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The Voice is picking its final four singers.
On Tuesday night, the penultimate nail-biting episode revealed its fan-voted top three, as well as the first-ever wildcard singer who rejoins the competition after already being eliminated.
See more ‘The Voice’: Meet the Season 7 Finalists
The three singers with the highest number of viewer votes on their Monday night performances were announced at the top of the hour-long episode: Adam Levine‘s Chris Jamison and Matt McAndrew, and Blake Shelton‘s Craig Wayne Boyd.
It was a moment that deemed both the previously-winning veteran coaches as champs of their spinning-chair craft, as Gwen Stefani‘s Taylor John Williams was therefore eliminated, along with Levine’s Damien.
The rest of the episode was then for the first-ever wildcard, as the season’s top 12 returned the stage for their ultimate second chance. Carson Daly noted that the fourth finalist will be revealed Wednesday morning on the Today show, after a night of fan voting until 3am EST (a shorter voting window than usual).
It’s hard to hold a candle to the final three guys this season, who have been putting on weekly spectacles with smart song choices and higher production values, but here’s how the wildcard hopefuls hoped to rejoin the game (hint: get ready for a ton of relatively-timid singer-songwriter genre picks):
On Team Blake, Reagan James reminded audiences of her youthful yet indie timbre on Corinne Bailey Rae’s “Put Your Records On,” despite some hard-to-ignore pitch issues. Jessie Pitts hoped to add some edge with The Cranberries’ “Zombie,” but the songwriter was a bit too breathy and overpowered by her song choice.
Of Stefani’s eliminated teammates, the incredibly resilient (three times!) Ryan Sill hoped to appeal on Train’s “Marry Me” with falsettos and long, high notes (though it’s hard to see if that’ll be a match for the three guys already in the competition). A focused Anita Antoinette finally turned up the energy level in the studio, albeit with John Mayer’s “Waiting on the World to Change,” but with a personable greeting at the beginning and unique scatting and jazz runs throughout.
Read more ‘The Voice’ Hits 20 Million Song Downloads
The just-eliminated boys then took the stage: Team Gwen’s (yet mostly coachless) Taylor John Williams went with Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Games,” effortlessly changing octaves and staying true to the darker aesthetic he’s introduced in doses up until this point, and Team Adam’s Damien added in some acting on a solid, ballad version of Bruno Mars‘ “Grenade,” although we do wish he’d kept the original speed of the song only to further evoke the dramatics of the track.
Pharrell Williams then finally put his singers back on the table: Sugar Joans refreshed everyone’s memories with Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black,” a showstopper that made us wonder why she was ever eliminated in the first place. Luke Wade literally pleaded on “Have a Little Faith in Me,” filled with the raspy passion that had previously deemed him an impressive contender. And DaNica Shirey went big with her final try — Mariah Carey’s take on “Without You,” with the effortless professionalism that had made her the last-standing female in the season.
On Wednesday morning, the first-ever wildcard singer was revealed: Levine’s Damien is back in the game.
What do you think of the latest eliminations? Sound off in the comments below!
Dec 10. 7 a.m. Updated with the wildcard results.
Email: Ashley.Lee@THR.com
Twitter: @cashleelee
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