‘The Voice’: Christina Aguilera & Her Team Perform A Jackson Medley

Caila Ball-Dionne | November 20, 2013 5:37 am

Another week, another two shattered dreams on The Voice. Despite the uniformly impressive performances on Monday night, no one was immune to the threat of elimination (this isn’t The X Factor, after all). It was even tense up in the Sprint Sky Box, where Carson Daly actually  said on air, “Oh man, I’m down to 11%.” Although this was probably just a blathering reference to his phone’s battery power, one could make the huge stretch that he was also down to 11% of his emotional stability. Because of the eliminations. But it was probably just the battery power.

Before announcing the losers, Carson had the honor of revealing the night’s  biggest winner: coach Adam Levine. Get ready to rail, Ryan Gosling fans, because the smoldering Voice coach beat out Mr. Notebook for People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive honors. This led, naturally, to plenty of group hugs between the new reigning sex icon and Blake Shelton, Cee Lo and Christina Aguilera. It is unclear if the hugs were congratulatory, or an attempt to catch some contagious, award-winning sexy, but it was sweet none the less.

Speaking of award-winning sexy, the stage was filled with it during the elimination show! Here’s who performed, who advanced and who will be back to busking by week’s end:

Christina treats the crowd to yet another performance, this time backed up by her team. Team Xtina performs a Janet Jackson “Black Cat,” Janet and Michael “Scream” and Michael Jackson “Bad” medley, in what amounts to be the most entertaining performance on the season to date. There are some audio issues to start, but they don’t take away from Xtina, Jacquie Lee and Matthew Schuler’s brilliant performances.

Next up, James Wolpert, Kat Robichaud and Will Champlin perform Fall Out Boy’s “Sugar We’re Goin’ Down.” It’s fairly straightforward, but the three guitar-playing rockers go all in. This instant save factor really has the contestants working for votes during the results show now!

Joining his team onstage for the first time this season, Blake Shelton performs ZZ Top’s “Sharp Dressed Man” with Ray Boudreaux, Austin Jenckes and Cole Vosbury. It’s fine, though definitely no team Xtina, and explains why Blake wore a suit to work today.

Caroline Pennell and Tessanne Chin demonstrate some inter-team bonding with their duet of Lorde’s “Royals.” It’s vocally sound, but the fact that they perform it from thrones leads one to believe that someone on the set design team deeply misunderstood the song…or maybe they’re so smart that it’s meant to be ironically literal. Nah, it’s The Voice: misunderstanding.

Ready or not, it’s elimination time! Here is moving on to the Top 8:

Team Adam: James Wolpert, Will Champlin, Tessanne Chin Team Christina: Matthew Schuler, Jacquie Lee Team Blake: Ray Boudreaux, Cole Vosbury Instant Save: Caroline Pennell (Team Cee Lo) Headed home: Austin Jenckes (Team Blake) and Kat Robichaud (Team Cee Lo)

Kat: your crazy will be missed, but stay limber for those high kicks when the Top 16 return for the finale. Austin: in a world where Adam Levine is the Sexiest Man Alive, there’s only room on this show for one heavily-bearded finalist.

Teams Adam and Christina make a clean sweep this round, with Adam pulling into first place on remaining contestants. For Cee Lo, unfortunately, it’s a bit of a rough night. Not only is he headed into the Top 8 with only one contestant, but said contestant has to bounce back from this week’s bottom 3 ranking. Time for Cee Lo to summon his secret coaching weapons: the menagerie of pets that have thus far been conspicuously absent.

Surprised by any of Tuesday’s eliminations? Any predictions as to which coach will take it all this season?

Get an eyeful of even more pop music coverage, from artist interviews to exclusive performances, on Idolator’s YouTube channel.