Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Jershika Maple cover Elton John brilliantly during The Voice Season 21 semifinals Monday night. (NBC Photo)

With five spots in the finals on the line, The Voice cast delivered another night of overall outstanding performances Monday.

The semifinal show featured a solo performance by each of the remaining eight acts.

Each act also participated in a duet. I’ve included videos of those below. But I haven’t graded them because I think duets in the semifinals are a silly idea when the goal is to find the voice (or voices) on The Voice, not the best duet partners.

Wouldn’t two solos by each of the remaining acts have been far more entertaining?

Anyway, who should make the finals based on what we’ve seen since the live performances began>

If I was hand-picking finalists, here’s who I’d pick and the order I’d pick them in.

1. Girl Named Tom from Team Kelly

2. Jershika Maple from Team Legend

3. Paris Winningham from Team Blake

4. Hailey Mia from Team Kelly

5. Wendy Moten from Team Blake

Now, here are the song by song grades from Monday’s show.

Jim and Sasha Allen (Team Ariana), “Mrs. Robinson” by Simon and Garfunkel: The most bizarre moment of Monday’s The Voice came midway through this performance when Sasha Allen rushed off stage so Ariana Grande could hand him his guitar? Huh? Was that supposed to remind us that they’re Team Ariana? Or was it supposed to distract us from what would turn out to be the night’s weakest “solo” performance. Any momentum Jim and Sasha gained last week is gone. Tomorrow night, they should be gone from the competition. Grade: C–

Jershika Maple (Team Legend), “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” by Elton John: This should have been the show-closing performance. An absolutely brilliant vocal from the singer who needed an instant save last week to make it to the semifinals. I mean, other singers on Monday’s show built their way to an outstanding performance. Jershika started great and just kept getting better and stronger. This young woman belongs in the finals. Grade: A+

Paris Winningham and Wendy Moten (Team Blake), “Change the World” by Eric Clapton

Lana Scott (Team Blake), “Something in the Water” by Carrie Underwood: Lana has a lovely voice, which she displayed to great effect last week when she delivered on of the night’s best performance. But belting like Carrie Underwood isn’t her forte, which might have made this the night’s most ill-advised song choice. We did get a snippet of “Amazing Grace” at the end, but it didn’t salvage this performance on a night when Lana needed to be excellent. Grade: C+

Hailey Mia (Team Kelly), “Someone You Loved” by Lewis Capaldi: Entering Monday, I felt Hailey needed another “Elastic Heart” moment to make the finals. Midway through this performance, I felt she was doing fine, but falling a bit short of that. Then, the emotion swelled, she delivering a breath-taking glory note and, by the time she finished singing, I found myself hoping this mega-talented 14-year-old makes her way into those finals. Grade: B+

Lana Scott (Team Blake) and Jim and Sasha Allen, “Hold My Hand” by Hootie and the Blowfish

Girl Named Tom (Team Kelly), “River” by Joni Mitchell: Oh, yeah, they’ll score another Apple Music hit tonight. Between Bekah’s lovely voice and those amazing sibling harmonies, Girl Named Tom is something The Voice has never seen before. Every performance seems fresh. And most of them — including tonight’s — have been simply outstanding. That ending was especially superb. Grade: A

Joshua Vacanti and Jershika Maple (Team Legend), “Hand in My Pocket” by Alanis Morissette

Wendy Moten (Team Blake), “You’re All I Need to Get By” by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell: Another thoroughly professional performance by the show’s most experienced contestant. The first half was fine; the second half of the song, when the background singers carried the chorus and Wendy was free to ab lib and freelance, was outstanding. The song choice was hardly risky, but the execution was finals worthy. Grade; B+

Hailey Mia and Girl Named Tom (Team Kelly), “Hold on” by Wilson Phillips

Paris Winningham (Team Blake), “Close the Door” by Teddy Pendergrass: I was sorta hoping for a more risky song choice for Paris. After all, with Hailey and Jim and Sasha Allen gaining steam, there’s no guarantee Team Blake will sail into the finals unscathed. Paris certainly dug in for the second half of this cover, delivering the passion and rasp he’s known for. But will it be enough on a night filled with outstanding performances? Grade: B

Joshua Vacanti (Team Legend), “Ashes” by Celine Deon from Deadpool 2: Here’s my theory. The Voice would like to see each coach have a finalist. Team Legend appeared most in danger of not doing that heading into this week. And since Joshua was the team’s top vote-getter last week, he got the pimp spot in the hope that it would propel him into those finals. Look, Joshua delivered an fine vocal here, but he got a bit shouty in spots. And this is a stellar Top 8. Grade: B–