Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The Top 8 on The Voice includes, from left, Paxton Ingram, Hannah Huston, Adam Wakefield, Mary Sarah, Alisan Porter, Bryan Bautista, Laith Al-Saadi, Shalyah Fearing. (NBC Photo)

The Top 8 perform tonight with a spot in the Season 10 finals on the line.

We’ll get eight solo performances and four duets.

Shalyah Fearing

Until now: Blind audition: Performed “What is Love” and prompted a chair turn from Christina, but only Christina. Battle round: Performed “Lady Marmalade” with Tamar Davis. She didn’t win, but was stolen by Pharrell Williams. Knockout round: Performed “Broken Wing” in a match with Emily Keener and lost, but was stolen by Adam Levine. Live playoffs: Sang “Listen.” Landed at number 14 on iTunes. Voted into finals. Top 12: She performed “Up to the Mountain,” landing at number 46 on iTunes, seventh best of the night. Top 11: Sang “The Climb.” Song hit number 96 on iTunes, eighth best of the night. Was voted into the Top 10. Top 10: She performed “My Kind of Love,” landing at number 92 on iTunes, ninth best of the night. But she was voted into the Top 9. Top 9: She performed “A Change is Gonna Come.” The song was 37 on iTunes, seventh best of the night.

Tonight: She’ll sing “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going” by Jennifer Hudson. Shalyah says she’s approaching it as a message to fans that she doesn’t want to go home. She vows to sing with all her heart. She certainly follows through on that pledge. She’s in attack mode from the first note. That was not exactly a nuanced performance. I felt like Shalyah was shouting at me the entire time. She scores high marks for her vocal power and her confidence at such a young age. But if she was supposed to be picking her places to use her growl, she sure picks a lot of places. Christina compliments her on her fearlessness. Adam says he’s “overjoyed” that Shalyah delivered such a moment. Grade: B–

Adam Wakefield and Alisan Porter: They’ll team up on “Angel from Montgomery.” Hey, and they sounded really good together, didn’t they? As I noted, the duet songs haven’t showed up on iTunes yet. I’m sure lots of people will be disappointed that isn’t available. Alisan sounded particularly good on her parts, and they delivered a solid finish. Grade: B

Paxton Ingram

Until now: Blinds: Sang “Dancing on My Own.” Turned three chairs. Battle round: Sang “I Know What You Did Last Summer” with Brittney Lawrence and prevailed. Knockout round: Performed “Hometown Glory” in matchup with Angie Keilhauer and advanced. Live playoffs: Sang “How Deep is Your Love.” Failed to crack Top 200 on iTunes. Advanced to finals via Blake’s save. Top 12: He sang “Hands to Myself,” landing at 164 on the iTunes Top 200, worst of the night. But he was voted into the Top 11. Top 11: Performed “Break Every Chain,” a Christian/gospel song and went from last on iTunes among Voice contestants to first, hitting number 18 on iTunes. Top 10: He performed “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” and landed at number 37 on iTunes, seventh best of the night. Top 9: He sang “I Want to Dance with Somebody” and hit number 78 on iTunes, eighth best of the night. Landed in the bottom two, but got the instant save after going up against Nick Hagelin and singing “How Will I Know.”

Tonight: He’ll sing Meatloaf’s “I’ll Do Anything for Love,” an interesting song choice for him. Blake says the it offers all the dynamics Paxton likes in a song. The iTunes version, however, is pretty impressive. Well, Pink called the song choice ballsy, and that it was. But Paxton might have been a little over his head with that song choice. Then again, the problem might have been trying to condense a 7-minute song into two minutes and retaining the emotional build of the original. Christina says she wouldn’t have expected him to sing a Meatloaf song (though he had already performed one previously). Blake says he’s not sure he’s ever been as proud of an artist as he is of Paxton. Grade: C+

Laith Al-Saadi

Until now: Blind audition: Performed “The Letter” and turned two chairs. Battle round: Performed “Honky Tonk Woman” with Matt Tedder and advanced. Knockout round: Performed “In Your Eyes” in a matchup with Jessica Crosbie and prevailed. Live playoffs: Sang “With a Little Help from My Friends.” Landed at number 32 on iTunes. Voted into finals. Top 12: Performed “Born Under a Bad Sign.” Landed at 45 on iTunes, 6th best from the night, and number one on the blues singles chart. Top 11: He performed “Make It Rain.” The song hit number 29 on iTunes, third best of the night. Top 10: He performed “The Thrill is Gone” and he just missed the iTunes Top 10, landing at number 11. He was number one on the blues chart. Top 9: He performed “We’ve Got Tonight” and hit number 10 on iTunes, marking the first time he earned bonus points. The song hit number one on the rock chart.

Tonight: He’ll sing Adele’s “One and Only.” Now, Christina, this is a surprising song choice. Laith says he wants to prove he can take any song and make it his own. Laith is doubtful of his ability to hit a particular note; Pink tells him to clench his butt cheeks. Anyway, this is a risky song choice with a spot in the finals on the line. Laith might have been wiser to go with a safer song choice, get in the finals, then take this risk. Laith turns in a decent vocal, finds a couple of spots to show off his guitar skills and gets an assist from The Voice background singers. But that’s not something I’ll be rushing to iTunes to download. Pharrell encourages people to keep supporting Laith and calls it another “great installment” in his list of performances. Adam says it would be great to have someone as unique as Laith in the finals. Grade: B–

Bryan Bautista and Mary Sarah: They’ll sing “Break Free.” Okay, I somehow doubt this is going to be as special as the duet between Adam and Alisan. Bryan’s falsetto doesn’t sound nearly as strong as it normally does. And Mary Sarah is struggling to stay in tune. The mystery: Who even thought this was going to turn into a magical moment for The Voice. Grade: C–

Alisan Porter

Until now: Blind audition: Performed “Blue Bayou” and turned all four chairs. The song turned out to be the most popular of the blinds on iTunes. Battle round: Performed “California Dreamin’ with Lacy Mandigo and prevailed; Lacy was stolen. Knockout round: Sang “The River” in a matchup against Daniel Passino and advanced. Live playoffs: Sang “Cry Baby.” Landed at number 12 on iTunes, best from the round. Voted into finals. Top 12: She performed Demi Lovato’s “Stone Cold” and earned iTunes bonus points for the first time by landing at number nine on the singles chart, second best of the night. Top 11: Performed “Stay with Me Baby.” Landed at number 31 on iTunes, fourth best of the week. Top 10: Performer Patti Griffin’s “Let Him Fly.” Hit the iTunes Top 10 for the second time, landing at number six when voting ended, best of the night on the chart. Top 9: She sang “Cryin'” and hit number 25 on iTunes, sixth best of the night.

Tonight: She’ll sing “Desperado” by The Eagles. Like this song choice. Christina says it’s never been done on The Voice before and tells Alisan to remember this song is all about emotion, not embellishments. OK, first of all, the camera work from The Voice was horrific on that. If I’m going to get pulled into the emotion of the song, it’s not by artsy camera angles of flowers hanging all around Alisan. Now, as for the vocal, it got a little overbaked near the end. But that was clearly the best vocal of the night so far. I mean, by a Western mile. Blake calls her awesome. Adam mentions winning and Alisan in the same critique again. Christina calls it epic. Grade: A–

Hannah Huston and Laith Al-Saadi: They’ll sing “Knock on Wood.” Now this is more along the lines of something I’d expect from Laith, and he sounds great on it. Hannah? Not nearly as great. And their voices don’t sound very good together either. Conclusion: Laith should have done that for his solo song. Hannah had better knock on wood that voters won’t hold that against here. Grade: C–

Adam Wakefield (Team Blake)

Until now: Blind audition: Performed “Tennessee Whiskey” and turned two chairs. Battle round: Performed “Can’t You See” with Jared Harder and prevailed. Knockout round: Performed “Bring It On Home to Me” in a matchup with Peyton Parker and advanced. Live playoffs: Sang “Seven Spanish Angels.” Landed at number 30 on iTunes. Voted into finals. Top 12: He sang “Soulshine” and topped everyone on iTunes, landing at number seven and earning bonus points in the process. The song also hit number one on the country singles chart. Top 11: Performed “Lights” by Journey. Landed at number 33 on iTunes, fifth best of the night. Was voted into the Top 10. Top 10: Performed “I Got a Woman” by Ray Charles. Finished third best of the night on iTunes at number 16. Top 9: He sang “Love Has No Pride.” She song hit number nine on iTunes, marking the second time he earned bonus points for cracking the Top 10. It was also the week’s best iTunes performance from The Voice.

Tonight: He’s going to sing “I’m Sorry” by Blake Shelton. It’s a song written by Chris Stapleton, which is why Blake says he suggested it to Adam. He considered playing it on guitar; Blake convinces him to return to the piano. Powerful opening from Adam. In fact, he’s delivering one of his absolute best vocals on this. And that stripped down ending was perfection. My new favorite performance of the night. Pharrell likes the soul Adam brings to country music. Adam calls it a moving performance. Blake says Adam Wakefield has had big moments on the show, but none as good as that. I’d agree. Grade: A.

Bryan Bautista

Until now: Blind audition: Performed “The Hills” and turned two chairs. Battle round: Performed “It’s a Man’s Man”s Man”s World” with Malik Heard and prevailed; Malik was stolen. Knockout round: Performed “Sorry” in a matchup with Trey O’Dell and advanced. Live playoffs: Sang “Pillowtalk.” Landed at number 37 on iTunes. Advanced to finals via Christina’s save. Top 12: He performed “Kiss from a Rose.” It landed at number 72 on iTunes, ninth best of the night. Top 11: Sang “Just the Way You Are.” Hit number 79 on iTunes, seventh best of the week. Top 10: He performed “Promise” by Romeo Santos, partly in Spanish. He finished sixth best of the night on iTunes at number 35 on the overall singles chart; he topped the Latino singles chart. Top 9: He performed Beyonce’s “1 + 1;” the song hit number 21 on the singles chart, number one on he R&B singles chart.

Tonight: He’ll sing “Hurt” by Christina, saying he feels confident enough now to take on a Christina song. Bryan says he can connect with the song because he hasn’t heard from his dad during his journey on The Voice. Bryan has put together a string of strong performances and he’s delivering another tonight. His voice seemed to be straining at times. But, hey, if Christina was looking for emotion, he delivered that. It was probably my third favorite so far tonight, behind Adam and Alisan. Adam says he did a great job. Christina calls the performance “absolutely incredible” because it’s such a huge, crazy song. Grade: B

Paxton Ingram and Shalyah Fearing: They’re going to sing “Masterpiece.” And you could tell thay had tons of fun during that performance, which probably wound up being the second best of the duets. And, again, I find myself wishing Shalyah — who sounded especially good — would have performed that song as her solo. Grade: B–

Mary Sarah

Until now: Blind audition: Performed “Where the Boys Are” and turned all four chairs. Battle round: Performed “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man” with Justin Whisnant and prevailed. Knockout round: Performed “You Ain’t Woman Enough” in a matchup with Brittany Kennell and advanced. Live playoffs: Sang “Rose Garden.” Landed at number 67 on iTunes. Voted into finals. Top 12: Sang Carrie Underwood’s “So Small.” Landed at 86 on iTunes, 11th best from the night but was voted into the Top 11. Top 11: Sang “Johnny and June” and scored her biggest iTunes success to date, hitting number 26, second best among contestants. Top 10: She performed “Stand by Your Man” by Tammy Wynette. The song ranked fourth from the show on the iTunes singles chart at number 18. Top 9: She sang “My Church.” hitting number 12 on iTunes, third best form the show.

Tonight: Mary Sarah will sing “I Told You So,” a song Carrie Underwood released as a duet with Randy Travis. Mary’s inside some sort of ridiculous tent for this performance. So, while she sounds great, we don’t get to see her face. Finally, she strolls out of that tent of veils. Regardless, Mary Sarah just delivered an extremely good vocal, one that just might win her a spot in that finale. If so, she will have deserved it. Christina compliments her on the effort. Blake calls it Mary Sarah’s best yet. Grade: B+

Hannah Huston

Until now: Blind audition: Performed “Unaware” and turned three chairs. Performed “Elastic Heart” with Maya Smith and prevailed; Maya was stolen. Knockout round: Performed “House of the Rising Sun” in a match with Malik Heard and advanced. The song wound up being the round’s most popular on iTunes. Live playoffs: Sang “Ain’t No Way.” Landed at number 44 on iTunes. Voted into finals.Top 12: She performed “Something’s Got a Hold on Me.” The song landed at number 40 on iTunes, fourth best of the night. Top 11: Performed “I Can’t Make You Love Me.” She hit number 34 on iTunes, sixth best of the night. Top 10: She sang Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” and posted he fifth best performance on iTunes, landing at number 23. Top 9: She performed “Say You Love Me” and hit #19 on iTunes, fourth best of the night.

Tonight: Hannah gets to close the show with “When a Man Loves a Woman.” Not sure she’ll be able to do anything tonight to vault past Alisan, Adam, Laith and Mary Sarah in the voting, but it’s still a great opportunity for her to make a statement before tomorrow night’s Twitter save. Brilliant a cappella opening by Hannah. And she drops to her knees for a powerful ending. No doubt she poured heart and soul into that performance. I wished I liked the match of her voice and the song a bit more. Adam says she’s been one of the most consistent performers and calls her the show’s weird stealth assassin. Blake says that was her best performance. Pharrell calls her performance awesome. Grade: B