Jermaine Paul is a former Alicia Keys backup singer who is competing on the 2nd season of the U.S. version of The Voice. He has made it to the Top 8. While I wouldn’t think that Jermaine is the overall favorite, he is a favorite on his team to make it to the finale. Even when this guy practically screams through his songs with little to no refined artistry, he still gets the public votes to advance.
The other thing that makes Jermaine a favorite to make it to the finale is that he is going against Erin Willett. He creamed her in iTunes sales in the Top 16, and Erin had to be saved by coach Blake Shelton to make the Top 8. There is basically no basis to think that Erin is a favorite over Jermaine Paul in the Top 8.
Blake gets 50 percent of the Top 8 vote for Jermaine and Erin. He splits up 100 points between these two, and then the show adds the percentage of the public vote to determine who wins the Top 8. I can’t see hardly any reason why Blake would give much more than 50 points to Erin. He deferred to the public vote to get rid of Jordis Unga. On the other hand, he saved Erin even though RaeLynn had done much better on iTunes. But in the end, Erin is just not that great and doesn’t seem to be as much of a star as Jermaine Paul. Nonetheless, her only real chance to make it past the Top 8 is for Blake to dump a lot of points on her while screwing over Jermaine Paul.
With that said, I personally find Jermaine and Erin to be around the same in talent. Jermaine has better performances when he is on his A game, but Erin is probably a little more consistent.
Jermaine Paul is singing Journey’s “Open Arms.” It sounds pretty good in rehearsal.
To me, he doesn’t seem totally in sync with the music. But he is delivering a solid vocal. Paul can hit some great notes, but he isn’t exactly the cleanest or most artistic singer. Overall, though, I suppose he is going to easily take out Erin and be in the finale next week.
Blake said Jermaine is the one to beat. Maybe he will give more than 50 points to Jermaine Paul.