Idol Chatter & Voice Views

With a spot in the Season 6 finals on the line, each member of the Top 5 will perform twice on The Voice tonight.

Unless The Voice changes from the format of the last three seasons, three singers advance this week.

The Top 5 on The Voice — Jake Worthington, Josh Kaufman, Kat Perkins, Kristen Merlin and Christina Grimmie. (NBC Photo)

Those remaining include Christina Grimmie and Kat Perkins of Team Adam, Jake Worthington of Team Blake, Josh Kaufman of Team Usher and Kristen Merlin of Team Shakira.

If you missed my rankings of the Top 5, head here.

And for a look at how the Top 5 rank in terms of social media support, go here.

Suffice it to say, Christina has a big, big edge.

As usual, I’ll be grading each performance as it occurs.

Having spied the spoiler list, I must say there are some curious and interesting song choices tonight. And much better song choices for Josh by Usher, in my opinion.

Before the competition begins, we get to hear Usher’s new single, “Good Kisser.”

Speaking of new singles, Jacquie Lee of Season 5 fame has one coming out tomorrow. check it out here.

1. Kristen Merlin: The Team Shakira member says she used to hate country music. Now she’s in the Top 5 on The Voice as a country singer. She’s dedicating Miranda Lambert’s “Gunpowder and Lead” to her friends back home in Hanson, Mass. Gotta say, Kristen has picked two very challenging songs to sing tonight. Kristen is delivering a fine vocal, but I’m not sure she’s delivering the attitude this song needs. This song — Miranda Lambert style — is all about sass and attitude. Kristen’s strolling around the stage smiling, which isn’t exactly the sentiment conveyed by the pissed-off lyrics and mood of the song. That said, Kristen delivered a solid vocal performance from start to finish. Blake picks up on the smile, but says the performance worked for her anyway. Usher calls it “great.” Shakira says she rocked the stage. Grade: B–

Josh Kaufman

2. Josh Kaufman: Josh hails from Indianapolis and says the city not only gave him a chance to perform music, but that’s where he met his wife, with whom he now has three children. He’s singing John Legend’s “All of Me” and dedicating it to his family. This song is a really great match for Josh’s voice. And his opening is great. And I appreciate The Voice’s arrangement, which features subdued backing music so that Josh’s voice remains front and center. Dang. Let’s just say that was pretty darn good. Not a whole lot of vocal gymnastics. Just a very nice sensitive vocal. I think you can punch Josh’s ticket for the finale. Shakira says he always manages to deliver. Adam says he’s getting “better and better.” Blake calls it “beautiful” and says he doesn’t even question whether Josh will be in the finals. Grade: A–

Kat Perkins

3. Kat Perkins: Perhaps the blond hair dye is getting to Adam. He seems to think Kat has the best trajectory on the show because she’s been saved twice. Huh? You have to land in the bottom three to be saved. That means four of the five artists singing tonight did better with fans last week. She’s singing “Chandelier” by Sia. Nice to hear her sing something current, but this is a bit of an odd choice. I really like the Sia version of this song. Not sure I like Kat’s as much. And it sure seemed like there were some pitch issues the first time she ran through that chorus. The judges’ feedback: Blake says she showed another layer of what she’s capable of doing. Shakira likes the fact that Kat didn’t try to imitate the Sia version. Adam says he thinks Kat should be in the finals. Grade: C+

Jake Worthington

4. Jake Worthington: The guy from LaPorte, Texas, expresses his thanks for all the support from back home, where cut-outs of Jake’s face seem to be all the rage. He’s going to tackle Waylon Jennings’ “Good Ole Boys” in round one. You might know it better as the Dukes of Hazzard song. Jake has picked a crowd-pleaser, but I’m not sure this is a song with a whole lot of dynamics of the type that would create a Voice “moment,” which should always be the goal on a show like this. I did like the way Jake strolled away from the mic stand mid-song to try to get the crowd pumped up. And he delivered a lively ending. And, from the crowd response, there’s no doubt he’s a crowd favorite. Usher appreciated the big note at the end. Adam calls him “as real and genuine as it gets” and says he needs a “made in America” stamp. Blake says country music needs an artist like Jake. Grade: B–

Christina Grimmie

5. Christina Grimmie: She’s going to sing “Hide and Seek” by Imogen Heap, one of two rather innovative song choices for the 20-year-old front-runner. Christina calls the song the biggest risk she’s ever taken. Like I said, it was an interesting song choice, and it started off way too sleepy. But when Christina hit that chorus … wow, her voice soared incredibly. The last 90 seconds of that were pretty great. Usher said he was more impressed when she stopped using the voice device and just sang. Shakira calls her a representative for the little people. Huh? Adam says the goal was to do something different rather than the straight-up karaoke featured so often on singing shows. Well, mission accomplished on that note. I’m wondering why you’d mess with the vocal when you have a singer as great as Christina who, in my mind, is unquestionably the best singer still on the show. Grade: B

6. Josh Kaufman: The guy from Indy wants to put his own stamp on “Love Runs Out” by One Republic. Usher says the goal is to show America he can make a current record. Josh starts the song a cappella, with nothing but hand claps. This was another smart song choice by Usher. That said, Josh was really a bit too laid back on the opening part of that vocal. Josh absolutely kicked butt on the chorus of that song, and finished on his knees center stage. Unfortunately, the verses weren’t quite as dead-on. Adam calls Josh “amazing.” Blake says he sees some “Robert Palmer” in Josh and calls him a “natural born killer singer.” Usher credits Josh for leaving it all on the stage. Gotta say, I think Josh has delivered the two best performances of the night. Grade: A

7. Kat Perkins: Kat says growing up in a rural town, she started off singing country music. But when she turned 18 she stared writing her own music “and it just came out rock.” She’s singing “Let It Go” from the “Frozen” soundtrack. And dedicating it to all the kids back home. Not sure what’s going on with Kat tonight, but she seems awfully sharp on the chorus of this song. No doubt, she’s got all the vocal firepower you could ask for, but she seems to be misfiring much more often than usual tonight. On her two save-me songs, her vocals were 100 percent spot-on. That wasn’t. Though she does get a great reaction from the fans. Blake likes Kat’s big strong endings to her songs, and looks forward to buying a Kat album so it can get him pumped up. Usher called it a classic performance and says Kat killed it. Shakira calls it an unexpected song choice and allowed her to show off another side. Adam says she’s the show’s most consistent singer. Grade: B–

8. Kristen Merlin: Kristen is going to tackle Jewel’s “Foolish Games,” which is one of my absolute, all-time favorite vocals by any singer from any time. Not sure this should be tackled by anyone other than the original. But we’ll see … Kristen is doing a credible version of this, and showing tons of emotion. If the vocal is a bit shy of Jewel’s, the performance is helping make up for it. She also delivered a very nice glory note there near the end. But that was a beast of a song to tackle. Check out the original, folks. Blake liked how connected Kristen seemed and called her performance moving. Usher calls it a good moment for Kristen. Shakira says Kristen gives people “chills.” Shakira calls it a “beautiful rendition” of the song. Grade: B

9. Christina Grimmie: The gal from New Jersey says she didn’t have a ton of friends growing up, but got a keyboard at age 10 and that changed her life. She moved to California a couple of years ago to pursue her music career. She’s dedicating “Some Nights” by FUN to her hometown. this might be the crowd-pleaser of the night. Told you. Dang. That was a lot of fun, wasn’t it? Between Christina’s fabulous glory notes to her comfort on stage to the conga drums to the balloons falling from the rafters like confetti, that was pretty darn entertaining. Shakira compliments Christina’s creativity. Blake says he enjoyed the crap out of her performance. Adam likes the fact that Christina isn’t pandering on song choice to get a reaction. He says he was a huge fan of that performance. So was I. The big notes will get the reaction, but Christina showed off all of the shades of her voice during that performance. Grade: A

10. Jake Worthington: This is one of the night’s more interesting choices. Jake is going to sing Bryan Adams’ “Heaven” and is struggling with the word versatile. This is going to be challenging for Jake. But he’s getting to close the show with a country ballad, and country artists do very well on this show. This is a bit sleepy, and Blake was right when he said every vocal flaw would be detectable, and there have been a few. Jake does deliver a very emotional ending to the song, which will gloss over some of the earlier missteps. Jake lets out a deep sigh at the end of the performance. Gotta love this guy’s attitude. Shakira liked the performance. Usher likes the fact that Jake pushed through some vocal issues. Blake says he’s proud of Jake and calls him the “real deal” yet again. Grade: B–

That’s it for tonight, folks. I’ll post photo galleries soon.

Who should advance?

Two are easy picks: Josh Kaufman, who was best tonight, and Christina Grimmie.

I’d grant the third spot to Kristen Merlin, who picked a couple of the most challenging songs tonight and mostly pulled them off.