Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The Top 13 on The Voice Season 13 include (from left) — Gyth Rigdon, Dexter Roberts, Andrew Sevener, Carter Lloyd Horne, Maelyn Jarmon, L.B. Crew, Celia Babini, Shawn Sounds, Mari Jones, Rod Stokes, Kim Cherry, Oliv Blu and Jej Vinson. (NBC Photo)

Welcome to the finals on Season 16 of The Voice.

We have all of three weeks to discover which singer most deserves to win.

Which is absolute nonsense, of course. But that’s been the story of The Voice in Season 13.

Tonight, that Top 13 will sing with hopes of earning a spot in the Top 8.

The top seven vote-getters automatically advance; the bottom two go home tomorrow night.

The three who land in between get to sing for the instant save.

Gyth Rigdon (Team Blake), “Nobody But Me” by Blake Shelton — Yep, Gyth is singing one of his coach’s songs, and confesses that the first concert he attended was one of Blake’s. Solid performance, and especially impressive when Gyth took off the guitar, dug into the song and strolled down to interact with the crowd. That was an excellent start to the show. Nice going, Gyth. Grade: A

Kim Cherry (Team Blake), “Whatta Man” by Salt-N-Pepa — Kim says she loves the song fans picked for her on The Voice’s fan night. Way to go, Kim Cherry. This is lots of fun. Remember, folks, she front a party band. Bet they’re fun to watch. I’m liking this much better than last week’s “Waterfalls,” and that was well received by fans. Grade: B+

Jej Vinson (Team Kelly), “Close” by Nick Jonas — Jej says he’s very shy, so he’s going to have to step into character for this performance. Jej started this much better than his last two performances, and he’s cutting loose vocally. But I’m not sure this song choice was as good as the first two of the night. Impressive vocal, but it’s going to be tough with five singers going home Tuesday. Grade: B–

Andrew Sevener (Team Blake), “She Got the Best of Me” by Luke Combs — My guess is that Gyth and Dexter are favorites to make the Top 8, but don’t count out this guy. He brings intensity to the stage regardless of what he’s singing. And he hits a really nice glory note near the end of that song. Another solid performance from a Team Blake contestant. This guy attacks everything he sings. John Legend did make a good point: Restraint isn’t Andrew’s forte. Grade: B

Oliv Blu (Team Blake), “Smooth Operator” by Sade — Blake saved Oliv last week. Oliv says she’s a Sade fan, but has never performed this song before. Love this young lady’s snse of style, and she’s sounding much better tonight than last week. But not quite as good live as the Apple Music version of this cover sounds. Oliv needed an absolute moment tonight to hang around tomorrow night. That was good, not a moment. Grade: C+

Dexter Roberts (Team Blake), “Something Like That” by Tim McGraw — Nice touch by The Voice to fly ne of Dexter’s fans to the show. And nice to see Dexter interact with the crowd. We hadn’t seen that from him yet that I can recall. He turns in a solid performance that I’m sure is going to earn him a spot on next week’s show. But that wasn’t my favorite Dexter vocal. Grade: B

Shawn Sounds (Team Legend), “A House is Not a Home” by Luther Vandross — I was not crazy about this song choice, but I’m going to tell you, Shawn just delivered one heck of a great vocal. So good, he brought all four coaches to their feet. He’d better make the Top 8 after that performance. And I’d agree with Adam Levine, he’s a great performer as well. That was excellent. Grade: A

Celia Babini (Team Legend), “Shallow” by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper — Celia is another of the saved artists. Superb opening by Celia. But the vocal seemed to get a little shouty when the music swelled. Look at that, Celia goes crowd surfing. I think Kat Robichaud is the only other Voice contestant to ever do that. I’ll be rooting for her. I think she’s one of the most intriguing contestants on the show. Grade: C+

L.B. Crew (Team Adam), “I’ll Make Love to You” by Boyz II Men — L.B. is on the show because of the Comeback gimmick. L.B. has a nice tone, but that opening was not good. In fact, I don’t think this was a good pick for L.B. It’s coming off as more hokey that anything. And starting shouting isn’t going to salvage it L.B. Wow, this is a tortured vocal. Make it stop. Grade: D

Mari Jones (Team Adam), “Foolish” by by Ashanti — Mari was also saved last week. Check out the hair style. I would agree with Adam that in terms of stage presence and style, Mari ranks among the show’s best. But she’s another contestant who needs an absolute moment tonight to survive, and I don’t think this song is going to do it. Though Mari tried to squeeze every bit she could out of that big ending. Grade: C+

Carter Lloyd Horne (Team Blake), “Let It Go” by James Bay — Carter said he had to turn notifications off, he was getting so many prom invites. The Voice is portraying him as the Season 16 heartthrob. After a bit of a shaky start, Carter pulled that together. What is The Voice going to do if Team Blake advances en masse tomorrow night. Well, it’d sorta be what the show deserves given the screwed up Season 16 format. Grade: B–

Rod Stokes (Team Kelly), “When a Man Loves a Woman” by Percy Sledge — This is one of the night’s best non-Team Blake song choices. Not super thrilled with Rod’s approach. The Bette Midler version of this is my favorite. This is missing that sense of heartache that made her version so special. But the combination of the song choice and the show placement might be enough to get Rod into that Top 8. Grade: B–

Maelyn Jarmon (Team Legend), “The Scientist” by Coldplay — Maelyn says she loves flipping songs by male artists. Yes, Maelyn. That was a heck of an opening, and she’s proving once again why John is right — she’s one of the best singers among the Season 16 cast. And she’d better advance tomorrow night. Damn, what an ending to that performance. Great job, Maelyn. Grade: A