Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The Top 8 take the stage tonight, competing for spots in The Voice Season 11 finals.

And as a bonus tonight, we’ll get duets as well as a solo performance from each singer.

As usual, I’ll be grading each performance.

Christian Cuevas (Team Alicia), “To Worship You I Live” by Israel and New Breed: A worship leader prior to The Voice, Christian wanted to do a Christian gospel song on The Voice and he’s getting the chance this week. He shined so brightly last week on “Million Reasons,” but my guess is he’ll need another performance of that magnitude to reach the finals. I admire Christian for doing a song he believes in at this point, and he’s delivering the emotion, just like last week. But his pitch also strayed a few times during that performance. Grade: C+

Aaron Gibson and We McDonald (Team Miley), “Four, Five Seconds” by Rihanna: Apparently, the duets aren’t going to be available for download, so you can’t vote by buying copies of the songs. After joking about one another’s singing voices, Aaron and We take the stage together for the first time. They don’t sound bad together, but they didn’t deliver a particularly memorable performance either. Grade: B–

Ali Caldwell (Team Miley), “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston: Ali calls Whitney her idol. In fact, she says she’s been waiting for a chance to tackle this Whitney classic on such a big stage. And Ali’s certainly looking like a diva tonight. She delivers another performance that reminds us what a powerful vocalist she is. My only concern: That isn’t a song choice likely to draw in votes from non-Ali fans (like “Million Reasons” did for Christian). Nor is it likely to rocket Ali up the iTunes chart. But it was the best performance of the night so far. Grade: B+

Brendan Fletcher (Team Adam): “Angel” by Sarah McLachlan: Brendan soared to number two on iTunes last week and Adam says this song is a natural followup in terms of getting Brendan to deliver a special combination of emotion and vocals. He says they added a Bonnie Raitt touch to the arrangement. Brendan has one of show’s most recognizable voices, but this cover isn’t nearly as unique as his cover of “True Colors.” It’s actually my least favorite Brendan vocal in weeks. Grade: C

Sundance Head (Team Blake) and Josh Gallagher (Team Adam), “Feeling Alright” by Joe Cocker: You can sorta tell Sundance is feeling more confident these days. And why not? He’s topped all contestants on iTunes two straight weeks. He dug into that Joe Cocker tune as though he was born to sing it. Josh didn’t look quite as comfortable. He still needs some work on his stage presence. Grade: B

We McDonald (Team Alicia), “Scars to Your Beautiful” by Alessa Cara: We scored the best song choice of the night and the only current one, which is sort of surprising after Christian did so well with “Million Reasons” last week. Let’s see what she can do with it. We is delivering lots of attitude in this performance. But her vocal is getting away from her in a major way. At one point, I was glad the chorus jumped in to save her. Plus I’m just not sure that the song choice was a good match for We’s voice. That was not a finals worthy performance. Grade: C–

Aaron Gibson (Team Miley), “(Everything You Do) I Do It for You” by Bryan Adams: Miley says she wanted to give Aaron a song that fans could sing along to. I think she’s given him a song that dooms him to another bottom two finish, which would automatically end his run on the show. But, hey, Aaron vows to dye his hair any color Miley wants. Hmm. I think Aaron’s hair is safe, meaning that worked about as forgettably as I suspected it would. Grade: C

Josh Gallagher (Team Adam), “Danny’s Song” by Loggins and Messina: Adam predicts this will be his best performance, saying they’ve focused more on Josh’s performance skills than his vocals to this point. Pitch-wise, I think that was Josh’s best vocal since the finals began. And I think it will do well on iTunes. But I’m not sure it’s the breakthrough moment that will get him into the finals. And I’m not sure that ending twist on the arrangement worked. Grade: B

Brendan Fletcher (Team Adam) and Ali Caldwell (Team Alicia), “It’s Only Love” by Bryan Adams and Tina Turner: Brendan and Ali get to rock it out. Well, you can’t question the intensity of this performance. And Ali cut loose with one heck of a glory note in the middle of that cover. Not sure the song worked as well for Brendan as it did for her in the Tina Turner role. Grade: B–

Sundance Head (Team Blake), “Love Can Build a Bridge” by The Judds: Sundance gets a chance to sing late in the show for the second straight week. I’m pretty sure he’s finals bound, but let’s see if he can keep the momentum going. Sundance says he’ll trust Blake; that the song choice comes from his coach. Yep, he’s finals bound. That might not hit number one on iTunes like it did last week, but that was a very, very solid vocal. Maybe the best of the night so far. Grade: B+

Billy Gilman (Team Adam), “I Surrender” by Celine Dion: Adam says it’s difficult to keep coming up with new challenges for Billy. But he also encourages him to make sure to let people into the song emotionally. Boy, The Voice is pulling out all the stops on this performance. Billy indeed hit some incredible glory notes during that performance. Was that the soft ending Adam was pushing for? Not sure, but that was Billy’s best performance in weeks. Not that he wasn’t already finals bound. Grade: A–