruff vocals, and his performance went into overdrive with the guitar solo and everything that followed from that point. Great high-energy performance. Grade: A–

Brynn Cartelli (Team Kelly), “Up To The Mountain” by Patty Griffin: When the American Idol auditions were airing, talented 15-year-olds kept showing up and I kept thinking, ‘Wow, bet The Voice wishes they’d landed her first.’ Forget it. Those young ladies are gone. Brynn is still standing. And singing like she should win Season 14. I mean, wow! Two weeks ago, she did country. Then she transformed into a pop-rocker. Then she delivers a soulful vocal like that. Pretty much flawless. At age 15. Wow. Grade: A

Jackie Verna (Team Adam), “I’m With You” by Vance Joy: I thought Jackie was a bit of a surprise save pick by Adam. Look, she has potential and a pretty voice. But that was a ton of performing experience he let go in the live playoffs. Alas, this was not one of Jackie’s best performances. When she song swelled, she seemed to get vey shouty very quickly. And she might be in trouble tomorrow night because of it. Grade: C

Britton Buchanan (Team Alicia), “Small Town” by John Mellencamp: Britton set the bar awfully high for himself with his last two performances. Vocally, he fell a bit short of that bar tonight. But, hey, he’s a likable young man who’s going to breeze into the Top 11 and it was nice to see him work the stage like that, even though it didn’t come off quite as naturally as it does with some of the show’s more experienced performers. Grade: B–

Kyla Jade (Team Blake), “One Night Only” by Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls)L Hmm, two weeks ago, I wrote that The Voice, having made the mistake of allowing Jennifer’s background singer to compete on the show, needed to make sure it’s handling of her was above reproach. No special treatment. No pimp spots. So where do we find her in the very first week of the finals? In the pimp spot. Singing a Jennifer song. Oh, my. They just don’t get it. Anyway, the performance would have ranked as perhaps my fourth or fifth favorite of the night, but there’s no denying that Kyla delivered one of the night’s best vocals. Grade: A–