Idol Chatter & Voice Views

DEK of Hearts listens to the feedback following their second performance Monday night. (NBC Photo)

Each of the Top 6 finalists performed twice as The Voice began finale week Monday night.

The finals featured four singers hand-picked by coaches and producers, Aiden Ross of Team Nail, Aubrey Nicole of Team Reba, Jazz McKenzie of Team Michael and Ralph Edwards of Team Snoop.

Fans, who have picked all the finalists in every previous season of the show, got to vote on two wild card finalists, who weren’t revealed until Monday night.

Those wild card spots wound up going to DEK of Hearts of Team Niall and Max Chambers of Team Michael.

Here are Voice Views’ song by song grades for Monday’s performances.

ROUND ONE

DEK of Hearts (Kollin Bailey, Emily Clapp, and Dylan John), Nashville, Tenn., “Fishin’ in the Dark” by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band: Wondering if the trio ever performed this song before. Or if The Voice’s sound mix was the problem. Either way, the vocals didn’t cut through the way they normally do, especially at the very start of the performance. By the middle of the song, DEK was delivering what we’ve come to expect from them, with Emily’s excellent vocals leading the way. Grade: B

Max Chambers, 14, of Shreveport, La., “Your Way’s Better” by Forrest Frank: I was loving this performance, about to proclaim it Max’s best yet. Then the dancers joined him, and things sorta fell apart. If turned into a disjointed mess with Max ab libbing, sometime successfully, sometimes not. The Voice has a tendency to do that, needlessly clutter up a finale performance. Grade: C+

Aubrey Nicole, 19, of Littlestown, Pa., “Til You Can’t” by Cody Johnson: Aubrey wuonded very nervous at the opening of this performance. The special tone that got her this far became evident when she hit the chorus. And she delivered a mostly solid performance from that point on, though the big note at the end seemed to get away from her. Grade: B–

Jazz McKenzie, 31, of Birmingham, Ala., “Against All Odds” by Phil Collins: Excellent opening by Jazz. She’s changing it up just enough to be effective. Please don’t clutter this up, Voice producers. Well, fireworks just went off for the third time already tonight. And here come lots of fireworks and lots more unnecessary background singers. The good news, Jazz is such a powerful singer, her voice cut through all the unnecessary frills around her. Nicely done: Grade: B+

Aiden Ross, 20, College Station, Texas, ‘Golden Hour” by JVKE: Whoever picked this song doesn’t know Voice fans. Aiden’s an attractive young man with a wonderful voice. And you give him this to sing when he needs fans’ votes to win the show? And you hide him in fog and that staging? Yeah, great idea. Written sarcastically. Horrible idea, salvaged slightly by Aiden’s impressive range. Grade: C

Ralph Edwards, 30, Fresno, Calif., “I Want to Know What Love Is” by Foreigner: I’m not loving this song choice either. It doesn’t play to Ralph’s strengths — deep soulful raspy vocals. But he sure has plenty of company on stage, doesn’t he. Now the background singers take over the song while Ralph pats and chest and goes for a big ending that probably could have been much bigger with a better song choice. Grade: B–

ROUND TWO

Aubrey Nicole, 19, of Littlestown, Pa., “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia” by Vicki Lawrence: Good start. The cowboy hat and cowgirl outfit are gone. I read an interview where Aubrey said tonight’s songs were picked for her. That’s not the way this should work. Anyway, the last minute of the song took flight, after Aubrey cut loose vocally. But it was not the show-stopper type of performance she needed to emerge as a favorite. Grade: B–

DEK of Hearts (Kollin Bailey, Emily Clapp, and Dylan John), Nashville, Tenn., “Let It Go” by James Bay: Look at that, The Voice keeps it simple and DEK of Hearts is back in great form. This is what we’ve come to expect from the trio — Emily’s wonderful vocals and fabulous harmonies. That was my favorite performance so far tonight. The a cappella ending was outstanding. Grade: A–

Jazz McKenzie, 31, of Birmingham, Ala, “Drivers License” by Jazz McKenzie: Interesting song choice for Jazz. It’s not a song I’d expect to hear her tackle. And she’s oversinging. I mean, really oversinging. And the emotion of the song is being lost in the process. Pretty sure that’s what helped make the song such a hit. Grade: C

Max Chambers, 14, of Shreveport, La., “One Moment in Time” by Whitney Houston: No, no, no. Who thought this was a good idea? Let Max sing something young and upbeat. Give this song to Jazz. Perhaps. Not to Max. Nice big ending. But, wow, getting there. Whew. Grade: C–

Ralph Edwards, 30, Fresno, Calif., “Locked Out of Heaven” by Bruno Mars: Nice stage presence from Ralph. But where are the vocals that were so impressive earlier this season. After hearing the vocals from Ralph tonight, I went back to listened to his playoff performance of “A Song for You” and quickly came to the conclusion that the problem was the songs, not the singer. Whoever picked the songs tonight should be fired. We’re 11 songs into the finale, and there hasn’t been an emotionally stirring performance yet. Grade: C

Aiden Ross, 20, College Station, Texas, “The Winner Takes It All” by Abba: Now The Voice hides Aiden among giant chess pieces. Makes a lot of sense, right? This is one of the night’s more impressive vocal performances, even if it’s way too frill-filled. Aiden has a wonderful tone and nice range. Nice tender ending, but I’m not sure that’s going to be a winner with voters: Grade: B

Conclusion: I’ve give the season victory to DEK of Hearts. The trio turned in the night’s best performance. Musically, the night was underwhelming. I suspect part of the problem was the long layoff between the playoffs and the single live show of the season. The fact that there was only one live show, allowing the artists no build-up to a finale. Plus lots of ill-suited song choices.

Based on everything we’ve seen in Season 28, here’s how I think the Top 6 should finish. 1. DEK of Hearts; 2. Ralph Edwards; 3. Aiden Ross; 4. Jazz McKenzie; 5. Aubrey Nicole; 6. Max Chambers.

The season-ending results show begins tomorrow night at 9 p.m., though it follows a recap show that has an 8 p.m. start time.