'The Voice' Top 10 Results: Rob Taylor Sings His Final Song for You
Last season, Adam Levine dominated The Voice, leading all three of his contestants to the finale. It’s a very different story in Season 8: On this Tuesday’s results show, he lost yet another team member, Deanna Johnson, leaving him with just one finalist in the entire the top eight.
However, the real disappointment Tuesday wasn’t the blow to Adam’s ego, but the elimination of Team Xtina’s Rob Taylor. Rob deserved to be in the top eight, and he should have never been in the bottom three.
Among Tuesday’s three up-for-elimination singers — Rob, Deanna, and another Team Adam contestant, guitar-strumming everyman Joshua Davis — Rob was clearly the strongest vocalist. He never had an off note, and every week, his performances (including this Monday’s cover of Donny Hathaway’s “A Song for You”) were full of fire, emotionally and technically on point. So I assumed Rob would easily wipe the NBC floor with Deanna and Joshua in Tuesday’s #InstantSave sing-off.
But then it all came down to song choice, and that’s how Rob blew it.
Deanna’s “save me” song was Kris Kristofferson’s “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” a tender and heartfelt number, and pretty much a literal plea for votes. She did well with it. Joshua did Tom Petty’s popular fight song “I Won’t Back Down”; it was a ho-hum performance, but it had a message, and that message was an unsubtle “VOTE FOR ME!” And America seemed to be listening.
Meanwhile, Rob sang Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay.” His performance was actually better than Deanna’s and Joshua’s, vocally, but this song just didn’t pack the wow factor of some of Rob’s previous numbers; it shuffled along, without any of his usual glory notes or falsetto climaxes. If he’d done something dramatic like “I Want You” or “I Put a Spell on You” this Tuesday, I believe he could have had a shot.
But instead, after the Twitter votes were tallied, Rob went home (along with Deanna, who really should have gone home last week instead of Mia Z, so I was cool with that outcome).
Christina Aguilera, Rob’s coach, was in tears. Rob was crying too. I may have reached for the Kleenex myself. After last week’s elimination of Mia Z, another one of this season’s most interesting and deserving contestants, seeing Rob go was tough.
Oh well. As for the above-mentioned Adam Levine, he’s still got one horse in this race (Joshua), while Pharrell Williams and Christina each have two. And of course, the unstoppable Blake Shelton’s team remains intact — increasing Blake’s odds of a victory fivepeat.
If several of these coaches’ contestants (namely Team Blake’s Meghan Linsey, Team Xtina’s Kimberly Nichole, or Team Pharrell’s Sawyer Fredericks) make it to the winner’s circle, I’ll be pretty pleased. But I would not have minded seeing Rob go all the way, too.
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