The Voice: Christina Aguilera Performs “Let There Be Love” & Cassadee Pope Hits #1 On iTunes

Caila Ball-Dionne | November 21, 2012 6:23 am

Tonight, The Voice shocks us with something even more gripping than an unexpected elimination: Cassadee Pope brings down “Gangnam Style” — sort of.

Admittedly, it wasn’t through a powerhouse performance, but nonetheless, Blake Shelton’s team member knocks “Gangnam Style” out of its #1 spot on iTunes with her cover of Blake and Miranda Lambert’s “Over You.” We’re sure PSY will remain ubiquitous — he’s still at #2 — but it might mark the end of an era. Melanie Martinez also cracks the Top 10 with her cover of The White Stripes “Seven Nation Army” (#8) and Amanda Brown hits #9 with her cover of Grace Potter’s “Stars.”

Anyone who makes the top 10 has all of their iTunes votes multiplied by 10, so it’s fair to consider the iTunes rankings as three spoiler alerts. Nevertheless, Carson Daly keeps the suspense up, and the performances keep coming on the road to the top 8.

Christina Aguilera’s involvement on Season 3 of The Voice is paying off as a long-form commercial for her new album, Lotus. (Given that Lotus limped in at #7 on the albums chart, she needs it.) Tonight marks the third world premiere performance of a song from the album, which follows last week’s world-premiere of “Make the World Move” with Cee Lo and last night’s world-premiere of “Just a Fool” with Blake Shelton.

In this evening’s Lotus moment, Xtina and her team perform “Let There Be Love.” Dez Duron (did you notice that he’s very handsome?) and Sylvia Yacoub sit in Christina’s chair and spin for her, blind auditions style. It’s completely corny, but other than the theatrics, the kids do their coach proud. If it doesn’t work out on the show, both Dez and Sylvia show great promise as backup singers for Christina’s next tour.

Rascal Flatts — who sure got old — perform “Changed” with Cody Belew and Cassadee Pope. The more we hear Cassadee sing country, the more we’re convinced this is the direction she should take with her career. Cody is unremarkable vocally, but brings his usual pizazz to his backup vocals.

Next up, Adam Levine and team perform Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” which viewers selected via social media during the show (watching The Voice is technologically interactive and incredibly exhausting). Adam’s got a diverse group of voices with Melanie Martinez, Amanda Brown and Bryan Keith – and they don’t really mesh well in this performance.

Where results are concerned, it’s that point in the season where some talented folks get the boot. Here’s how the Top 8 shakes out:

Making the cut are Dez Duron from Team Christina; Cassadee Pope and Terry McDermott from Team Blake; Melanie Martinez and Amanda Brown from Team Adam; and Nicholas David, Cody Belew and Trevin Hunte from Team Cee Lo.

Cody, who exits the stage in the most energetic fashion (obviously), gives Christina a big hug and thanks her for telling him to add more “bam bam” to his performance. We’re guessing this feels more like a gloat than it’s intended, as Team Cee Lo has three members in tact, while Christina is down to one. On the bright side, Christina gets to spend quality one-on-one time with handsome Dez. So everyone’s a winner!

Except for the losers, comprised of Team Christina’s Sylvia Yacoub and Team Adam’s Bryan Keith (and his fedora) — both of whom are eliminated. Due to the jam-packed performances, NBC cuts the show before Sylvia and Bryan have a chance to bid farewell, but we’re sure they’ll take to Twitter for a proper goodbye.

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