NBC’s ‘The Voice’ spoilers: What Darby Walker, Aaron Gibson, Austin Allsup will sing
The top 12 on “The Voice” are going to be hitting the stage in a matter of hours in hopes of impressing America, and the stakes are significantly higher than we’ve seen them to date. After all, this marks the first time that the contestants are all in direct competition with each other, and also the first time that downloads from iTunes are really going to matter in terms of figuring out precisely who is going to be moving on to the next phase of the competition.
Basically, song choice is one of the most important parts of the competition right now; you can give a great performance, and still be burdened by a terrible song. Based on the list below, we do think that there are some examples of this being the case.
Aaron Gibson, “Hollywood Forever Cementery Sings” (Team Miley) – We’d never heard of this song before now, and that’s the big concern we have for Aaron going in. Kudos to Miley for being really risky with her song choices, but it’s tough to know if it’ll work.
Ali Caldwell, “Did I Ever Love You” (Team Miley) – Sure, you could see this as opportunistic to do a Leonard Cohen song mere days after his death, but this is not one that is particularly well-known. We don’t read into this as any thing more than just a song that may be right for Ali’s voice.
Austin Allsup, “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man” (Team Blake) – This is what we want to see Blake doing in the live shows: Allowing country artists to show more versatility. Sure, Willie Nelson’s already done a version of this before, but it won’t feel like straight karaoke.
Billy Gilman, “The Show Must Go On” (Team Adam) – Tough song. This couple be really epic, but he’s got to hit the high notes.
Brendan Fletcher, “Whipping Post” (Team Adam) – This is absolutely in Adam’s wheelhouse, at the very least. He really loves this sort of classic rock, and we do think it’s a good playground for Brendan to work in.
Christian Cuevas, “The Scientist” (Team Alicia) – Probably the best ballad that Coldplay’s ever created, and that’s saying something. The challenge for Christian is finding a way to bring something new to it.
Courtney Harrel, “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” (Team Blake) – Ugh. Seriously? The infamous “Armageddon” song’s been done to death, and very rarely does it ever work.
Darby Walker, “Ruby Tuesday” (Team Miley) – The biggest surprise to us is this marks two straight weeks of “The Voice” clearer songs by the Rolling Stones. It’s a good song for Ali, and it’s not as obscure as last week thankfully.
Josh Gallagher, “Why” (Team Adam) – Adam may not be an expert in country, but he’s clearly doing all he can to help Josh by giving him a fairly popular Jason Aldean song.
Sa’Rayah, “Livin’ on a Prayer” (Team Alicia) – We’ve made it clear that she’s not our favorite singer of the top 12; yet, we love this song and will be stoked if she nails it.
Sundance Head, “My Church” (Team Blake) – One of the most popular country songs of the past few years. The one danger is that it could become very soundalike rather easily.
We McDonald, “Take Me to Church” (Team Alicia) – We’re not concerned over this choice given there’s so much soul in it, and many viewers are going to be familiar enough with it. Our feeling right now is that she’ll get the most love on iTunes out of anyone this week.
What’s your take on these choices? Let us know in the comments! Also, be sure to check out our full contestant rankings leading up to tonight’s new episode airing. (Photo: NBC.)