The Voice 2 has its final performance episode on Monday, May 7, 2012. The show starts at 8 Eastern time. Four contestants (one from each team) have made the finale:
1. Juliet Simms on Coach Cee Lo Green’s team
2. Tony Lucca on Coach Adam Levine’s team
3. Jermaine Paul on Coach Blake Shelton’s team
4. Chris Mann on Christina Aguilera’s team
Heading into the finals, Juliet Simms and Tony Lucca have generally done the best in iTunes sales among this group. Juliet got all the way to #4 for the Top 8 semifinals, and Tony was at about #20 for his “Hit Me Baby One More Time” in the Top 16. Tony had the highest iTunes rankings in the Top 16, and Juliet had the highest in the Top 8 and best selling song so far of the season for the semifinals performance of James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World.”
Tony dropped off some but was still around #30 for the Top 8 and was ahead of both Jermaine and Chris.
In the finale of Season 1, Dia Frampton managed to hit #1 in iTunes sales rankings, and Javier Colon hit #2. Vicci Martinez was around #15, and Beverly McClellan was only around #50. Based on this year’s trends, it looks like it will be difficult to get a 1-2 punch, but Juliet has a good chance if she get a good song choice and nails it again. Tony could definitely make the Top 10, as well.
I will post the iTunes rankings for Juliet, Tony, Jermaine, and Chris in the hours after the Monday performance show. The iTunes sales do count toward the vote totals. If it is like the previous weeks, then the voting will close at 10 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday morning. That cutoff time might change for the finale.
Rankings:
In early results, Tony is out to the lead about 15 minutes after the show. His “99 Problems” is at #41. Jermaine is at #69, and Chris is at #74. Juliet’s “Free Bird” is not in the top 100 yet, but it should be showing up shortly.
Results for Juliet are very disappointing so far, and Tony is dominating iTunes among the finalists. He is up to #13 about 50 minutes after the show. Chris is up to #34, and Jermaine is up to #35. Juliet is at #40.
About 70 minutes after the show, Tony is at #12, Chris has moved up more to #28, Jermaine is at #32, and Juliet is at #35.
About 7 hours after the show, here are the iTunes rankings:
6. Tony Lucca for his solo of “99 Problems”
9. Tony Lucca and Adam Levine’s deut of “Yesterday”
12. Juliet Simms for her “Free Bird” solo
13. Chris Mann and Christina Aguilera’s “The Prayer” duet
15. Chris Mann solo of “You Raise Me Up”
16. Jermaine Paul solo of “I Believe I Can Fly”
34. “Soul Man” duet of Jermaine Paul and Blake Shelton
95. “Born To Be Wild” duet of Juliet and Cee Lo Green
Tony and Juliet have one or more previous solos, but they do not count in the voting this week. The duets do NOT county in the voting, either. That means that Tony is leading The Voice 2 finale iTunes rankings. However, it is close enough now that the phone, text, and Internet votes will probably determine the winner.
Also note that, while Tony and Juliet are not getting the #1 and #2 rankings achieved last year, Dia and Javier had original songs, which may have spurred on more viral activity and improved sales. This year, the finale performances were covers. Lastly, as a whole, Chris and Jermaine are doing better than Vicci and Beverly did in the ratings.
I am about to release the approximate rankings at the time of cutoff, which was 10 a.m. Eastern. While Juliet was close to Tony in the end, she was way behind to start. It is pretty clear that Tony won unless Juliet won on the phone, text, and Internet votes. Those are the votes that tend to favor guys like Tony over girls like Juliet. And a girl rocker winning is just about unheard of. But Juliet did go last and frankly got just about the best edit she could. She could squeeze out a win tonight, but I think it would be close if she does.
3. Tony Lucca - “99 Problems”
5. Tony Lucca and Adam Levine - “Yesterday”
9. Juliet Simms - “Free Bird”
11. Chris Mann and Christina Aguilera - “The Prayer”
12. Chris Mann - “You Raise Me Up”
13. Jermaine Paul - “I Believe I Can Fly”
25. Jermaine Paul and Blake Shelton - “Soul Man”
42. Juliet Simms - “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World”
64. Juliet Simms - “Roxeanne”
72. Tony Lucca - “How You Like Me Now”
78. Juliet Simms and Cee Lo Green - “Born To Be Wild”
89. Chris Mann - “Ave Maria”
Of the above, the only rankings that count in the finale voting are 3 for Tony, 9 for Juliet, 12 for Chris, and 13 for Jermaine.
I would not even be totally shocked if Chris or Jermaine won. With the iTunes this close, Tony certainly did not lock up the title. I still expect either Tony or Juliet to win, but Chris seems to have 9 lives in this competition. And Jermaine led his team from start to finish.