The Voice recap: 'Live Top 12 Eliminations'

Welp, this season of The Voice is officially a crap shoot.

The fact that D.R. King wasn’t voted through by America this week is not terribly surprising, since he had a less convincing performance than usual this week, but Rayshun LaMarr worked this week, so it’s a little bit of a shock to see the Rayshun Nation-ers (is that a thing, or has Adam Levine’s hashtag idea faded at this point?) let him down.

After we endure a set of group performances (whoaaaa there Team Kelly, it’s not illegal to harmonize, ya’ll), we learn that America voted through, in “no particular order”:

1. Britton Buchanan (Team Alicia)
2. Brynn Cartelli (Team Kelly)
3. Sharane Calister (Team Adam)
4. Pryor Baird (Team Blake)
5. Christiana Danielle (Team Alicia)
6. Spensha Baker (Team Blake)
7. Kaleb Lee (Team Kelly)
8. Jackie Verna (Team Adam)
9. Kyla Jade (Team Blake)
10. Jackie Foster (Team Alicia)

That left D.R. King in the bottom two to compete with Rayshun LaMarr, who was not on my radar for this scenario at all. Then came the save-me performances.

D.R. performed The Temptations’ “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” and opted against any kind of nuance or subtlety and decided instead to lay out the whole breadth of his range, which is what Kelly Clarkson seems to love so well about him. D.R. does have a voice, of course, but there’s a lot happening here, and it’s chaotic enough to induce some audience anxiety for sure.

Meanwhile, Rayshun clearly wasn’t expecting to be here tonight either because his song choice isn’t exactly your ordinary bottom two performance material (“I Can’t Stand the Rain” by Tina Turner). Even so, he’s still got that Saturday morning in the big city, ’80s movie montage style vibe that’s hard to deny.

D.R. King might be, as birthday girl Kelly Clarkson points out, very versatile with what he can tackle on this stage, but Rayshun’s talent is undeniable, even with a less than ideal song choice on deck. Ultimately, America makes the right call and chooses to give Rayshun another chance.

Saved: Rayshun Lamarr
Sent Home: D.R. King

TEAM STANDINGS:

Team Adam: Sharane Calister, Rayshun LaMarr, Jackie Verna

Team Alicia: Britton Buchanan, Jackie Foster, Christiana Danielle

Team Kelly: Brynn Cartelli, Kaleb Lee

Team Blake: Kyla Jade, Pryor Baird, Spensha Baker