Toneisha Harris - (NBC - photo)

Todd Tilghman - (NBC - photo)

Blake Shelton - (NBC - photo)

Video Beat EXTRA - BLAKE SHELTON's SNEAK ATTACK on THE VOICE

James Loving - National Radio Text Service

Blake Shelton is the only coach that has coached two of his Blind choices to the TOP 5 FINALS. The Preacher Man Todd Tilghman has eased his way through to the finals with zero adversity. Shelton's Toshina Harris had to win an Instant Save in the TOP 9 lives. Kelly Clarkson has coached the only male on her ten member team Micah Iverson to the finals. Coaches Nick Jonas and John Legend have had their bumps on the road to the finals. WHY? Read on…

SAY WHAT!

Thursday, May 14, 2020

In the world of shoulda, woulda, coulda The Voice coach Blake Shelton has emerged through the pack of coaching decisions to be on track to win his record stretching seventh coaching title. In the process he did a Pearl Harbor sneak attack by lying back in the weeds while coaching two of his original team to the finals.

Shelton is the ONLY coach that has two of his original choices chosen in the Blinds to emerge to be two of the Top 5 finalists. Due to the math, Shelton has a 40% chance to win his seventh title.

Shelton wisely chose Todd Tilghman from the beginning. The preacher man has continually made strong performances to compliment his voice on his journey to the TOP 5 Finals. Tilghman was a four chair turn and the preacher man chose Shelton to hopefully lead him to the title.

The fact that Tilghman chose Shelton demonstrates the strength of the Oklahoman's six title winning history. The question is could Tilghman be Shelton's 7th? Shelton's Toneisha Harris was a shocking choice for the singer. One would think a sista would choose brotha John Legend, for a coach. Surprisingly Harris, who was another four chair turn, selected our country brother Shelton. Shelton has earned his stripes with Harris by encouraging her in developing the strength of her voice and range.

Harris has improved the most over the season. She is so strong that opposing coach Kelly Clarkson has invited her to come to Las Vegas to perform as a guest on her show. The Georgia Peach mother of two had to go the extra mile to earn a place in the finals having to win the instant save competition of four in the Top 9 playoffs giving Shelton the edge with two of his team in the finals.

When you consider that Harris chose Shelton and not Clarkson, in a four chair turn in the blinds, that is a compliment to Harris as well as a credit to Clarkson for being such a good sport and person to pay such an tribute and professional offer to a singer coached by a competitor.

Shelton made no such offer which is reasonable since he performs country shows for a country audience. On the other hand Clarkson is a crossover singer with a background in pop and country aka more versatile.

Shelton prides himself that he is capable of coaching any style of singer. Often he proudly points out that accomplishment by noting he coached rock singer Cassadee Pope to the title (VB Dec 12 Extra part 2).

In the process he converted Pope to also sing country music which has helped her build her a career in that genre. It was the country songs that put her over the top as one week her song went to # 1 on the I-tunes charts. Pope performed a heartfelt song, "Over You", co-written by Blake Shelton. The song reached number one on the iTunes chart, knocking PSY's "Gangnam Style" down to number two.

Clarkson is the only other coach to choose a talent in the Blinds and coach them through to the finals. Micah Iverson was the only male on Clarkson's 10 singer team. Iverson has a voice that he cleverly chose the right songs to help get him through to the Finals. He performance of Elton John's "Your Song" in week 1 of the playoffs was his best to date.

As irony would have it, in our first article of the show this season we praised Legend for making such strong artist selections. The problem is when all was said and done he LOST ALL OF THEM due to pairing two of his best singers against each other and having to eliminate one. He lost CammWess in the Battles and Clarkson stole him. She then made the same mistake in pairing singers against each other. That resulted in losing CammWess and Legend immediately stole him back.

From that point on CammWess has been a voter favorite having been selected to go through by the voting viewers to now emerge to the Finals. Each step of the way CammWess has improved with strong performances in the comfort of his home during the COVID-19 induced virtual shows. In the process CammWess has learned to endure and go balls ahead to the wall for success.

First year coach Nick Jonas' finalist is Thunderstorm Artis who was originally on Legend's team. Like CammWess, Artis has had a similar journey after being cut. Artis has been selected by the publics vote in the lives to qualify for the finals.

What stands out this season is the viewing audience seems to be more mature than those in the past. They seem to recognize a performer for their talent and not their looks or ethnicity. This is the first time that we can recall the 60% of the TOP 5 FINALSTS are minorities or 3 of the 5 finalists.

All of the TOP 5 are deserving to win the title. This is the strongest competition that we have evidenced. With that said our favorite voice is THE PREACHER MAN… TODD TILGHMAN.

The bottom line is the production this season was remarkable considering the hoops the PRODUCTION TEAM had to jump through to get the COVID-19 induced shows on the air. A credit is due to the audio/video mixer/engineers as having a job well done.

But HEY… Be safe… and stay home…

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