‘The Voice’: Cassadee Pope, Danielle Bradbery & The Swon Brothers Return To Perform

Caila Ball-Dionne | December 11, 2013 5:50 am

Tuesday night (December 10) was a night of homecomings on The Voice, now that NBC is using “homecomings” to mean “nights where employed musicians were busy, so we let some former contestants perform and took them out to Red Lobster afterward in lieu of payment.” Even Monday night’s promise that coach Christina Aguilera would perform turned out to be a blatant lie, and that one loves performing this season!

Perhaps the performance lineup was just an effort to help viewers understand the deep disappointment the soon-to-be eliminated contestants would feel when they exited the stage for the last time. Or, again, all the actual working musicians other than Xtina, Adam Levine, Cee Lo and Blake Shelton were at the American Country Awards in Vegas Tuesday night. Either way.

Regardless of the less than stellar lineup, there was plenty of excitement on Tuesday night’s show. With two imminently heading home, all five contestants — Jacquie Lee, Will Champlin, Cole Vosbury, Tessanne Chin and James Wolpert — were wearing all black mourning chic out of respect. Or because it’s slimming. Either way.

Here’s who performed, who’s going to the finals and who came ever so close to the chance to make a homecoming next season:

Making the first homecoming is The Swon Brothers, of Season 4 finalist fame. Their single “Later On” is almost as country as their past “Okie From Muskogee” performance but it must be doing well enough for Colton Swon to feel comfortable giving his guitar to the audience mid-song. Incidentally, they are still touring and using the word “Swoncerts.” Bless their hearts.

Michelle Chamuel, also of Season 4 finalist fame, performs her single “Go Down Singing.” Despite the cute drum line of Michelle Chamuel lookalikes that back her up, it’s not the most exciting song or performance from a former favorite. Hopefully her former coach, Usher, will help her with the rest of her album, which will be dropping in 2014.

Season 3 champ Cassadee Pope performs her new single, “I Wish I Could Break Your Heart.” It’s certainly the most poppy showing of the night thus far, and it’s on par with “Wasting All These Tears.”. Speaking of “Wasting All These Tears,” the single has reached gold status with over 500,000 downloads! And they say there are no Voice success stories!

Season 4 champ Danielle Bradbery closes out the performances with “Never Like This.” The young songbird sounds fantastic, and she’s having a big month! She’s got a music video going for the Olympics (thanks, NBC!), an album that’s currently #3 on the iTunes country chart, and she’s touring with Brad Paisley. Maybe these Season 5 finalists do have a shot at the big time!

…well, three of them anyway. With an elimination looming, being a successful Voice champion is about to be out of reach for two of the hopefuls.

Advancing to the finals:

Team Adam: Tessanne Chin, Will Champlin Team Christina: Jacquie Lee Going home: James Wolpert (Team Adam), Cole Vosbury (Team Blake)

To quote philosopher Cee Lo Green, “Someone should lose gracefully, and someone should win graciously.” Granted, that’s coming from a coach who’s been out for weeks. But take his wisdom, young contestants, because he’s getting paid a lot of cash to sit in his red chair and dole it out.

Season 5 of The Voice wraps up next week!

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