Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The Voice Top 5 will each take the stage twice tonight with the Season 20 title on the line.

Blake Shelton will be represented by two singers, Cam Anthony and Jordan Matthew Young, the recipient of last week’s instant save.

They’re joined in the Top 5 by Team Kelly’s Kenzie Wheeler, Team Nick’s Rachel Mac and Team Legend’s Victor Solomon.

Here’s what the Top 5 will sing tonight. The links take you to the studio versions of the songs on YouTube.

See also …
Ranking the Top 5
Song by song grades for the Top 9

First round:

Kenzie Wheeler (Team Kelly), “Heartland” — Kenzie played air guitar. Kenzie did a little spin. Kenzie rocked his mullet. What he didn’t do was deliver a Voice “moment” on a night when he needed a couple of moments to stop Cam’s momentum in its track. There was nothing bad about this performance. It just wasn’t finale great. There had to be several dozen up-tempo country songs that would have made more of an impact. Grade: B

Victor Solomon (Team Legend), “I Can’t Make You Love Me” — After Victor went gospel last week and nailed it, I was surprised by this song choice. I was more surprised by how shot Victor’s voice sounded on it. I’m not going to blame him. We’ve heard him sing much, much better than this. Though there were times when I felt relying on emotion rather than vocal frills, especially with what sounded like a tired voice, would have been a better option. Grade: C

Jordan Matthew Young (Team Blake), “Key to the Highway” — I really thought that, with Blake at the helm, Jordan might go country or country-rock twice Monday to improve his chances of landing better than fifth in the voting. Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t mind this swampy, bluesy performance. Jordan sounded pretty darn good on it. But there was also a solid 30-second guitar solo during which he didn’t sing a single note on a show called The Voice. Grade: B

Rachel Mac (Team Nick), “I Hope You Dance” — Why is Rachel wearing a crown? I mean, she’d look glorious in that golden dress. Oh, well, at least she isn’t sprouting black wings a la Juliet Simms in Season 2. I was hopeful Rachel could turn tonight into a three-singer race for the crown, because I thought she had the songs to do it. This vocal showed how sweet Rachel can sound. But it was also awfully pitchy in spots. Grade: C+

Cam Anthony (Team Blake), “Stand Up” — Cam was the final finalist to perform Monday night and the first whose performance said: “I what to win this thing.” The sitting, with Cam marching back and forth across a table lined by red-clad, masked background singers certainly grabbed one’s attention. But if it hadn’t, Cam’s vocals would have. I preferred this performance to Willie Spence’s cover of the same song on American Idol Sunday night. My only complaint is the way The Voice tends to arrange these big vocal numbers, letting the background singers carry the song while the contestant wails ab lib for the final minute of the performance. Grade: A–

Second round

Kenzie Wheeler (Team Kelly), “The Keeper of the Stars” — This song choice was a much better fit for Kenzie’s deep country vocals. And a spiritual song about love was sure to score well with The Voice’s large country fan base. Will it be enough to give Kelly her third win with a country artist? We’ll find out Tuesday night. Grade: B

Rachel Mac (Team Nick), “The Chain” — Rachel has a ways to go if she wants to be the new mystical Welsh witch, but I loved her commitment to this performance. The way she let herself belt at key moments. Heck, even the way she tossed off her hat in the middle of the performance. I would have loved, absolutely loved to have seen the progress this young woman would have made over the course of an American Idol season where she would have had to perform 13-14 times just to make the finals. Grade: B+

Jordan Matthew Young (Team Blake), “Stay” — Gotta say, I didn’t expect Jordan to sing a Rihanna song on The Voice finale. But I didn’t mind listening to his raspy countrified version of the song. Naturally, he didn’t provide the vocal highlights that made the original so special. But it was a decent flip of a popular song and Jordan certainly seemed emotionally connected. Grade: B

Cam Anthony (Team Blake), “Wanted Dead or Alive” — This is a classic Blake move. Take your pop-soul singer and have him sing a country rocker as his final impression on voters. And it worked. Worked pretty darn well. Which I wasn’t sure it would because I thought one of Cam’s weakest performances on The Voice was his cover of Hozier’s “Take Me to Church.” This time, he delivered a fiery ending as an exclamation point to the night’s most impressive pair of performances. Grade: B+

Victor Solomon (Team Legend), “Freedom” — Dang, dang, dang. Where did that come from? Victor’s voice sounded exhausted on his ballad. Then he delivers that fiery performance, complete with a lengthy rap interlude. That was deserving of the show’s pimp spot. That was a performance I had to watch twice to appreciate all the energy Victor brought to the stage. And it left me wondering how much better his chances would be Tuesday if that ballad song choice has been a gospel classic. strong>Grade: A