#SurvivorSunday: The Voice Edition (Top 8)

Welcome to #SurvivorSunday: The Voice edition! Just a quick disclaimer that everything down below are my personal opinions. I'm in no way affiliated with any corporation, especially The Voice or NBC.

What is Survivor? Alright, so I do recaps of performances for various singing shows and I give my two cents but Survivor is where I put my ten cents in and try and give the contestants a bit of advice (even though they're clearly not reading this) about what they can do to stay in the competition. Last season, these posts were simply titled "Survivor", but I'm trying something new out so bare with me!

Everything down below is not only referring to said contestant's previous performance, but their overall history in the competition. I deleted the pros and cons section but the Verdict is basically what I think they can do to get through to the next round and whether or not I think they're safe or not. On to Survivor!

ADAM WAKEFIELD

I'm going to start this the same way I started last week's post. I like Adam. His voice is wicked, there's so much soul pent up inside of him it's beautiful to see it come out on stage. My problem is that I think he's a very safe performer. The other contestants have been taking risks and even if it provided us with some truly disgusting results, at least they tried. Adam hasn't been. He's been behind that piano this entire season. He's clearly not going to hop from behind it this week considering it's the show's annual massacre where they cut the contestants in half (because they spent SO much time on the not-live performances of the season). Why mess with something that's been working? But at this point I will take him or leave him.

Verdict: Like I said, people love him (I like him too, I just don't see anything too special about him) so he's got some pretty good standing for next week.

ALISAN PORTER

Alisan must've thought that because she had a solid, slicked back performance last week that we missed her yelling at us to pick our laundry up the floor. Listen, like I said in this week's report card, mama sang down. She sang from her ovaries, her vocals were very strong. I just think they came on a bit too strong and she needs to relax. She had a really solid moment with "Let Him Fly" and people really responded to that so if she just goes back to that me and Alisan won't have any more problems.

Verdict: We'll see...

BRYAN BAUTISTA

Brian did his thing this week, I think he can really, really sing. I personally don't really like the tone of his voice when he hits his upper register just because it gets really nasally but I know he can sing. It's not like I wouldn't listen to a performance of his I just don't really know how to feel when I am listening to him. Also, just a pet peeve but I hope he never does the finger guns ever again.

Verdict: Coming off his best performance so far I think he's in good shape.

HANNAH HUSTON

Hannah pushed herself to the top of my list this week. Her performance of "Say You Love Me" was stellar (It was probably the only recording I listened to multiple times from this week). Her vocal control was stellar and her connection to the material was very, very clear. What she's been able to do that Alisan hasn't is actually grow as the show went on. When she performed "House of the Rising Sun" it declared her one of the front runners but she's been getting better and better every week. She did "I Can't Make You Love Me" and "Rolling in the Deep" and DIDN'T make them cheesy. Girl, please. 

Verdict: She's really positioned herself well so if she can keep the momentum up she's sailing through to the finals.

LAITH AL-SAADI

The thing about Laith is that I don't care whether he stays or goes because he doesn't really need this show. He has the type of talent that is rare to see on these singing shows and it's awesome that he's been safe every single week. 

Verdict: I think people really like him? He peaked second with Voice contestants on iTunes, right? Let's just see what goes into next week.

MARY SARAH

Well my, my, my. Mary's been sleeping on us all season (and we've been sleeping on her, because, girl). After boring, boring, boring performance with take 'em or leave 'em vocals all season last week Mary finally sang her butt off with "Stand by Your Man". This week she took it up a notch and basically showed everyone why she's still in the competition. She had one of my favorite performances of the week and that's saying something because it's Mary Sarah. Blake has been SO set on making her this classic country vocalist that we were tailored to get annoyed by her by the end of the season because it was the same, dreadfully boring performance every week but this week she let her wings fly and hopefully last week was the last old country song we get from her. "My Church" allowed her to reach her full potential and she's peaking at just the right time.

Verdict: At this point, I just want a girl to win so let's hope Mary can keep the momentum up.

PAXTON INGRAM

PAXTON. PAXTON. LISTEN TO ME PAXTON. STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING AND LISTEN TO ME. I love Paxton. I love every performance he does in one way or another. Paxton has a very golden opportunity here. He clearly shines when he's doing the inspirational/gospel stuff so. The best part about it is that he's only had one gospel performance so far so if he can do another one and pull it off like he did last time then he will sail right through into the finals. That's all I have to say.

Verdict: His Voice stay will be determined Monday night, we'll see.

SHALYAH FEARING

Shalyah did great this week but she's losing steam and she's losing it fast. I'm not even sure if she charted in iTunes this week, and if she did it was just right above Paxton in that 130-150 range. "A Change Is Gonna Come" was without a doubt her best vocal performance since "Listen" she needs to pull out all the stops or it's over for Shalyah this week.

Verdict: She bounced back from "The Climb"! Now she needs to keep pushing. @Adam, so "No More Drama" this week?