Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The Top 5 perform on The Voice Monday night. (NBC Photo)

The Top 5 on The Voice will square off in the performance finale Monday night with the Season 18 winner due to be announced Tuesday.

And if you’re thinking, ‘Gee, that was fast,’ you’d be correct.

The three weeks — playoffs to season finale — is the shortest schedule in show history.

And it’s important to remember this is not a schedule abbreviated by the pandemic; this is the way Voice producers planned it all along.

And while “show-runner” Audrey Morrissey told Parade that planned pre-coverage for the now postponed Olympics necessitated a shortened season, I call bullshit.

The Voice has always ended the Monday before Memorial Day. Next Monday is Memorial Day.

And if an early Memorial Day cost The Voice a week, the show simply could have regained that by not wasting a week with a useless clip show three weeks ago.

Anyway, you can’t blame the talented Top 5 — Todd Tilghman and Toneisha Harris of Team Blake, Thunderstorm Artist of Team Nick, CammWess of Team Legend of Micah Iverson of Team Kelly — for the show’s format. I’m sure they’d prefer as many performances as possible.

So support them. Voting runs on the Voice app, the show’s website and Xfinity.com/voicevote runs from 8 p.m. tonight to 7 a.m. tomorrow eastern time (adjust for your time zone). Now, if you’re voting via your Xfinity box, the voting window is shortened to just three hours (8 to 11 p.m. eastern time, for instance. Check here for voting hours via that method for the other time zones.

Each contestant is singing a new cover and an original tonight, and the originals are on Apple Music (but not for streaming votes, according to the official voting rules). The originals were created with the help of the NBC “Songland” team.

Kudos to Toneisha and Thunderstorm for penning their own originals; CammWess co-wrote his with John Legend. Also on Apple Music are duets featuring the contestants and their coaches. I think those air tomorrow night.

NEW COVERS:

CammWess (Team Legend), Purple Rain: Check out the staging, a big improvement over last week. Not thrilled with the camera work shooting up on Camm from below. But he delivers an impassioned performance that’s vocally on point. Very nice start to the show. John says the song was never cleared for performance on the show before. Grade: B+

Todd Tilghman (Team Blake), I Can Only Imagine: Nice song choice for Todd, who’s a pastor back home. Not sure his voice soared the way he hoped when the song swelled in the middle, but Todd’s commitment to what he’s singing and his enthusiasm is great to see. Also liked the way he brought the song back down for a tender ending after all that belting. Grade: B

Toneisha Harris (Team Blake), Faithfully: Can we please retire this song from singing shows? Toneisha is doing a fine job vocally, but it’s difficult to create a vocal moment with such an overdone singing show song. Toneisha has vocal firepower to spare and got to show that off with a big ending. The grade that follows mostly reflects a tired song choice. Grade: B–

Micah Iverson (Team Kelly), Chasing Cars: Another song cleared for the show for the first time and one right up Micah’s lane. He’s giving his own little mini-concert, surrounded by socially distanced supporters. He showed off nice range near the end, but that wasn’t quite up to par with several of the other vocals we’ve seen on tonight’s finale. Grade: B–

Thunderstorm Artis (Team Nick), What a Wonderful World: Note that the performance order was just switched to put Thunderstorm in the pimp spot. This is pleasant, but I’m not sure it’s going to have the impact Nick/the producers hoped. With the exception of one little spot and the ending, it was a pretty straight-up cover. Okay, but not espcially memorable. Grade: B–

THE ORIGINALS

CammWess (Team Legend), Save It for Tomorrow: Camm wins the night based on the staging of his performances. And while I’m not sure a lover in the middle of an argument with Camm would agree with the premise of the song, it’s a pretty good example of why Camm has made the finals from a team that was loaded with four-chair turns when the blind audition ended (Camm turned just two). Nice song, very nicely done. Not sure Camm will win or finish in the Top 2 tomorrow night, but he had a fine finale. Grade: B+

Micah Iverson (Team Kelly), Butterflies:
Micah says he decided to record this song because it sounds radio ready. And is a bit of a twist on butterlies. Hey, and it’s a really catchy song, and one Micah did a very nice job with. Really nice emotional connection for a song he didn’t write too. Definitely a song I’ll listen to again. Grade: B+

Thunderstorm Artis (Team Legend), Sedona: Thunderstorm wrote this song, which he said was partly inspired by the mountains in his native Hawaii. Really beautiful song, the definition of chill. And major kudos to Thunderstorm for being brave enough to defy what would typically be expected in the finale, showing off all sorts of vocal gymnastics. Instead, he delivered feeling. Grade: A–

Todd Tilghman (Team Blake), Long Way Home: Woo-hoo! Ryan Innes, a former Voice contestant had a hand in writing this song. Quite remarkable to think that Todd, 41 when he auditioned, hadn’t performed music outside church until The Voice, now he’s one of the favorite heading into tonight. Todd shows off a nice rasp on this song, but that felt a bit short of a ‘I must win” exclamation mark. Grade: B–

Toneisha Harris (Team Blake), My Superhero: She starting writing this song about her son when he was diagnosed with leukemia back in 2011. Really, nice heartfelt song. And I’ll take that over vocal gymnastics every time. This is easily my favorite Toneisha performance since the at-home shows began. Hey, even the use of the back choir was tastefully handled, allowing Toneisha to dig in even more emotionally. Grade: A–

THE DUETS (Coming tomorrow, but available on Apple Music)

CammWess and John Legend, Rocket Man:

Micah Iverson and Kelly Clarkson, I Run to You:

Thunderstorm Artis and Nick Jonas, “You’ll Be in My Heart”

Todd Tighlman and Blake Shelton, Authority Song:

Toneisha Harris and Blake Shelton, Don’t Stop: