Idol Chatter & Voice Views

We’re down to six contestants on The Voice.

The best news about that is we should get two songs apiece from those six contestants tonight.

The Top 6 on The Voice, including Cole Vosbury, Will Champlin, Matthew Schuler, Tessanne Chin, James Wolpert and Jacquie Lee. (NBC Photo)

At least that’s how it worked in Season 4 at this point.

And, you know what? We might need two performances to determine who’s most worthy of the semifinals among this talented bunch.

Especially after last week, when Will Champlin scored his first “moment” and Matthew Schuler was saddled with his first better-forgotten performance.

Back in the spring, this was also a single elimination week on The Voice, leaving five contestants to battle it out in the semifinals.

Yep, Carson just confirmed it: Two songs per singer and only one goes home tonight.

Cole Vosbury (NBC Photo)

Cole Vosbury (Team Blake): Cole has performed R&B, rock and country in the past three weeks. And he’s been the only singer on The Voice to crack the top 30 on iTunes all three weeks. In fact, the bearded wonder has the best iTunes track record of any contestant since the live shows began. If anything, he seems to be gaining momentum under the tutelage of Blake Shelton.

Blake presents Cole an acoustic guitar, then gives him Hall and Oates’ “Rich Girl” as his first-round song. This song might be the best fit for Cole in the last month. And he’s done a pretty good job with songs that weren’t a great fit. Fans of Cole’s rasp will love this performance. Nice little wrinkle at the end. If there’s a complaint — and that was a pretty fine vocal — it’s a question of how memorable that will be two hours from now when the voting begins. And Cole gets positive feedback from Blake, Adam and his former coach Cee Lo. Grade: B

Tessanne Chin (NBC Photo)

Tessanne Chin (Team Adam): By my estimation, Tessanne is the only front-runner who hasn’t suffered through an off-night on The Voice. But she’s also the only contestant who has yet to crack the top 20 on iTunes’ overall download chart. Adam Levine might correct that by giving Tessanne something more current to sing. You’ll recall she did impressive versions of Pink’s “Try” and Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger” earlier in the competition.

Adam has her singing Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song.” She says she loves the idea, but is also a little nervous because the song means so much to her fans in Jamaica. So much for current. This dates to 1980. One thing about Tessanne. You never have to worry about her voice being buried under the background music on The Voice. Her voice simply soars. I really didn’t love the opening of that performance. But by the end, Tessanne had pulled me in with her fine range. Not to mention that wonderful glory note. Very nice vocal. Hmm, Blake, I think she focused on the singing, too. And was given a song that better demonstrated her abilities. Grade: A-

Matthew Schuler (NBC Photo)

Matthew Schuler (Team Christina): Matthew looked like the clear-cut, front-runner until last week’s flop. As I reported earlier today, he’s picked up more Twitter followers than any other contestant since getting that instant save, so he’s well stocked with fans should it happen again. Here’s betting it doesn’t.

Each artist is offering up one song as a special dedication. Matthew is singing “Story of My Life” by One Direction and dedicating the song to his family — his parents for raising him right; his siblings for being the best he could ask for. Not so sure what’s up with Matthew, because the opening of this song is reminding me of his performance two weeks ago, when you could barely hear him. A case of nerves perhaps? He finds his stride once the tempo picks up. And he’s joined by a choir’s worth of background singers. A strong finish rescued that performance because the opening was not so great. Christina, of course, loved the performance. Adam gets high marks from Adam as well. Grade: B–

Will Champlin (NBC Photo)

Will Champlin (Team Adam): Singing cross-gender is an old trick on these singing shows, and Will used it to his advantage last week when his version of Etta James’ “At Last” wound up being the most popular on Top 8 night. He’s probably the contestant most in need of another show-stopping moment tonight because that’s the first time one of his songs climbed higher than 34 on iTunes.

Will is dedicating “A Change is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke to his wife and child, for sticking by him through good times and bad. I like the fact that the artists are getting to select a song tonight. Will might have needed three saves to survive to this point in the competition, but he’s going to go down fighting. He dazzled with his vocals last week. And he’s trying for a repeat by tackling a classic. After a bit of a slow start, and a bit of a vocal stumble, he came alive in the middle of that song. It sounded to me like he went sharp a couple of times late in the performance when he strained to reach the high notes. But Adam and Cee Lo give him credit for “reaching” with his vocals. Grade: B

James Wolpert (NBC Photo)

James Wolpert (Team Adam): The guy from Lancaster got mixed reviews for his performance of Queen’s “Somebody to Love.” Personally, I thought it was a lot of fun. It was also the first time James rocked and did well on iTunes, cracking the top 20 and coming in third among the Top 8 in terms of downloads. To that point, fans seemed to prefer the softer side of James.

He’s singing “Fell in Love with a Girl” and dedicating it to his dad, for sticking by him through all the decisions he’s made, “even the dumb ones.” And James brings his guitar out for his cover of this song by The White Stripes. Interesting song choice. But he’s a big fan of Jack White. This one will be interesting. I didn’t love the vocal. As Adam noted, there was a bit of a vocal miscue midway through. And it wasn’t the type of song that delivered the “moment” people will remember at the end of the show. That said, sometime these offbeat song choices do very well on iTunes. Grade: C+

Jacquie Lee (NBC Photo)

Jacquie Lee (Team Christina): After closing last week’s show in such brilliant fashion and staying in character the entire time, Jacquie Lee told ZapIt she has trouble not smiling on stage because she keeps thinking, “Oh, my God, I’m on stage on national television.” So much for feeling pressure.

Hmm, so Jacquie Lee is going to tackle Janis Joplin. Christina is asking her to sing “Cry, Baby.” Jacquie, smiling and laughing, says she’s never really been in love, so this is going to be a challenge for her. OK, it sounded like Jacquie Lee was screaming more than singing on that opening. And I’m not sure about this outfit. She looks more like a beauty pageant contestant, than someone about to belt out a Janis Joplin song. But Jacquie sounds much better on the verses. And she nailed that ending, belting out the final notes from her knees. And, then, the minute after the song ends, she flashes that big smile. The performance prompts Christina to strut to the stage to convince fans of the emotional power of that performance. Adds Adam: “If that’s you when you haven’t had your heart broken, I hate to see Jacquie Lee when it happens.” Grade: B+

Cole Vosbury: His second song is James Morrison’s “Better Man,” one he’s dedicating to his first love, even though it didn’t work out. Two purely acoustic performances from Cole. Not sure that’s the best strategy. But then, I’ve underestimated Cole a number of times on this show, so I’m not sure I’m the best judge of how well he’s doing. My take: Another fine vocal that, unfortunately, pales in comparison to some of the vocal fireworks we’re hearing from the likes of Tessanne, Jacquie Lee and Will. Interesting to see Cee Lo take ownership of Cole now that he has no artist of his own to coach. Says Cee Lo: “It’d be super cool to see you win.” Christina puts a bit of a damper on the Cole love fest, suggesting that Cole’s voice sounds tired. Grade: B

Tessanne Chin: She’s singing “Unconditionally” by Katy Perry and dedicating it to her parents for teaching her unconditional love. So, here comes the current song from Tessanne. Finally. And I was sorta lukewarm about that to the midway point. But that ending was excellent, absolutely excellent. Adam says Katy Perry songs have backfired for others on the show, but adds he really wasn’t worried about Tessanne, calling her ability “just crazy, off the charts.” So far, Tessanne is delivering the vocals of the night. Oh, and one little mystery solved — that piece of confetti that fell on Cole’s shoulder midway through his performance. It couldn’t wait for Tessanne. Grade: A–

Matthew Schuler: Christina says she and Matthew have to regroup, so she’s giving him another singing show standard, “When a Man Loves a Woman.” Likely hoping for a “Hallelujah” moment. And Matthew says he’s determined to never see the bottom three again. OK, this is more like it. Matthew’s voice soared on the very first line. My guess is Matthew just earned a spot in the Top 5 with that performance. That was his best performance since “Hallelujah.” Probably not quite as good because he seemed to be oversinging just slightly in spots, but a world better than his last two efforts. Grade: B+

Will Champlin: Adam has selected “Hey, Brother” by Avicii for Will, who says he’s hoping to strike a chord with this performance. And Will is playing banjo as the song begins. With giant flames behind him no less. Hold on, did Cee Lo have a hand in this? Regardless, I think this was a smart song choice on Adam’s part. Nice catchy chorus. There’s just a chance that might strike a chord. Once again, Will went for the big glory notes at the end, showing he knows how to play this game. Unfortunately, the critiques focused more on the song than Will’s performance of it. Which was solid. Again. Grade: B

Jacquie Lee: In her ZapIt interview, Jacquie Lee said she wanted to dedicate a song to her coach, Christina, so she’ll sing one of Christina’s songs, “The Voice Within.” She says this song was one of her favorites growing up. Really nice opening by Jacquie Lee, but she might have bitten off more than she could chew during the middle of that song. There was a portion in the middle when it seemed more like she was shouting than singing. She pulled it back together at the end, but that wasn’t my favorite Jacquie Lee performance. Not by a long shot. Grade: C

James Wolpert: And the guy from Lancaster gets to close the show, which means The Voice must think he has something special in store for us. Adam’s choice for James: “I’d Do Anything for Love” by Meatloaf. Wow, a Meatloaf song on The Voice. And Adam is encouraging him to unleash it all for this performance. James is following his advice, but this might have seemed better on paper than in reality. First, the song is tough to condense into a Voice performance. Second, James’ vocal just wasn’t up to that song. At least not tonight. Adam says he’s not feeling well, so that might be part of the reason. But that vocal was sorta all over the place. Great idea. It just didn’t quite work for James. Grade: C

So, if I were ranking the singers, based solely on what we heard tonight, I think those rankings would go like this.

1. Tessanne Chin

2. Will Champlin

3. Matthew Schuler

4. Jacquie Lee

5. Cole Vosbury

6. James Wolpert