Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Viktor Kilary listens to the coaches’ feedback during the blind auditions on The Voice. (NBC Photo)

Check back then. I’ll be live blogging during the show and selecting my own winners.

In the meantime, it’s way too premature to rank singers or pick a favorite for Season 9.

But I will offer up the list that follows — 10 of the artists I find most intriguing as the battle round begins.

And here’s hoping Season 9 of The Voice winds up being much more suspenseful than Season 8, when everyone knew Sawyer Fredericks would win by the time the live shows began.

Andi and Alex (Team Adam): This round is crucial because the battles have always seemed particularly ill-suited for duos. How do harmonies shine when harmonies become the norm? And in eight seasons, only one duo has made it to the live shows — the Swon Brothers back in Season 4. But let’s not forget that these twins from Green Bay scored the best-performing of all 48 blind audition songs on iTunes.

Barrett Baber (Team Blake): Of all the male country singers to audition for Season 9, Barrett did the best on iTunes in the blind auditions. He also has far more experience than we heard about on the show. This is a high school teacher with two albums, an EP and some singles on his country music resume.

Blind Joe (Team Blake): His real name is Joe Bommersbach, but he truly prefer for people to call him Blind Joe. After all, he’s released four albums under that name. If I was ranking my personal favorite blind audition performances, his cover of “If It Hadn’t Been for Love” would easily rank in the top 10.

Ellie Lawrence (Team Gwen): Her version of “We Don’t Have to Take Our Clothes Off” struck such a chord that it was still in the iTunes Top 200 three weeks after her audition aired. Shame these shows were taped too early for Gwen to take that into consideration. Here’s hoping the young woman who performs as One Shot Ellie gets more than two shots to show us what she can do on The Voice.

Jordan Smith (Team Adam): Adam Levine called him “the most important person that’s ever been on this show.” To his credit, Jordan distanced himself from that comment the day after his audition aired. But he’s continued to get star treatment from The Voice, including the pimp shot in the blind audition “best of” recap and in TV ads leading up to the battles. I’ll be shocked if he doesn’t make it to the Top 20.

Kota Wade (Team Gwen): She went away from her wheelhouse for the blind audition and still turned three chairs. And I’m still fascinated by her background as a steamfairie princess / music club entrepreneur / Bad Wolf rocker. Here’s a hunch: Kota Wade will not be the least bit timid in The Voice spotlight.

Mark Hood (Team Pharrell): This guy is just flat-out entertaining, whether he’s singing or telling stories. And having him play a dead man on TV was a tremendous waste of talent. I also remember his fine blind audition performance well, which is saying something since it’s the very first one we saw in Season 9.

Siahna Im (Team Pharrell): And of the nearly record number of teens on Season 9, I’m most interested in seeing this 15-year-old perform again. Her cover of “Fever” came complete with all sorts of neat little frills you wouldn’t expect from someone her age. Not to mention a ton of poise.

Shelby Brown (Team Adam): Adam didn’t just lure away a country singer from Blake. He lured away a four-chair turn recipient who made the biggest splash on iTunes of any of the many country singers to audition for The Voice in Season 9. But would anyone be shocked if Shelby somehow found her way back to Team Blake via a steal over the course of the next two rounds?

Viktor Kilary (Team Adam): He’s a pop star and a sex symbol in Hungary. He has a massive social media following. But Viktor says he has “like zero” American audience. The numbers would seem to agree. His blind audition song did well, but not great, on iTunes. Here’s betting he’ll have at least a couple of more chances to catch fire on The Voice.

Also see:
* Meet all of the Season 9 contestants
* A team by team breakdown of The Voice, Season 9
* The Voice Season 9 cast is one of the youngest ever
* Which blind audition songs did the best on iTunes