Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Rayshun LaMarr and Jackie Foster will perform together Monday night on The Voice. (NBC Photo)

And in addition to the normal voting rules, there will be a special way to vote for the duets via Twitter.

You’ll be allowed to cast one vote per Twitter account for each of the duet performances during the normal overnight voting window.

But for the vote to be valid, you’ll have to use the specific hashtag provided by The Voice and get the names in the right order.

Also remember that a Twitter vote counts as a vote for both contestants.

Here are the duet pairings, complete with the hashtag that will be used for voting purposes.

1. Brynn Cartelli (Team Kelly Clarkson) and Britton Buchanan (Team Alicia Keys) — #BrittonBrynnDuet

2. Pryor Baird (Team Blake Shelton) and Kaleb Lee (Team Alicia Keys) — #KalebPryorDuet

3. Jackie Foster (Team Adam Levine) and Rayshun LaMarr (Team Adam Levine) — #JackieRayshunDuet

4. Spensha Baker (Team Blake Shelton) and Kayla Jade (Team Blake Shelton) — #KylaSpenshaDuet

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I liked it better when these duets were not part of the voting or iTunes tabulations.

I mean, there’s simply no way to pair off contestants fairly. Someone is going to wind up being paired with the most popular contestant (Brynn’s the social media leader on Twitter and Instagram) and someone’s going to wind up being paired with the least popular (Rayshun has needed an instant save twice).

There’s no possible way to even that out, and you certainly don’t do it by pairing the most popular contestant on social media with the second most popular (Britton).

Besides, on finale night, each member of the Top 4 will sing a duet with his or her coach. Those duets DO NOT count toward the voting process.

So why count semifinal duets and not the duets during the finale?

Like so much related to The Voice, it makes no sense.

All that said, it’s hard to argue too much with the rationale behind this year’s pairings from a musical standpoint.

But, after watching the live playoffs, I’d also offer this.

During those shows, The Voice squeezed 24 performances into a two-hour time slot on night one and 10 performances into a one-hour time slot on night two and night three.

That means 16 performances in a two-hour time window Monday should be a snap. Everyone in the Top 8 would sing two solos, the range of song selections would likely be much wider, the performances would probably be truer to each individual artist, viewers would get more music, and the duet problem would be solved.

Just saying.

See also …
Ranking the Top 8
iTunes results for the Top 10
Photo gallery of the Top 10
Voice voting rules