‘The Voice’ Recap: Team Blake and Christina Quarter-Final Performances

With the final four performing on Team Blake and Team Christina, the producers (or whoever makes these types of decisions) have chosen for each coach to eliminate one contestant at the end of the night, taking them out of the running for America’s votes.

“If I knew who to kick for this, I would kick them,” Blake said, as Adam interrupts, believing it’s a good thing. “Wouldn’t you rather choose? … Maybe I’m a control freak.”

Team Blake:

RaeLynn; “She’s Country” by Jason Aldean

Her tutu-like skirt is shorter but her gyrating is stronger than ever. RaeLynn continues to annoy us. It may be her best performance so far but when she tries to sing low is somehow sounds inauthentic, and while Blake said to tone down the growl, she still added them in there. Although, all the coaches seem to love her and Blake exclaims, “You just proved to America country can kick ass,” we don’t exactly agree. RaeLynn really proved to American she can glorify karaoke.

Jordis Unga; “Little Bit Stronger” by Sarah Evans

Not only is this performance softer and more intimate than usual, she looks softer as well, making it a touch heartbreaking because she does not quite sell the song as much as we’d like. Overall, she was still enjoyable and is a sincere performer which we appreciate, but she sang better in her group performance with Blake, and we’d like her to keep in the rock genre as opposed to the country light.

Erin Willett; “Set Fire to the Rain” by Adele

She is kind of like a more rock version of Adele, no? Despite her awful dress (and we miss her red hair!), her performance was enjoyable. It was cool for once the singer really was powerful because of just her voice and not all the near-naked dancers or strange décor. While fire sparks did shoot up from the stage, it made sense and was not over-the-top. Adam voiced concerned with her phrasing, not her pitch but other than that, praise all around.

Jermaine Paul; “Against All Odds” by Phil Collins

Christina likes how he connects with every song, which is true—remember his audition with “Complicated?” Adam says he “embellished a little too much,” which is also true, but definitely not as much as Jesse. Blake says this is the moment Jermaine would look back on as his “turning point,” and America is sitting at home saying, “Jermaine is a superstar!” Now, we do think this was his best performance by far, but Blake, stop saying what America is thinking because you clearly do not know us very well.

Team Christina:

Jesse Campbell; “Halo” by Beyoncé

Jesse chose to dedicate this song to his daughter who is his “halo” (aka angel). While he stays on pitch, the performance was a bit of a spectacle with pictures of his daughter flashes in the background and then random glimpses of her (looking a tad confused) in the audience. He got more confident as the song went on leading him to over-sing way too much.

Ashley De La Rosa; “Foolish Games” by Jewel

She is barely audible in the beginning, but soon develops a harder version of Jewel’s otherwise boring song. After every performance of hers Adam appears surprised, and actually always says how surprised he is. We get it, you didn’t think she had any talent at first.

Lindsey Pavao; “Part of Me” by Kerry Perry

She was much better in this song than the group performance for sure, though it’s still not great. Her range doesn’t appear as very broad, and her stage presence is non-existent. Christina claims Lindsey held the record for most iTunes downloads on this season for her rendition of Goyte’s “Somebody that I Used to Know” and we have this to say: America, what is wrong with your ears? She was way off pitch and beat throughout that entire song, and again, while this Katy Perry song was better, it does not excuse her awfulness throughout the group performance. She needs to fall off the stage (but not get hurt, of course).

Chris Mann, “Viva La Vida” by Coldplay

During rehearsals, Chris describes his anxious and excitement over singing this song and it will be “like he was standing naked on stage.” While this was certainly an odd choice of song for him, we found it surprisingly enjoyable. The lyrics seem comparable to his operatic voice, and there’s no denying he has guts and passion. Adam would prefer to hear him sing opera, but hey, at least Christina liked it.

And the contestants going home are…

Christina gave the longest winded speech ever, making “instant” eliminations turn into a five minute speech of cheese and bullshit. Finally, she is going with her gut and eliminating Jesse. Bit of a surprise, considering all the coaches loved him, he was consistently on key, and seemed like a frontrunner. It really should’ve been Lindsey, but considering people are downloading her, it makes sense why Christina did not choose her.

Next up, no one can really say anything ‘cause Christina sucked up all the air and time, so Blake goes with America’s votes and chooses Jordis since she was the contestant he saved. While we really enjoyed her and would’ve preferred RaeLynn, we know he would have never picked her.

Tonight, two more contestants go home. Whose is going to be folks?

This article was originally published on AllMediaNY.com