At of the close of voting at 10 AM Eastern Time Tuesday morning, here are unofficial iTunes results for last night’s performances:
2. Danielle Bradbery, “Born to Fly”
3. Michelle Chamuel, “Why”
4. Swon Brothers “Danny’s Song”
7. Swon Brothers, “I Can’t Tell You Why”
8. Michelle Chamuel & Usher, “One”
*9. Danielle Bradbery, “Maybe It Was Memphis”
11. Danielle Bradbery & Blake Shelton, “Timber, I’m Falling In Love”
25. Michelle Chamuel, “I Knew You Were Trouble”
35. Swon Brothers & Blake Shelton, “Celebrity”
Analysis:
-Ok, let me explain this as best I understand it. The top-10 iTunes bonus for this week only applies to each contestant’s ‘new’ performance, and all 3 made the top-10. iTunes votes are also cumulative throughout the season, so all sales made in the past (including those made last night for the “reprise” performance) count as one vote. The “reprise” performances were not re-released on iTunes, so the Swons’ “Danny’s Song” is actually a bit of fools’ gold. They just performed that song last week, so of course it’s going to be higher on iTunes, because it was already fairly high on iTunes going in. Danielle & Michelle picked songs from earlier in the season, so theoretically those already had their runs on iTunes, and are now getting a second wind. Danielle in particular picked a song from over a month ago (“Maybe It Was Memphis) and brought it back into the top-10, which is extremely impressive.
–The Swons are going to get killed by their duet with Blake. Not only did their new performance finish lowest among the three finalists (although 7th is still highly respectable), their duet lagged WELL behind Michelle and Danielle. (edit: Twitter informs me that duets do not count towards voting) Again, “Danny’s Song” looks like a big win for them, but I suspect it’s fool’s gold when you factor in cumulative voting.
-Michelle did everything she could and nearly played Danielle to a draw. Her new performance (“Why”) placed 3rd to Danielle’s 2nd, her duet (“One”) narrowly beat Danielle’s, 8th to 11th. But her reprise (“I Knew You Were Trouble”) didn’t come close, finishing 25th to Danielle’s 9th. Given that Danielle had a non-negligible lead on cumulative votes going in (no one really now how big of a lead, just that she had one), I don’t see how Michelle overtakes her unless phone/Internet voting is HEAVILY in her favor, and I just don’t see why that would be the case.
Therefore, my FINAL PREDICTION for season 4 of ‘The Voice’ is…
1. Danielle Bradbery
2. Michelle Chamuel
3. The Swon Brothers
(edit: although without the duet factoring into voting, the Swons could very well surpass Michelle)
