Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Nathan Chester reacts to the coaches’ feedback following his performance on The Voice. (NBC Photo)

The Top 9 perform tonight on The Voice in hopes of advancing to the Season 25 finale.

Five singers will make that finale, including the top four vote-getters in overnight voting after tonight’s show.

Fans have until 7 a.m. eastern time to register their preference, via the Voice app or website.

Voting is limited to one vote on each method per valid email address.

Results will be revealed during Tuesday’s results show.

Then the bottom vote-getters will sing in hopes of securing the fifth spot in the May 21 performance finale.

Voice Views will be grading each performance. Those grades will be posted after tonight’s show.

See also …
Ranking the Top 9
Song by song grades for the Top 12
The Voice to welcome 2 new coaches for Season 26

Josh Sanders (Team Reba), 35, Kannapolis, N.C., “White Horse” by Chris Stapleton: Nice upbeat song choice to open the night. I’m just not sure Josh has the vocal firepower to pull this off as well as it could be. Nice guitar solo. And the a cappella breakdown was pretty impressive too. Just think Josh might have bitten off more song than he could overwhelm with. Grade: B

Madison Curbelo (Team Dan + Shay), 21, Westfield, Mass., “Time After Time” by Cyndi Lauper: Damn, The Voice loves this song. Seems like the show has someone do it every season. Madison is showing off a lovely tone. But she seems to be wrestling to squeeze every ounce of vocal drama from the song that she can. Why not give her a deeply emotional song instead? Baffles me. Two seasons ago, one deeply emotional performance turned the tide in Gina Miles’ favor. Nice closing note though. Grade: B–

Serenity Arce (Team Chance), 17, of Jupiter, Fla., “We Can’t Be Friends” by Ariana Grande: Serenity got the memo. Or else Chance did. This is the semifinals. There’s a spot in the finals on the line. If you not gonna be hella entertaining and bring the crowd to a frenzy, sing a ballad well with lots of emotion. That’s just what Serenity did on this. Hard to believe that’s the same singer who struggled so mightily with pitch in the battle round. Nicely done by the youngest in the competition. Grade: B+

Maddi Jane (Team Chance), 25, Chicago, Ill., “Greedy” by Tate McRae: Dust off your save song, Maddie. This is exactly the type of song choice that won’t register with a wide swath of Voice voters. Then again, if she’s being true to her artistry — and her past song choices would indicate that’s the case — better to be yourself. She’s still a heck of a performer and a versatile vocalist. The ending of that was really impressive. Grade: B

Nathan Chester (Team Legend), 27, Chicago, Ill., “Try a Little Tenderness” by Otis Redding: Another classic R&B song for Nathan, who’s putting his own spin on this classic. And that folks, is how you build the drama in a great Voice performance. Nathan was vocally impressive from the word go. But I couldn’t wait for him to leave the mic stand because I knew this performance was going to get better when he did. And did it ever. He dialed up the vocal. He dialed up the fun. He didn’t do a split. But he did drop to one knee before delivering an impressive performance-ending glory note. He’s gotta be in the finals. Grade: A

Bryan Olesen (Team Legend), 49, Lincoln, Neb., “Against All Odds” by Phil Collins: Not sure why Bryan is slowing it down. He’s been so much fun when he rocks out. Easily one of the most impressive among the Season 25 cast. This was not a good song choice for his voice. He seemed to be really straining to hit the big notes. That just did not work. The good news for Bryan fans is his previous performances were so great, I think he has a good shot at making the finals anyway. Grade: C

Karen Waldrup (Team Dan + Shay), 36, of Mandeville, La., “Stay” by Sugarland: Karen has a super rich voice and we heard it when she launched into the second verse. But this performance came off similar to Madison’s in that Karen seemed to be trying to bring vocal drama to the song at every single turn rather than building to one big dramatic moment. Karen’s super talented, but so far in the lives it’s been a struggle to match the singer to a momentum changing song choice. Grade: B–

Asher HaVon (Team Reba), 31, Selma, Ala., “Irreplaceable” by Beyonce: No one can argue that Asher doesn’t have a flair for stage presence. On a night when so many of the Top 9 performances have been slightly underwhelming, Asher reminds us that he has as good a voice as anyone on the show. and perhaps the best. No idea why we needed all those dancers who showed up midway through the number. All they added was a distraction. Why not just let Asher command that stage? Especially with the range he was showing off as the song drew to a close. Grade: B+

Tae Lewis (Team Dan + Shay), 31, Goldsboro, N.C., “Amazed” by Lonestar: Okay, how does the guy who needed the instant save last week get the pimp spot this week? Not sure I understand that logic, Voice producers. This is another of those done-to-death singing show songs. That said, Tae sounded really good on this at the opening. He came up short on a big note midway through, over-sang for several lines after that, but then came back to nail the big note at the end. Grade: B–

I’m not grading the group numbers, but here they are.