The Voice: Season 9: Top 10

Jeffrey Austin: Jealous:
comment: Nice. Not sure. After checking the original by Labrinth, I decided I quite dug this and bought both Jeffrey's and the original.
ITunes chart placement by midnight on show night: 8
ITunes chart placement by noon (close of voting): 7
change: ^1
*Dancing on My Own made a resurgence sometime in the "overnight" hours and at this posting is sitting in 175.  Actually, by noon it could have been a tad higher or lower because I've had a Murphy's Law kinda day and didn't get the figures until 2:30pm.

Emily Ann Roberts: She's Got You:
comment: Again. Nice. Not exactly my kind of music so it's hard to tell. Holy cow how many times can you mention the young age of a contestant? This time it was 2 in the package, 3 by one judge and once more by another. If my gal in Chicago was feeling better and drinking, she'd have been on the floor already.
ITunes chart placement by midnight on show night: 5
ITunes chart placement by noon (close of voting): 4
change: ^1
* By 12:18am, In the Garden is back on the chart in 155th. At 2:30pm, the song is now in 123rd.
** By 12:18am, Why Not Me is back on in 57th. At this posting, it's sitting in 44th.


Braiden Sunshine: Radioactive:
comment: no... just no. This was probably the worst choice he's made ever.When Adam sits there and tells you that singing a song took balls, it's not exactly always a compliment. Actually, it seemed like the judges were fighting to say something nice, and weighing each word so it didn't come off as completely dismissive. It's contestants like this that make me miss Simon Cowell. At least they didn't flat iron those curls again, although I can't say I was liking this style any better.
ITunes chart placement by midnight on show night: 151
ITunes chart placement by noon (close of voting): 122
change: ^29

Shelby Brown: Go Rest High on That Mountain:
comment: Not bad. Definitely  better than previous weeks. I'll be surprised if she doesn't do well this time around.
ITunes chart placement by midnight on show night: 9
ITunes chart placement by noon (close of voting): 10
change: DOWN 1


Korin Bukowski: Same Old Love:
comment: This was a fairly strong performance. Definitely better than some of the other stuff she's done. Gwen needs to stop trying to take the quirk outta Korin though. Glad to see the platinum was gone and a more flattering color was in her hair. Hubby almost didn't recognize her (he calls her mini-Gwen). Constant change ups make it confusing for the fans. What kind of artist does she want to be? At this point of the competition, the contestants need to be solidifying who they are as an artist. I don't feel Korin's accomplishing this. She seems to still be floating a drift. I wondering if another judge might not have been a better choice for her.
ITunes chart placement by midnight on show night: 47
ITunes chart placement by noon (close of voting): 28
change: ^19

Amy Vachal: Bye Bye Bye:
comment: Oh... I am SO digging this one. If PMJ was smart, they'd scoop this one up as well as their additions from Idol. I even went as far as to tweet them and suggest that they might want to keep an eye out for her because honestly, she'd be a perfect fit. 
ITunes chart placement by midnight on show night: 15
ITunes chart placement by noon (close of voting): 8 (She's the one that bumped Shelby down a spot on the chart)
change: ^7
*By 12:18am, Blank Space came back in at 74th. At this posting, it's sitting in 61st.
**During the sleep shift hours, Hotline Bling made a come back and is sitting in 166th.

Jordan Smith: Hallelujah:
comment: This is one of the most over done songs out there. Not sure I'm even liking his treatment of it. Won't be surprised if he gets top sales again this week though, simply from the timing of his performance.
ITunes chart placement by midnight on show night: 2
ITunes chart placement by noon (close of voting): 2
change: none (in his defense, he's up against Adele's Hello, which has been heard EVERYWHERE lately. It would have taken a massive amount of luck to knock her out of top spot twice in three week's worth of competition.)
* By 12:18am, Chandelier was back in at 153rd. At this post, it's in 111th.
** By 12:18am, Great is Thy Faithfulness was back up to 55th. Now it's in 49th.
***By 12:18am, Halo was back at 117th. Now it's in 86th.
****By 12:18am, Who Are You was back to 126th. Now it's in 97th.
*****During the sleep shift, Set Fire to the Rain came back and is presently sitting in 179th place.

Zach Seabaugh: Crazy Little Thing Called Love:
comment: I've decided that I simply cannot watch this boy during these uptempo songs and be objective in my comments. I kinda lost it with the first.... uh where was I going with this? 
ITunes chart placement by midnight on show night: 25
ITunes chart placement by noon (close of voting): 21
change: ^4


Madi Davis: Girls Just Want to Have Fun:
comment: Really didn't dig this arrangement at all.
ITunes chart placement by midnight on show night: 6
ITunes chart placement by noon (close of voting): 5
change: ^1
*By 12:18am, Love is Blindness was at 125th. At this posting, this one's sitting in 105th.

Barrett Baber: I'd Just Love to Lay You Down:
comment: Ugh. What is it about them picking such dated songs for this guy??? Looks like the pimp spot and Blake's insistence that this was a Top 10 song really helped him out. Personally, I liked his performance from last week better. Then again, I'm not a fan of The Twitty.
ITunes chart placement by midnight on show night: 3
ITunes chart placement by noon (close of voting): 3
change: none (he got stuck behind Jordan and Adele, so this is about as far as he was going to chart to be honest. A really strong showing though.)
*During the sleep shift hours, his Delta Dawn came back to 194th.


Analysis:

Holy crap. As of 12:18am, there are 6 of them sitting in the Top 10.
By the time I got back to check the Top 200 Chart, 7 of the contestants had muscled their way into the Top 10.  Of these 7, six of them had at least one song from previous weeks make a re-entry to the chart.

This week's biggest sales increase went to: Braiden.

Top performers, according to the Top 200:
Jordan (in 2nd with 5 additional songs on the chart)
Barrett (in 3rd with 1 come back song)
Emily Ann ( in 4th with 2 come backs)
Madi (5th with 1 additional come back song)

Those 4, for sure, should be going through to next week.

Also more than likely joining them will be:
Jeffrey (in 7th with 1 more song added on the chart)
Amy (in 8th with 2 more on the chart)

Most likely to be the ones in trouble this week:

Shelby: She slipped a spot, but it's simply because Amy out performed her last night. She's still in the Top 10, so this might be her saving grace. It all depends on how the alternate methods of voting treated her this week.

Zach: What he gained in squeals from the girls during his performance, didn't really translate well into the recorded version. It was nice, but really not a great pick for the week. It's something you'd expect to hear in the middle of a concert as filler and not something that translates really well to radio. Even with my squeal and panty throw at the tv last night, I didn't buy this one.

Korin: This was a strong performance,  but I'm not sure it's strong enough. Gwen seems bound and determined to make Korin just like her, but all this transformation is doing is making Korin look like an inferior Gwen. Her choice of judge is really working against her as it feels like Gwen is stifling all that made Korin really quirky and special. It feels like Korin is floundering in an attempt to discover who she really is. This confusion translates to the fans as we try to figure out exactly what kind of artist she's wanting to be. I suspect that Adam would have been a better choice for her mentor. Shoot, even Pharrell might have made a difference. I'm sad because she really is a decent performer, it's just that her judge doesn't know how to package her. Kind of like Hailey Reinhardt in AI, no one knew quite what to make of her either. I suspect that Korin would find a nice fit with the PMJ as well because of that uniqueness.

Braiden: By ITunes standards, this boy shouldn't even be in the running still. However, the other methods of voting is the only way he's making it through. I have been calling him out almost every week and every week I'm surprised he was saved.  Presently, there are 94 places between him and 9th placed Korin. I'm so over this boy and have been for awhile now. Oh Lord.... he annoys me and we all know what that means. He's The Voice's Sanjaya!

If things go according to the Chart (and they haven't yet) , we should see Braiden in a sing off with Korin tonight. However, taking into account the way things ran the last few weeks, I will not be terribly surprised if it turns out the sing off is between Korin and Zach/Shelby. Disappointed, yes. Surprised , not really. The only surprise will be if anyone other than those last 4 end up in the sing off and then sent home tonight.