peachfuz

i remember last season there was a non-binary contestant who performed in the duet round of hollywood who, if i recall correctly, was (rather subtly) referred to with they/them pronouns. said contestant got a pretty unflattering edit, but that's not really the point LOL

Top 12 Perform/Top 10 Reveal Template Abi Carter - All Too Well by Taylor Swift - 7.3 - Unusually predictable on Abi's end for tonight. She's starting to fall into a pattern at the worst time she could in the competition. Will Moseley - Starting Over by Chris Stapleton - 5.4 - Carmen's said it best; guy's been coasting for at least a week. Jayna Elise - Diamonds by Rihanna - 7.7 - She let her guard down a little and it cost her. Never should've been in danger all those weeks ago, much less now. The show's gonna suffer without her. Mia Matthews - Over You by Miranda Lambert - 8.5 - Brought her best so far on a song I was a little nervous for. She gave it a much different energy than Cassadee Pope, but it was so utterly pristine that I didn't even mind. Objectively the best of the night and it wasn't even close. Roman Collins - Roar by Katy Perry - 8.0 - This guy's ability to arrange is absolutely stellar, just as impressive as his runs. Like Jayna, he was gone WAY too soon. Jack Blocker - Blinding Lights by The Weeknd - 6.7 - Points for an unexpected song choice, but it wouldn't hurt to enunciate properly. Mouth was not as distracting as I expected it to be. Emmy Russell - Lose You to Love Me by Selena Gomez - 6.3 - Her choking on her lyrics halfway through the song and not singing was the most interesting thing to come from a performance that otherwise went nowhere. Sounded pretty at least? Triston Harper - Beautiful Crazy by Luke Combs - 7.2 - Come on, Triston, you can pick a much better song than that. Julia Gagnon - Something in the Orange by Zach Bryan - 7.5 - I need a little more solid ground beneath her feet before I really give myself in to her, but this was the best song choice of the night, maybe even the week. Kaibrienne - Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus - 5.1 - Oof. Are we sure she isn't sick, too? McKenna Faith Breinholt - Cardigan by Taylor Swift - 7.8 - A lovely return to form, though this isn't the lane I love for McKenna at this point in the competition. KAYKO - Somebody That I Used to Know by Gotye - 9.0 - Maybe fifth or sixth in the pack from an objective standpoint this week, but the guy brought Will Breman-level audacity to the stage, and, frankly, I'm a little obsessed.

maybe it’s because we’re watching other idol communities border on worshiping him from afar, but i think the kayko criticism here is WAY overblown. he’s far from the best vocalist left in the competition imo but he’s got a lot of merit as a performer that i feel like gets overlooked. admittedly i did kind of love his top 12 performance …

also respectfully @Someone648 that clue is psychotic you are so much stronger than i am

the holly guess reason is CRAZY LMAO good eye though!

HUGE DAY FOR ANNOYING PEOPLE (me)

this actually wasn’t the first under Ryan’s belt I was thinking of but that’s still correct!

THERE we go

not any more correct than the first guy who guessed them :[ /lh

are these predictions or hopes?... mostly predictions but with the occasional hope thrown in (see Kaibrienne and Abi) Jack Blocker: "You're Still the One" by Shania Twain McKenna Faith Breinholt: "Believe" by Cher Emmy Russell: "I Try" by Macy Gray or "Cowboy Take Me Away" by the Chicks Kayko: "Beautiful Day" by U2 Will Moseley: "I Hope You Dance" by Lee Ann Womack Abi Carter: "Bring Me To Life" by Evanescence or "Clocks" by Coldplay or "I'm With You" by Avril Lavigne Julia Gagnon: "A Woman's Worth" by Alicia Keys Mia Matthews: "How Far" by Martina McBride Kaibrienne: A stripped down reimagining of "Seven Nation Army" by the White Stripes Triston Harper: "You Found Me" by The Fray or "Chicken Fried" by the Zac Brown Band (if god is unkind)

Thank you all for your patience! Between making it through a run of a show at my school and approaching the end of my time at college, things have been crazy on my end recently. The scoreboard is CLOSE right now, y'all – and with so much ranking left to go, it's still anybody's game! As we move beyond the doldrums of the ranking, we're going to go from batches of five to batches of six, so, without further ado, here's the clues for the fourth batch of artists! Happy guessing! 171. ... Cracker Barrel? (GUESSED) 170. First (of three) is the worst (of three). (GUESSED) 169. __ without a __ is like Blake without alcohol. 168. At least they'll always have the Opry? (GUESSED) 167. They've got a name a little too long for my liking, but things might not be so bright if we were to make the easy cut. (GUESSED) 166. No relation to the singer two doors down.

176. James Dupré (Season 9) "Let Her Cry" by Hootie & the Blowfish As we start to approach the territory of C+/B- grade auditions for this series – yes, we’re already past the “bad” ones! – some of you loyal readers may notice the write-ups for these contestants begin to err on the shorter side. Truth be told, this isn’t just a case of burnout – in truth, we’re beginning to enter a part of the ranking where I haven’t got a whole lot to say about the auditions themselves. A lot of the next couple of batches, you’ll be seeing plenty of auditions that are just… kinda whatever, at least in my book. Speaking of auditions that were kinda just whatever, James Dupré! He’s a bit more of an obscure (read: forgettable) Knockouts cut from Season 9 who made waves during the Blinds when he, a dedicated country artist, made the choice to join Team Adam, rather than defer to Blake as so many others had before him. Of course, Shelby Brown would not only go on to immediately do the same thing a few episodes later, but then go on to eliminate him in the Knockouts. Brutal. Unfortunately, that’s about the most thing I’ve got to say when it comes to James, because, frankly, this audition is maybe the least memorable in the entire series. Muddling his delivery of a song about a man whose wife is struggling with alcoholism is an indistinct tone, a flatlining sense of dynamics, and a clear difficulty with figuring out what exactly to do with his hands. The matchup of no vocal strength + no emotional strength is a trying combination, and the lack of… really any momentum behind his performance makes me wonder if the coaches were just really fighting to fill a country quota that season (it wouldn’t be the first time). I truly wish there was more to say other than a resounding “eh”, but… eh. Clue Breakdown 176. Has more to do with one of Idol's ex-judges than their own coach. James' claim to fame before auditioning for The Voice was an appearance on The Ellen Show way back in 2010. Probably a better gig than being goaded into choosing a coach who would drop you before you could even sing for America's votes... Point: @Someone648 175. Adriana Louise (Season 3) "Domino" by Jessie J At a point in The Voice history where a lot of Blind Auditions were a little on the scrappier side (especially at a time where post-production studio sweetening was all but absent), Adriana Louise was a really interesting example of someone who was able to make the most of a song choice that would leave most contestants in modern seasons dead on arrival. Of course, this was achieved in a pretty unusual way, given that the missteps within this performance were most definitely not the kinds you’d see from artists of recent seasons, ones who’d sing the song with absolutely zero conviction while only occasionally whiffing a note or two. Yes, while its pretty refreshing to see someone not only tackle Jessie J, but to do so with reckless abandon, this, of course, comes at the cost of an audition with a few too many sharp lines – note that I say lines, not notes – to match the energy she was able to conjure. Adriana definitely brought out a couple of moments of brilliance from within her – she’s got a breathy falsetto paired with a really crisp chest voice, and some of her higher notes were really clear – but some of the moments in the song that should’ve been highlights ended up tripping on its own feet in the pursuit of stage presence. The rough glory note after the bridge kinda seals the deal for an audition that is otherwise delivered with passion and, unfortunately, not much else to match it. Clue Breakdown 175. And the award for "most jarring transition from backstory to audition by virtue of song choice" goes to... Introduced herself with a harrowing anecdote about being held at gunpoint during a robbery in her childhood... only to immediately segue into an uptempo Jessie J song. Never change, Adriana. Point: @Someone648 174. Troy Ramey (Season 12) "Wild World" by Cat Stevens If one were to ever ask me to nominate a contestant for the honor of “Weirdest Contestant to Make It Past the Playoffs”, I’d sit them down, play them a video of Troy’s audition, and let them come to a decision from there, because… sorry to contradict myself so quickly, but there is a lot to unpack with this one. Perhaps Season 12’s most confusing four chair turn from purely a vocal standpoint, Troy’s audition functions as sort of a checklist of things most performers on The Voice would shy away from. Let’s see… Sleepy song choice? Check. Singing like he’s swallowing the mic? Check. A tone so husky it sounds like he’s singing through a mouthful of peanut butter? Check. Inconsistent breath control? Check. Middling precision upon the song’s higher notes? Check… Weird hand singing? Check. Truth to tell, my ranking was locked in from the moment this thread went online – I’m not going back and changing any rankings from here – but, in retrospect, this one probably should’ve been somewhere in the previous batch. It’s not as though Troy, like Adriana, doesn’t show flashes of potential, especially when he breaks out the rasp for the song’s last verse, but, even then, the way he throws out the phrasings of “oh, baby, baby, it’s a wild world” without specificity, emotionally OR vocally, leaves me feeling… cold, honestly. Between the distracting visual and the lethargic delivery, there just isn’t a whole lot of appeal here, at least for me. Clue Breakdown 174. I hope their arm doesn't hurt from how long they had been holding that torch. After recruiting Troy to her team, Gwen would have to wait, kid you not, twelve seasons before she'd win over another artist who turned all four chairs – for those wondering, we've got Chechi Sarai to thank for breaking this curse. Point: @Adam Bruce 173. Andrew Igbokidi (Season 22) "when the party's over" by Billie Eilish Sigh. This was an audition I really, really wanted to be better. While keeping up with spoilers before the season aired, Andrew was a contestant who intrigued me a great deal, especially after hearing a strong tone and envisioning it being paired with a (yet unidentified) Billie Eilish number to earn him four chairs during the auditions. It sounded like a recipe for a moment of moments, especially with him joining Camila’s team in the end. Needless to say, what we ended up getting was… let’s be honest, kind of a disappointment even without the hype I may have harbored leading up to the airing of his audition. When we, as The Voice fans, have heard so many good renditions of “when the party’s over” – everyone wave hello to Max Boyle, Roderick Chambers and Joanna Serenko, Ryleigh Modig, Ryley Tate-Wilson, and, of course, Jesse Teinaki from The Voice Australia – there’s a lot to live up to by default. This, of course, meant that, when Andrew delivered a rendition of “when the party’s over” with as little falsetto as necessary and a cavalcade of overembellishments, I can’t say I was impressed. Again, there were moments where I could see his potential shining through, especially when his tone sounded so great on the first verse, but things started getting out of control the more he carried on. It’s especially troubling when it becomes obvious that he’s got next to no strength to his head voice, something that a guy kinda needs if he wants to take on this song without messing with the arrangement too much. There was a little tinkering, to be sure, but, admittedly, it felt as though this was only to the audition’s detriment, as the insistence upon stuffing as much as he could justify including in his ninety seconds ended up sacrificing the song’s emotional core upon the altar of acrobatics. All in all, Andrew simultaneously bled the song dry while turning it into an exercise of excess; for that, even beyond my excitement for the audition beforehand, he’s got to be one of the biggest disappointments of the list. Clue Breakdown 173. Walked so that Kylee Dayne could run. Don't you know this clue's got nothing to do with singing? Both Andrew and Kylee chose music over med school. Hope they're making the most of this change in career paths, at least. Point: @Someone648 172. James Irwin (Season 5) "Losing My Religion" by R.E.M. Remember how I said there’d be a few contestants where I’d have just… next to nothing to say about? Well, turns out that this rule only applies to the Jameses of the world. Kind of a weird curse to have been inflicted upon me, but, hey, I can roll with the punches either way. Jokes aside, James Irwin was a bit of a footnote in one of the strongest seasons of The Voice’s American run, best known for being the first artist to ever turn four chairs after failing to turn a chair in a previous season and absolutely nothing else. He wouldn’t be the last, no doubt – hell, we’ve got two of them as of the airing of this current season – but, hey, good for him. Credit where credit’s due, his punk rock-esque reimagining of the song’s arc definitely worked in places, especially when he really had to start bringing some power into the vocal, but, unfortunately, I think a lot of what makes the original song great got lost in the shuffle a bit. It almost feels as though he’s shying away from the maturity of the original lyric in an attempt to let loose and rock out. It’s not as though his approach was ineffectual, but I think it ended up being a little messier than he might’ve wanted it to be. Ultimately, the cost of pulling out all of the stops was a bit of the original song’s spirit, and it was one he paid for in unmemorability and, ultimately, an elimination before he could even make an attempt at winning America over. Probably doesn’t help that he was on maybe the most stacked iteration of Team Adam in all sixteen seasons he was a coach, but hey, you win some, you lose some, right? Clue Breakdown 172. I'd call it zero to a hundred if "a hundred" wasn't such a massive exaggeration. As already mentioned, James was the first artist to turn all four chairs after failing to turn even one when he last auditioned. He definitely wasn't the last! Point: @Dai

hi ok writeup will be coming no later than end of day tomorrow! if it doesn't get posted by then someone reply to this message with something really out of pocket and it'll scare me into finishing it <3333

wanna try that again?

Triston Harper - Heartbreak Hotel by Elvis Presley - 6.2 - Nothing wrong with the vocals, but the entire performance felt excruciatingly put on. At least Zachariah could kinda commit to his shtick all the way through. Definitely should lose the guitar more often, but maybe not like this. Julia Gagnon - Run To You by Whitney Houston - 7.9 - Did pretty extraordinarily – most of the way through – on a song I wouldn't recommend to anybody. What matters is that she's been getting better since where she started in Hawaii, more or less. Roman Collins - You're All I Need to Get By by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell - 8.4 - Gave us everything and a bag of chips in the best way possible. His tone isn't for everybody, but we haven't had someone like him, and as good as him, in a veeeery long time on this show. Especially after all of the other male R&B and soul singers left last week, we need to protect this man. Kaibrienne - I Hate Myself for Loving You by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts - 5.0 - None of her vocal issues were major, but talk about zero conviction. She looked only a little more comfortable than Blake did on Justin Bieber a few weeks back. Girl can sing, and I love that she chose a rock song, but she's gotta sell it in more than just hitting the notes. Jayna Elise - I Have Nothing by Whitney Houston - 9.2 - You know what? I'm not even mad she chose this song. This might be one of the best renditions of it I've ever heard, full stop. Genuinely masterful; thank GOD America got it right with her last night. Mia Matthews - Those Memories of You by Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt - 6.8 - Her tone wasn't exactly my favorite on this one, but she knows how to live inside of a lyric. Might need to start stepping up her game if she wants to go a little farther, because I was a little underwhelmed personally. KAYKO - High and Dry by Radiohead - 6.1 - His voice crackled and popped a little too often for it to be just a stylistic choice, and his falsettos could've been stronger. This song worked great for him on paper – in practice, he's gotta reaaally up his game if he wants to make it past, say, Top 10. Emmy Russell - I Can’t Make You Love Me by Bonnie Raitt - 6.0 - A little too wispy for my liking on a song that needs the slightest bit of oomph to make you really believe the yearning of the lyric. Her tone isn't really my cup of tea, but it works really well in certain places – she's just gotta find better arrangements on better songs. Jordan Anthony - I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me) by Whitney Houston - 5.7 - Truth be told, I'd probably have bumped him up by about two points if he kept it slow and pretty the way he started. Then the drum kicked in and he fell behind the song's momentum. He wasn't nearly the worst of tonight's performers, but a middling performances kinda justifies why the judges probably should've made room for, say, Odell or Quintavious over him. McKenna Faith Breinholt - Hard to Say I’m Sorry by Chicago - 6.5 - She's most certainly under the weather, but, honestly, this wasn't nearly as rough as I expected her to be based on the reception she's gotten. Definitely held down the fort where it mattered most, though she definitely wasn't in the sweet spot she usually is when it comes to resonating with the lyrics and the song's tone. Hope she feels better in time for tonight, because she's got the kind of voice that should get her to the Finale, especially with songs like Both Sides Now last week (which is my current favorite performance of the season, fun fact). Jack Blocker - Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right by Bob Dylan - 4.8 - I... I just really don't care for his tone. I'm sure it appeals to a lot of people, especially as someone who looooves folk music, but, for the American Idol stage, this just felt overwrought and tenuous. Nya - I Say A Little Prayer by Aretha Franklin - 7.3 - That was really solid! It was also kind of a lot! If she brought the key down by a whole step and got the drummer to take a bit of a chill pill, this could've been a seeerious moment – maybe I'm just too partial towards Lianne La Havas' version. Either way, she still killed it on some of the song's peaks – disappointed, but not surprised, that she got cut. Will Moseley - Night Moves by Bob Seger - 5.0 - Go, girl! Give us nothing! Abi Carter - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John - 8.6 - She's yet to deliver true perfection on a single number she's done since hitting the live stage, but she so earnestly lives inside of her musicality that it almost doesn't matter. She's got the best parts of many of the other contestants still kicking this season and so much more, too. Emotional and powerful on a near perfect song choice for the night. Definitely deserving of frontrunner status.

i kinda couldn't deal with kaibrienne's performance last night. she didn't really mess up on the vocal, per se, but she just looked really uncomfortable singing up there. like when the brief guitar solo started, she just kinda stood there next to him for two seconds, only to return to center stage like she couldn't wait for the performance to be over. it was great that she actually sang a rock song, but i felt zero conviction coming from her. not the worst of last night, mind you – will definitely was giving "go, girl, give us nothing!", if anyone – but she needs to actually try and own the stage next time she goes uptempo.

revisiting all of the performances, and... hot take, i thought kaibrienne was one of the worst : p

snowflaykos is CRAZY

boooo

he kiiiilled it (and i HATE that no one is giving him credit for that!)

call him slay lewis cus thats all he's been doing all season

(holds them gently) mwah asher havon madison curbelo nathan chester tae lewis deservedly strong chances if they can survive til voting bryan olesen josh sanders karen waldrup literally a completely different person from when they auditioned (and i love that for them!) jackie romeo dark horses so long as they choose good songs anya true kyle schuesler nadége better than they've been given credit for maddi jane rletto haven't warmed up to quite yet kamalei kawa'a l. rodgers mafe a little underbaked serenity arce zoe levert genuinely think they shouldn't have made it this far justin & jeremy garcia olivia rubini

abi would DESTROY running up that hill. kate bush would be magic with her voice

the hot take is that i think odell and quintavious both getting cut is much more of a travesty for the long run of this season than i think we might realize at this point, not necessarily the country guy thing; that was more just me bitching a little but i digress. i only mentioned mackenzie because, in my honest opinion, if the judges REALLY wanted to have a pop singing guy in the top 14, mackenzie would've been a better pick than jordan. i would never have put mackenzie in the top 14 either way, but at least mackenzie has a stronger body of work than jordan has up to this point. it was an injustice either way, but, to me, it wasn't even an injustice that made sense. either way, i have a bad feeling about the next couple of weeks.

hot take: i know people are looking at the r&b males in the top 20 and saying we only "needed" one but i think anyone who's an advocate for good singers doing well on this show should be a little more outraged about odell, quintavious, and maybe even mackenzie getting the cut compared to some of the people advancing this episode. here's a thought: maybe we only "needed" one guy singing country in the top 14, too. the voters messed up BIG TIME and the judges weren't even able to slap a band-aid big enough to make up for it. its not a surprise, but its a HUGE disappointment, especially after the voters more or less got it right with the first cuts from hawaii