by Jessica Blackwell

 

The Top 12 performed tonight, and at this point in the competition, its almost no longer acceptable to just be good. You have to keep pushing, doing something better than you've done before. For their second live show performances, a few of our contestants took risks - and it proved to be worth it. Here are my favorite performances from, the night

 

Jessie Pitts

Jessie decided to take a song that is currently dominating the charts and put a slow indie feel to it. She performed "Don't You Worry Child" by Swedish House Mafia and it turned out to be the perfect song for her. Her slow and careful rasp gave the song a beautiful haunted feel. Gwen enjoyed the performance, noting that Jessie "could do no wrong."

 

Damien

Damien is one of the artists in the competition that has to worry about peaking too early. He's just that great - his voice was amazing from the start but even he isn't immune to the need to push it further and further each week. He performed "He's Not Heavy, He's My Brother" with a gospel feel and amazed yet again. We know by now that Damien is a pretty emotional guy and based on the look on his face after he was done, he knew he did a great job. "I don't know who would be prouder, Donnie Hathaway or the church," Pharrell said. His coach Adam said he couldn't in a million years be more proud than he is right now." My prediction for him is that he will definitely be one of the top three.  

 

Danica Shirey

Quickly becoming one of my favorites, Danica is another one to watch. She has developed a power that surprises you, but I suspect it was there all along and that she's playing it safe. If so, I can only imagine what this girl is going to do as the competition goes on. She decided to perform "Creep" by Radiohead to show how she can tap into her creative side and make a song her own. Adam said she could "sing literally every song ever written" and Gwen called her a "freak of nature" - in a good way.

 

Matt McAndrew

This kid sounds like he's already a signed artist. His voice is so perfect I can't stand it and Hozier's "Take Me to Church" was the perfect song for him. Besides his vocals, he's already a great performer, ending on his knees.

 

Chris Jamison

Chris decided to do "Jealous" by Nick Jonas, a very vocally challenging song. There are crazy key switches in that song - something that even professionals struggle with. Even so, he did the song justice, gracefully coming out of the numerous falsetto moments in the song. Pharrell called it "100% his best performance yet."

 

Anita Antoinette

I still can't believe that on her first trip to  The Voice, no chairs turned around for her. She chose to do "Redemption Song" by Bob Marley. Now I love this song, but I was skeptical of Anita's choice to perform it. Season Five winner Tessanne Chin performed this song and ROCKED it. I would have hated to have Anita do this song and not measure up. It's the same way I feel about people performing Adele songs on singing shows. If you can't do the song justice, then don't touch it. Thankfully I was pleasantly surprised, and Anita blew the song out of the water. I still say Tessanne did it better, but I have no complaints. Everyone in Jamaica is proud.

 

Tomorrow night the Top 10 is revealed as two contestants head home. Stay tuned! 

 

The Voice airs Mondays and Tuesdays at 8pm EST on NBC. 

 

 

(Image Courtesy of NBC)