The final four pulled no punches in their final competitive performances of the season.
Each finalist performed three times: One last cover song, a duet with their coach, and a new original song.
Original Song
Check out the four finalists’ live performances of their original songs, as well as their cheesy music videos.
Meghan Linsey
Meghan Linsey debuted her original song tonight, and even cooler, it’s a song she wrote herself. Her goal as an artist is to empower women, and the song, “Change My Mind,” has a great message. Meghan Linsey doesn’t want you to change for a man, and lord knows that’s a good message to send. She may have been performing in a weird ice castle, but it was still a very moving performance, and a great debut for Meghan as a solo artist.
Joshua Davis
Team Adam’s Joshua Davis decided to take the Bruce Springsteen everyman approach for his original song, “Workingman’s Hymn.” It’s dedicated to his hometown of Detroit, and the economic disparity around the country. It wasn’t a love song, of which we’ve heard a lot from him this season, but hopefully it’s a message that will really relate to a lot of fans watching at home.
Sawyer Fredericks
Imagine being a teenager who really loves one particular musician, only to have them write you a freaking song to record and release as your own. Well, that’s what it’s like to be Sawyer Fredericks. He worships Ray LaMontagne, and has even gotten to cover his music on the show. But he managed to catch Ray’s attention, and Ray honored him with his own original song, “Please,” to be Sawyer’s debut single. It’s a great song, because Ray LaMontagne is amazing, and it was a perfect fit for Sawyer. How cool.
Koryn Hawthorne
Pharrell was inspired to write an original song for Koryn, called “Bright Fire.” Pharrell thinks the song feels good, feels like sunshine, but some of us kind of felt like the song fell a little flat. It was no “Happy,” that’s for sure. It was a surprising choice for Koryn to release an uptempo song for her original single, since she has really shined brightest with emotional ballads. That said, the song obviously means a lot to both Koryn and Pharrell, and she gave it all she had.
Cover Song
Koryn Hawthorne
Team Pharrell’s Koryn Hawthorne performed James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World,” and if you have been watching at all this season, you knew you’d be in for a doozy, hearing Koryn would be singing that song. It was so great to see a young woman so poised, and so talented, and so powerful, completely making the performance her own, and holding the attention of all of us around America.
Joshua Davis
Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah” is a beautiful, beautiful song. There’s no argument there. But it’s time we put a ban on it being performed by any contestant on a reality show. Because regardless of how well they do, it will never match up to the original. That said, Joshua Davis of course gave a beautiful performance, and put a lot of emotion into it. However, it would have been nice to see that emotion accompany a different song, one we haven’t heard hundreds of times already.
Meghan Linsey
Meghan may have started off on The Voice singing “Love Hurts,” but she’s in love now, making “When a Man Loves a Woman” by Percy Sledge (RIP) a great choice to represent where she is with her life now. It’s yet another song that has been covered many, many times by many, many people, so Blake and Meghan knew she’d have to do something to set herself apart. She gave it a pretty valiant effort, and sang from her heart.
Sawyer Fredericks
There’s no way around it: Sawyer Fredericks is about as American as it gets, so Neil Young’s “Old Man” was a perfect song choice for his final competitive performance. Sawyer said that while he’s never himself experienced the paternal aggression that Neil is singing about, he can understand it, which only further proves how wise he is beyond his years. It was a bit more serious than we’ve usually seen from Sawyer, but as usual, he nailed it.
Coach Duets
Sawyer and Pharrell
Were you not feeling mellow enough? Because never fear, Sawyer Fredericks and his coach Pharrell are here to mellow the crap out of you with their rendition of Seals and Crofts’ “Summer Breeze.” It may have seemed like we couldn’t get any more mellow than last week’s Snoop/Pharrell duet, but as it turns out, we can. Though Sawyer’s voice overpowered Pharrell’s in every chorus, that’s pretty much how it should be, because Pharrell’s not really competing for anything.
Koryn and Pharrell
Koryn and Pharrell made a great pair, performing a funky version of The Beatles’ “We Can Work It Out.” Not only did they sound great, but Pharrell adorably lead her around the stage, arm in arm, like he was leading her victory parade. It is so wonderful to see Pharrell in proud dad mode, and Koryn couldn’t look more grateful.
Meghan and Blake
Where do we sign up to be friends with Blake Shelton? Because over eight seasons, no one seems to have a better time than the contestants on Team Blake. Probably because their coach is a complete fool, and we love him for it. The Team Blake Party atmosphere is never more clear than when the contestants perform alongside their coach, who is sometimes having so much fun, he forgets the words. All that having been said, Blake and Meghan seemed to be having a blast performing Aretha Franklin’s “Freeway of Love.”
Joshua and Adam
This may be controversial, but this writer would like to submit the suggestion that Adam Levine takes a break from Maroon 5 and goes on tour with Joshua Davis. Because their performance of Paul Simon’s “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes” was an absolute delight. The song suited both of their voices so well, and the fun uptempo song seemed to bring both performers to life. Here’s hoping we can look forward to the Adam and Josh Paul Simon tribute band next year.
Tune in Tuesday night at 8 p.m. on NBC to find out who The Voice season 8 winner will be.