NBC’s ‘The Voice’ rankings: Is it Amanda Brown against Cassadee Pope?

The final six artists on “The Voice” are set to rock out Monday night, and we have to say that as a whole, this group is far better than the performers from the first two seasons combined. While there have been some weak performances mixed in with some strong efforts, overall this group has produced some magic this year that Simon Cowell and “The X Factor” can only SCowell at (yes, we spelled it like that on purpose).

We based these contestant rankings on a pretty simple criteria: performance quality, fan base size, star power, and whether or not they are someone who could actually sell records in the modern music landscape.

6. Terry McDermott – Terry’s biggest strength in this competition is that he has such a fantastic pure voice, and with the right song behind him it can be pure rock perfection. Unfortunately, this was, unlike Cassadee, a case Monday night where a Blake Shelton song did not do him any favors. He is a very likable guy, but he may be the least-relevant act commercially out of anyone still alive in the competition. We don’t know if this will impact voting much, but he needs a moment since so many people ranked higher on this list have had them as of late.

5. Melanie Martinez – A rising star in every sense of the word. We did not think Melanie would still be around weeks ago, but we are very happy she is. As creative and heartfelt as some of her recent performances have been, though, she still has much of her work cut out for her given that her vocals are polarizing depending on whether or not you like her tone, and all four people coming into this are doing so with much larger fanbases that have been building for months.

4. Trevin Hunte – There is a part of us that will not be surprised at all if Trevin wins this whole competition. We don’t know who is voting, and the hype plus the air time plus the big ballads often play well into older viewers’ hearts. Here’s our major issue with Trevin: he’s great as a singer, but as a performer he feels almost as though he is a few years away. The reason Trevin seems to perform as many ballads as he does is that when he goes uptempo, he doesn’t quite know what to do with himself on stage.

3. Nicholas David – The pluses for Nicholas are fairly obvious: he’s a great singer, a smooth dude, and he has a sense of style and musicality that is completely all his own. True originals are hard to come by when it comes to these singing competitions, but he is one. The only (and we repeat only) thing that the man has working against him is that we do not quite know where a throwback soul singer who strangely reminds us of Dr. Johnny Fever fits in when it comes to what is is currently on the adult contemporary and pop music charts.

2. Cassadee Pope – Cassadee’s “Over You” performance will probably be remembered until she inevitably sings in the finale, and she is an interesting contestant this season in that this one moment almost overshadows everything else she has done thus far. the bare facts here are that she has a huge following from her Hey Monday days, and there is also a clear identity here in that she is a twist on Alanis Morrissette or a woman whose song she just performed in Michelle Branch. There is a whole in the market for someone like her, but is she consistent enough to be the winner of this whole season? Questions remain.

1. Amanda Brown – This is why Amanda is in our mind the undisputed favorite: she is not only a fantastic and consistent singer, but she knows how to work a stage like nobody’s business. Even when her song choices are something we have heard a million times before (Adele’s “Someone Like You”), she finds a way to spin them and make them into something completely memorable. Amanda may not have the most screen time of any contestant on the season, but this is supposed to be about talent and viability as an artist. She checks all of the boxes and then some.

Who is your current pick on “The Voice”? We want to hear what you think in the poll below, and you can also check out some more highlights from this past week over here.

Photo: NBC