NBC’s ‘The Voice’ rankings: Owen Danoff, Laith Al-Saadi lead Team Adam Levine

The Playoffs are beginning on “The Voice” Monday night, and with that we finally have a chance to get to something that we do every season: Contestant rankings! Once we get to the point where the artists are directly up against each other, we’ll rank them as a group; for now, though, we’re looking on a team-by-team basis. It’s with that in mind that you should keep your eyes peeled for more of these over the coming days.

Today, we begin with Team Adam Levine, and we rank as always based on performance quality, edit, and past voting history with similar acts.

5. Shalyah Fearing – It’s tough to be stolen as many times as Shalyah has been and still also be considered a huge threat to make it deep in the season, especially when she’s not a country singer. (Those are the few who do tend to make it through the two steals without too much of a fuss.)

4. Caroline Burns – Caroline is very talented, and we think that Adam would like to bring her deep into the competition based on potential alone. Our concern is that she did not get a lot of airtime in the Knockout Rounds, and more than anything else, she is known for getting shown when Katherine Ho was completely given the shaft by the editors.

3. Brian Nhira – The moment we first heard him sing in the Knockouts preview, we knew that he was probably golden. The guy’s not only got a great singing voice, but he has a fun personality and a unique story. When you’re in the tenth season, you really have to look and act different than everyone who came before you.

2. Laith Al-Saadi – Secret reality TV tip: If you want to do well on a competition show with America voting, grow a huge beard. It sounds crazy, but it makes you stand out and get more attention. We really think America’s going to love Laith since his music is real and earthy, and because he’s one of the few older contestants we’ve seen make it this far recently.

1. Owen Danoff – We’re basing this #1 for now based mostly on past voting history. We know that guitar-playing singer-songwriters have a tendency to do very well on some of these singing shows, and following his previous performances there is no reason to think he’ll be gone before the top 12 are chosen. We don’t think he is a runaway favorite, but we’d say he is secure for now.

Now, we turn this over to you: Vote for your favorite in the comments!

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