NBC’s ‘The Voice’ rankings: Alisan Porter, Adam Wakefield, Laith Al-Saadi still lead the way
This week coming up on “The Voice” is without a doubt the most important of the entire season. Here, the remaining eight contestants are going to battle it out for just four spots in the finale. In some ways, we hate the way that the show does this; yet, at the same time it’s probably better than cutting a bunch of people early. This format at least gives you the chance to get to know a lot of people rather quickly. The only other way to change things up is to start the live rounds with a smaller group of people, and give all of them the chance to perform more than once a week.
Below, you can see our take as to precisely where we think each remaining artist stands. What to know our criteria? It’s the same as it’s always been: Performance quality, edit, coach popularity, and also voting history for similar singers in the past.
8. Paxton Ingram (Team Blake, last week: 6) – At this point, it seems like “Break Every Chain” was an aberration for Paxton more than something that will keep him consistently high on the charts. Even if he goes back to gospel this week, it’s hard to figure that he will have a huge shot of being a finalist.
7. Shalyah Fearing (Team Adam, 7) – While Shalyah has not been in need of the Save yet this season, she’s been on the lower end of iTunes sales the past few weeks. She would probably need her highest iTunes ranking to date and positive placement to have a real shot of advancing.
6. Bryan Bautista (Team Christina, 8) – Ending the show this past week, and delivering a good rendition of “1+1,” gives Bryan a little bit of a bump on our list. However, we feel like it’s “too little, too late” since everyone above him has more fans and more consistent placement on the show so far.
5. Hannah Huston (Team Pharrell, 4) – This is where coach popularity really comes into play. Hannah may actually be our favorite pure singer remaining, but the reality here is that she hasn’t topped iTunes, and Pharrell’s team members don’t often get much of a bump with show viewers who vote online.
4. Mary Sarah (Team Blake, 5) – Meanwhile, remember the #TeamBlake effect. Mary is a country singer on the team of the show’s most-popular coach with country fans. It’s far from a lock that she advances, but looking at past seasons suggests that she will.
3. Laith Al-Saadi (Team Adam, 3) – From here, it’s a little more predictable. Laith is coming off of a top 10 single on iTunes, and has been featured more and more as a contender as of late. We still don’t think that he will win, but it feels likely that he’ll get a shot to fight in the finale.
2. Alisan Porter (Team Christina, 2) – We briefly debating bumping Alisan down to #3 after her weakest performance of the live shows. However, we are looking cumulatively and her sales and performances are enough to keep her here. One thing we do know is that if she wants to win, she really needs to step it up over the next week. She definitely has the talent to make it happen.
1. Adam Wakefield (Team Blake, 1) – Adam had the #1 song on iTunes this past week, and that plus his coach further cements his status to us as a favorite. While he’s not a slam-dunk, it’s going to take either a stumble on his part or a Herculean effort on someone else’s for things to change.
Who tops your personal ranking right now? Vote below, and head over here to get some other news right now on “The Voice”! Also, sign up over here to get some more TV news on all we cover, sent right over to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: NBC.)