Let’s see if I can get back in the swing of things. I missed last week on The Voice but I was happy to see that it looks like the right things are finally happening. Let’s see if we can keep up this trend! Tonight wasn’t a bad show and I have to say, there weren’t any huge standout bummers for me. Because I don’t understand this voting audience at all, the bottom two might be tough to pick. Or maybe not if we take an early look at the iTunes charts. Anyway, here we go with a quick recap in order of performance tonight. I’m going to just do a thumbs up or down to make it easy.
Team Blake got stuck with the one and two spots but I don’t think they struggled too much. Paxton Ingram started the night off with a Whitney Houston classic, I Wanna Dance with Somebody. Who doesn’t shudder at the idea of Whitney covers? Paxton might be the first person to cover Whitney and not make me sad or want to throw things. Good job but he is currently not breaking the top 100. (Thumbs Down for iTunes showing only)
Mary Sarah got the number two spot tonight with My Church by Maren Morris. I liked this for Mary and I don’t know how she did last week but I did feel like this was one of her best so far. If only she wasn’t wearing yoga pants and if Blake hadn’t told her to dance weird all over the stage. Two strikes for me but I think she’ll do fine. She’s already leading the iTunes brigade. (Thumbs Up)
Nick Hagelin sang a whole song in his falsetto again. Ok, maybe I exaggerate but I still don’t like his over-usage of the falsetto. I have to say that I didn’t cringe and make faces tonight but I’m still not a fan. He did Hold On We’re Going Home by Drake featuring Majid Jordan and based on the title alone, I found this an odd song choice. He’s like a cat on his 9th life if voters do the right thing. (Thumbs down)
Hannah Huston is the only member of Team Pharrell left but I’m totally fine with that. She deserves it so much. She was beautiful and tender perfection tonight. She looked good and her emotional connection with Say You Love Me by Jessie Ware was spot on. She might be a sneaky upset if there ever was one. (Thumbs WAY Up)
Wait, did someone say semi-finals? How many are we cutting tomorrow?
Shalyah Fearing has had her ups and downs and I feel like a lot of praise has been dumped on her prematurely. Tonight I think she earned all of it. She dedicated her song Change is Gonna Come by Sam Cooke to her Grandmother and I’m guessing Gram was crying by the end. Tonight Shalyah didn’t over sing or screech or stretch herself too much and she was amazing. The song was well beyond her years but she did justice to it and all the emotions it needed. (Thumbs Up)
Laith Al-Saadi sat down at the piano and sang We’ve Got Tonight which brought up so many memories of listening to albums in my basement as a teenager while being in love with someone. I wasn’t in love with Laith. He did a good job but the performance was, for lack of a better word, just wrong for me. Maybe it was too intimate of a look at his romantic side or maybe I don’t like Laith and weird 70’s romance songs. His voice and performance were fine, just not my thing. I’d give him a thumbs down if he wasn’t so high up on the charts! (Thumbs Up)
Then Blake and Gwen sang their new duet Go Ahead and Break My Heart. I thought the song was fine but they looked so uncomfortable singing with each other. It almost felt like a break-up song which was odd.
Adam Wakefield is back and better than ever. I apologize if he was back last week but I didn’t see last week so I’m calling this his comeback. He was back at the piano and sang Love Has No Pride, which I don’t really know but don’t care. I’m going with Adam straight to top 4 if that is ever a thing. (Thumbs Way Up)
Alisan Porter is always awesome and I’m probably hugely unpopular for my view on this but I think Cryin by Aerosmith was too much. She has a voice that is undeniable but this was a lot of belting and screaming and it was good but not my favorite for her by a mile. I’m sure she didn’t peak early or anything but I just need her to get back into her lane. This was too much rock for me. (still Thumbs Up)
Bryan Bautista was pretty hot tonight. Oh wait, are we judging the singing? It looked to me like Bryan was a hot mess last week but I actually have no idea, I just saw the clip of him singing in Spanish. Bryan sang 1+1 by Beyoncé tonight and I thought he killed it. The staging wasn’t over the top and he was just a well-dressed, handsome guy singing a really great song. (Thumbs Way Up)
So my quick predictions, because jet lag is still kicking me hard, is that Nick and Paxton will be in the bottom two with Nick going home. But they threw the word Semi-Finals in a couple of times tonight so I have no idea how many are going up. Tune in tomorrow to find out!