The Voice – Top Ten

The Voice – Top Ten Did you guys see The Voice tonight? I thought it was a really, really solid episode. Ten performances, and none of them sucked – I don’t know the last time I’ve seen a top ten this strong on American Idol. Check out my reviews of the performances and head to the comments to tell me what you thought.

Team Christina – Sylvia Yacoub singing “Girl on Fire”
This is an Alicia Keys song that I’m not familiar with, but I knew any Keys song would be a good fit for Sylvia. The song was kind of repetitive lyrically, and not my favorite performance of hers. It’s hard to say how much of that was my feelings about the song, and how much was Sylvia’s performance.

Team Blake: Terry McDermott singing “Summer of ‘69”
Sigh. This is not what Terry should have done this week. Right now, he’s a very good bar singer. A dude who nails all the classics, but can’t show that he’d offer anything new in the contemporary scene. I thought this was a very average, very expected performance. Not one thing surprised me, and I wouldn’t be heartbroken to see Terry go because I don’t feel like he has anything more to show me.

Team Adam: Melanie Martinez singing “Seven Nation Army”
I didn’t know this song, but I thought Melanie did a nice job here. I think she’s sort of capped out her potential in the context of this show, but I do enjoy her as a strange teen girl. I think teen girls can use more strange teen girls to look up to. So I do like her, and I enjoyed this performance.

Team Cee Lo: Cody Belew singing “Crazy In Love”
Wow. When I heard Cody’s song choice, I assumed it would be the death of him on the show. But you know what? He kinda pulled it off. Vocally, it was not perfect. It’s a fast, difficult song and Beyonce is a goddess. But he did well, and it was gutsy and sassy and crazy fun.

Team Adam: Bryan Keith singing “New York State of Mind”
I’ve never been a huge Bryan Keith fan, but I did think he had a good week last week. This week, I’m back to wondering what all the hullaballoo is about. I’ve seen people do this song just as well at karaoke (Hi, Rob!) and I didn’t think Bryan showed much stage presence.

Team Adam: Amanda Brown singing “Stars”
I LOVE Amanda. Her performances of “Vision of Love” and “Dream On” give me chills, and “Valerie” puts a smile on my face. Her performances haven’t all been A+ quality, but I think this woman is a star. Since she already rocked “Paris (Ooh La La)” I had a feeling she’d kill this Grace Potter song as well. It was fantastic – this woman has a damn good voice.

Team Cee Lo: Nicholas David singing “Lean On Me”
Wacky performer + piano + gospel choir = a recipe for success in my book. Nicholas David was born in the wrong decade, but I adore him. He’s got soul, and that was a lovely performance.

Team Cee Lo: Trevin Hunte singing “Scream”
I don’t  love Usher, but I actually don’t hate this song and I was glad to see Trevin push to change up his sound. That’s what I was asking for last week, some variety. He’s young and wanted to show off his fun side, and I think he did. It was by no means his best performance, but he showed he can do more than belt out a ballad. And there was that huge moment towards the end just to remind y’all what he can do.

Team Blake: Cassadee Pope singing “Over You”
It was nice to see Cassadee go a little softer without losing that tone to her voice that I love so much. She’s by no means the best singer in the competition, but she has a unique voice and a strong stage presence that I think is really special. She could be a pop star right now, I think. This was absolutely fantastic.

Team Christina: Dez Duron singing “Feeling Good”
Even though I think this song is overdone on these kinds of shows, it’s the perfect song for Dez. This song is right in Dez’s wheelhouse, it’s where he shines. Dez actually has quite a vocal range. He looked amazing (he is handsome, yes, but the suit really worked) and it was a very sexy performance. One of Dez’s major strengths is his charisma on stage. He killed the ending, I thought it was absolutely fantastic.

This is probably the strongest episode of a reality TV singing show that I’ve seen in a very, very long time. I honestly don’t think there was a weak performance, they just ranged from perfectly decent to absolutely fantastic. I think there was a clear top three, with a solid middle four, and a bottom three that are lovely but out of their leagues. Check out my rankings below.

  1. Amanda Brown
  2. Dez Duron
  3. Cassadee Pope
  4. Trevin Hunte
  5. Cody Belew
  6. Sylvia Yacoub
  7. Nicholas David
  8. Melanie Martinez
  9. Terry McDermott
  10. Bryan Keith

The Voice – Top Ten


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