Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The Voice Top 8 of Omar Cardona, Bodie, Bryce Leatherwood, Justin Aaron, Parijita, Kim Cruse, Brayden Lape and Morgan Myles. (NBC Photo)

The Top 8 on The Voice sing tonight, hoping to secure one of five spots in next week’s Season 22 finale.

The top four vote-getters after tonight’s show automatically advance to next week. Remember, the voting window runs from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. eastern time.

The bottom four in the voting will compete for an instant save and the final spots in the finale at the end of Tuesday’s results show.

Kim Cruse of Team Legend found herself in that position last week.

Morgan Myles of Team Camila and Bodie of Team Blake appear to be favorites to make the finale based on their string of outstanding peformances.

But the battle for the final three spots will be fierce. Also still alive are Bryce Leatherwood and Brayden Lape of Team Blake, Omar Cardona and Parijita of Team Legend and Justin Aaron of Team Gwen.

Tonight, each singer will perform one solo and be paired with another contestant for a duet.

Check back after the show. I’ll be grading the solo performances here.

See also …
Ranking the Top 8
Song by song grades for the Top 10
Song by song grades for the Top 13
Song by song grades for the Top 16

Justin Aaron, 34, Junction City, Kansas, (Team Gwen), “Stand Up” by Cynthia Erivo — Hopefully, Voice viewers will consider performing first an honor rather than a curse. With this performance, Justin delivered a convincing argument that he deserves a spot in next week’s finals. He and Gwen settled on a song choice that allowed him to show off his big vocals, his passion and ab lib effectively as he built to a dramatic ending. Grade: B+

Brayden Lape, 16, Grass Lake, Mich. (Team Blake), “In Case You Didn’t Know” by Brett Young — Brayden’s a good-looking young guy loaded with potential. But, given the talent in Season 22, he is not deserving of a spot in next week’s finale. Remember, the sum total of his performing experience before he auditioned for The Voice was “five little gigs.” This wasn’t his strongest vocal and the occasion called for lots more intensity. Grade: C

Parijita Bastola, 17, Severna Park, Md., (Team Legend), “Unstoppable” by Sia — Speaking of potential, then there’s Parijita. From a performance standpoint, this young high school student is ready for prime time. Vocally, there’s still a bit of inconsistency. And Parijita hasn’t quite reached the heights of her Top 16 performance again, vocally or emotionally. But if a Voice teen makes the finals, it had better be this young lady. Grade: B

Kim Cruse, 30, Woodville, Texas, (Team Legend), “Summertime” by Billie Holiday — This was a bit more frill filled than I would have liked. But, dang, what a voice. In my mind, three contestants on The Voice should be sure-fire finalists. Kim Cruse is one of them. The show’s called The Voice, folks, and this performance again proved she’ll deliver one of the show’s best vocals every time she takes the stage. Grade: A–

Omar Cardona, 33, Orlando, Fla., (Team Legend), “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion — In my most recent rankings, I noted that Omar’s song choices have been hit and miss. This one allowed him to show off his range. But from my viewpoint, it was a big miss. It’s just not a version of the song I’d ever care to hear again. This song is all about emotion. This arrangement seemed all about creating big vocal moments. Grade: C+

Bodie, 29, from Ladera Ranch, Calif., (Team Blake), “Without Me” by Halsey — This was easily the weakest of Bodie’s performances since the live shows started. He was nearly drowned out by the backing music when the song started, seemed to stray off pitch now and then and the production failed to capture the passion that’s usually a hallmark of his performances. Is it just me, or is the camera work sucking big time on The Voice tonight? It’s like the show is so intent on showing off it’s big productions of some of these songs — sorry, those background dancers detracted on this one — that they’re forgetting the focus should be on the contestants and their emotions. Grade: B–

Bryce Leatherwood, 22, Statesboro, Ga.. (Team Blake), “If Heaven Wasn’t so Far Away” by Justin Moore — Bryce vowed the cowboy hat would be back. Well, first it was off, then it was on, then it was being held in an outstretched hand as Bryce delivered the finals notes of a perfectly fine country cover. It wasn’t as good as last week. He kept his eyes closed way too much when he should have been connecting with the audience. And it didn’t scream: I must be in the finals, which should have been the goal for everyone Monday night. Grade: B

Morgan Myles, 35, Nashville, Tenn., (Team Camila), “Always Remember Us This Way” by Lady Gaga — The Voice saved the best for last. I mean, my gosh, every week this young lady delivers a show-stopping performance. I didn’t think she could top last week’s performance of “Tennessee Whiskey.” This was every bit as vocally masterful AND more emotional. Folks, Morgan is not only the best of Season 22, she’s putting together one of the finest set of performances we’ve ever seen in any season on The Voice. Grade: A+

WHITNEY HOUSTON DUETS

I’m not grading them because, as I noted in my rankings blog, I don’t believe duets have any business being part of The Voice semifinals. But here were the pairings and the Whitney Houston songs they sang. If The Voice makes videos available, I’ll post those as well.

Morgan Myles and Bryce Leatherwood, “Saving All My Love for You”

Bodie and Brayden Lape, “I Wanna Dance with Somebody”

Justin Aaron and Omar Cardona, “Greatest Love of All”

Kim Cruse and Parijita Bastola — “I’m Every Woman”

WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN TUESDAY?

If I could handpick a final five, it would include, in this order: Morgan Myles, Kim Cruse, Bodie, Justin Aaron and Parijita.

Morgan Myles performs during The Voice Season 22 semifinals. (NBC Photo)