‘The Voice’ Top 8 Recap: Tweeters Say 'F You’ to CeeLo’s Return

“I’m baaaack!!!” original coach CeeLo Green intoned at the start of Monday’s Voice broadcast (a reunion episode that also featured former coaches Gwen Stefani, Usher, and a via-satellite Shakira). In some ways, seeing CeeLo back in his comfy red chair, serving as an adviser to his old pal Blake Shelton, was nostalgic; after all, CeeLo was the most interesting, most risk-taking coach in Voice history, the man who championed maverick contestants like Juliet Simms, Jamar Rogers, Kat Robichaud, and Cody Belew. And of course, CeeLo, Blake, Adam Levine, and Christina Aguilera always comprised this series’ dream team.

But in some ways, this little reunion was not so dreamy. The Voice’s cast members may have welcomed CeeLo back with open arms this week, but many viewers weren’t as thrilled.

The last time CeeLo was on The Voice, in Season 5, he was at the center of a date-rape controversy and legal battle, when a woman claimed he’d dosed her drink with Ecstasy; CeeLo later announced on Ellen that he was quitting The Voice, although some behind-the-scenes reports claimed that he was about to be fired anyway, since this was not a good look for this family-friendly show.

CeeLo was never convicted of rape or assault, but he did plead no contest to one felony drug count, and he was sentenced to probation and community service. That could have been the end of it, if he’d just kept a low profile for a while, but then he posted a string of outrageously offensive tweets implying that it’s not rape if a woman is unconscious. (“People who have really been raped REMEMBER!!!” was of his many shocking comments.) Although CeeLo later deleted the terrible tweets and apologized, the damage to his reputation was done. His TBS reality show and multiple concert dates were swiftly canceled amid the ensuing public protest, and it seemed like he’d never grace the Voice soundstage again.

CeeLo has wisely stayed off Twitter ever since that September 2014 scandal (although his long-missing hired show cat, Purrfect, the one Voice cast member I’d really like to see return to the show, retracted her claws and tweeted her support this week). But this Monday, many Voice fans took to Twitter to let their opinion of CeeLo be known. In a nutshell, their message to notorious coach was along the lines of the F-word-laden chorus of his biggest hit song.

Yikes.

To be fair, CeeLo kept it clean, professional, and relatively non-creepy this Monday, although it was a little icky when he called 18-year-old Hannah Kirby “darling” and made her perform Tina Turner’s Thunderdome theme with a troupe of dancing middle-schoolers, or when he cuddled up to Team Blake’s bizarrely fangirling Meghan Linsey. And of course, no mention was made of last year’s controversy by anyone on the show. When host Carson Daly went in the Sprint Skybox, he only read positive fan feedback; the show’s social media team probably had to go over Tweetdeck with a very fine-toothed digital comb to find those few-and-far-between tweets.

The cast member I was more excited to see return this Monday was last season’s runner-up, Matt McAndrew, recently signed to Republic Records and performing his new single, “Counting on Love.” While the song wasn’t as instantly catchy as his No. 1 iTunes hit “Wasted Love,” it was reminiscent of his more rawkin’ Season 7 performances like “Take Me to Church” and “Make It Rain,” and it was as good as or better than many of the performances by this season’s top eight.

And speaking of this season’s top eight, let’s get to recapping their performances, shall we?

Hannah Kirby (Team Blake) – Hannah’s shoutiness has annoyed me for weeks now (particularly last week, when she did, um, Tears for Fears’ “Shout”). But this week, her relatively reined-in performance of Tina Turner’s “We Don’t Need Another Hero” worked. The theatricality of the cinema song suited her extravagant performance style, and she actually had some vocal dynamics this time, instead of bellowing the entire song at me. Maybe CeeLo’s coaching technique actually suited Hannah, since both Christina and Adam said this performance “had CeeLo’s stamp all over it.” Blake told Hannah: “You’ve become one of my all-time favorite artists. There’s never been anyone like you.” I warmed to Hannah this week, and not just because she gave the above-mentioned Purrfect a little shout-out. But that helped!

Joshua Davis (Team Adam) – Joshua faltered last week with a clunky, Springsteenian James Bay cover that landed him in the bottom three. Now, as Adam’s last contestant standing, he was back to doing the folksy fare he does best. I actually thought singing Sting’s “Fields of Gold,” a song Joshua picked himself, would be a huge risk for the husky-voice troubadour, since Sting’s high-pitched tunes are so difficult. But he totally pulled this off. It probably helped that Joshua really connected to the song, which reminded him of his own life choices and of his poetess mother. Joshua came out “swinging for the fences,” and he knocked this one out of the park. Team Adam is probably staying in this game for a while.

Kimberly Nichole (Team Xtina) – It was beyond awesome to witness the trifecta of girl power that filled the rehearsal room when Kimberly, her coach Christina, and guest adviser Gwen came together. Of course, I expected total divaliciousness after this pow-wow, but instead, Christina and Gwen brought out Kimberly’s softer side, helping her be uncharacteristically vulnerable on a jazzy, candlelit rendition of Radiohead’s “Creep.” Gone was the Rock Ballerina’s usual stomp and swagger; instead, Kimberly was broken-down and raw (she even cried during her mentoring session). I think she could have pushed the rawness even further — being such a polished pro, she clearly struggled to strip back some of her rock-star veneer — but this was still a side of Kimberly previously unseen and unheard. “If that is what insecurity sounds like, we all could use some… That was masterful,” Pharrell Williams marveled. You know, Kimberly doesn’t have to wish that she were “so very special.” She already is. My one complaint is, I wish the show had given credit for this arrangement, which bore such similarity to Haley Reinhart’s Postmodern Jukebox version. Just because Haley is a former American Idol contestant is no reason to not give her her due! (UPDATE: Kimberly later tweeted a nod to Haley and PMJ, saying: “Thank U Radiohead for creating such an iconic song and thank U #HaileyReinhart and @PMJOfficial for inspiring it to be done in a diff way!”)

Meghan Linsey (Team Blake) – Of course CeeLo, the man who in Season 2 had Tony Vincent dress up like a fascist dictator for “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” and Erin Martin make a grand entrance on a golden chariot for “Walk Like an Egyptian,” suggested that Meghan — a woman popular for her rough 'n’ tumble, down-home Marc Broussard and Little Big Town covers — perform this week in an Oscar gown accompanied by a massive orchestra. CeeLo does not know the meaning of the word “subtle.” I was worried that everything that had made Meghan cool and relatable was about to disappear. But since Meghan is a mostly perfect vocalist, her grandiose cover of the Beatles’ “Something” was still amazing, and still convincing. Meghan’s stage presence and voice were big enough to keep her from getting swallowed up by the overall big production. My only gripe was that she gender-flipped the lyrics (a general pet peeve of mine), but since she dedicated the song to her new, post-Steel Magnolia beau, I cut her some slack. This was a very emotional, sexy-but-classy performance, the kind of performance that gets votes. It was a little staid and traditional for my tastes, but let’s face it, if Meghan sang this on the Season 8 finale — where she almost definitely seems headed at breakneck speed — she’d probably win.

India Carney (Team Xtina) – India is without a doubt one of this season’s top divas, vocally on the same level as Kimberly or Meghan. But I completely agreed with Gwen’s remark that, even after several weeks of live shows, it’s still hard to figure out what sort of recording artist India really wants to be. Even India admitted that she is still struggling with her artistic identity. Well, I’m not sure if an old-fashioned cover of “Over the Rainbow” is the sort of material that India should record post-Voice (I’ll be interested to see what India’s iTunes sales are like this week), but I will say that as a reality TV competition song choice, this was pretty much genius. This is the sort of gorgeous, tender, awards-show-style performance that mainstream America adores — and it was vocally flawless, too. As Blake put it, this was “magic.”

Sawyer Fredericks (Team Pharrell) – The simple farm boy warbled Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Simple Man,” and he brought his usual quiet intensity to the proceedings. I’m glad CeeLo wasn’t mentoring Pharrell’s contestants, otherwise poor Sawyer would have probably ended up performing in a sequined wizard’s cape while suspended in a giant illuminated cage, or something like that. Pharrell did advise Sawyer to work the crowd a little more, and Sawyer complied, but thankfully the boy’s stage moves weren’t too wild or contrived. This is one contestant that doesn’t need to throw in a bunch of crazy runs and ad-libs, frolic with a children’s choir or drum corps in a ring of dry-ice stage smoke, run around in the audience shaking hands and kissing babies, or do really anything over-the-top to make a major impact. The impact is all there in sweet Sawyer’s plaintive, from-the-gut vocals and windows-of-the-soul eyes. Sometimes simplicity really is the best approach.

Corey Kent White (Team Blake) – Doing Bad English’s “When I See You Smile” may have seemed like an odd choice for this new-school country crooner, and Corey himself didn’t seem too pleased with the song assignment. (“The only thing country about this song is me singing it,” he grumbled during rehearsal. Oh, snap.) But there’s been a decent history of country, or country-ish, Voice contestants putting a twangy spin on '80s power ballads. There was Jake Worthington doing Bryan Adams’s “Heaven,” Cole Vosbury doing Mr. Big’s “To Be With You” and Extreme’s “More Than Words"… and, well, actually, that’s about it. But it has been done before. I wish I could say that Corey’s cover carried on that noble if extremely brief tradition, but this performance fell flat. Corey’s obvious lack of enthusiasm for the song choice was at least partially to blame, and I really wish he could have just faked it, but Blake should have realized that Corey wasn’t feeling this song and let him do something else. (I don’t blame CeeLo for this, even though he insisted this song was country.) Most of this performance was ho-hum; it took a long time for Corey to rev up, and eventually he got to a more dramatic big finish, but I think it was too little, too late. Adam said he’d wanted the "explosion” to come earlier in the song, but Blake went on and on, unconvincingly, about this being Corey’s best performance and a “breakout” moment. Um, no. I think Blake doth protest too much; he just didn’t want to admit that this hadn’t worked. I think Corey’s one saving grace could be the fact that he is “THE ONLY COUNTRY CONTESTANT” of the season, something Carson Daly obnoxiously mentions whenever Corey approaches the stage. But I’m not sure if country fans will be buying this track on iTunes, so we may not see Corey smile when the results are revealed this Tuesday.

Koryn Hawthorne (Team Pharrell) – This girl was on fire! Yes, her Alicia Keys cover was a bit oversung, and yes, Koryn was singing it in a surely CeeLo-approved, mid-air gilded cage. But there was no denying her passion, her power, or her unbridled courage as she tore into this song like a hungry dog tearing into a bloody steak. Koryn’s emotive gospel take on “Girl on Fire” was a marvel to behold. This girl just never holds back, and she leaves everything on the stage, every single time. It’s a good thing that Koryn sang last, because no one would have wanted to follow this.

So now, it is prediction time. Who will be in the bottom three this Tuesday? Corey seems like the only obvious prediction, but I suspect Hannah’s first-place “death spot” position will put her at a disadvantage, too. (This is not the first time Hannah has had to sing first — insert your conspiracy theories here — and while she has survived before, we are now down to the top eight, so the situation is extremely tough.) As for the third at-risk contestant, it could really be anyone. I’m guessing it’ll be Joshua, but if he is in the bottom three for the second week in a row, I think he will flout that old “Instant Save Curse” and, much like Season 6’s Kat Perkins or Season 7’s Ryan Sill, he will survive to sing againx.

Tune in Tuesday to see if I’m right! Hopefully by then, the social media focus will be off CeeLo Green, and Voice fans will be ready to tweet to Instantly-Save their favorites.

Follow Lyndsey on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google+, Amazon, Tumblr, Vine, Spotify