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‘The Voice Predictions’: Who Will Survive The Battle Round?

By Toni Matthews
Published on: 10:04 PST, Oct 12, 2015

The “Blind Auditions” wrapped up last week on The Voice, and with the judges’ teams all set, now comes the painful process of eliminations. Some talented folks will likely be leaving too soon. Fortunately, there are some truly stand-out Voice contestants who have the vocal chops to make it all the way to the live shows.

Before looking that far into the future, it’s time to make some predictions: Which artists from each team are most likely to be sent to the Knockouts — and who is most likely to earn a steal.

Let’s start with the battle that’s available via The Voice‘s official YouTube page.

This duet features Voice hopefuls Mark Hood and Celeste Betton of Team Pharrell singing the classic “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” People noted that the judges clearly dug this pairing based on their ever-present smiles. Coach Pharrell was particularly pleased, which is funny, since one of these brilliant singers would be leaving his team immediately after putting on such an outstanding performance.

Speaking of which, how great a cover was that? It felt true to the spirit of the original song while bringing some modern attitude to the table. Both artists sang well, but only one stays. Deciding who will be tricky, as technically neither did badly.

Technically.

My hunch is that this is all going to come down to stage presence. Here, Mark Hood is the clear winner. He owned that stage, moving (or rather, gliding) from one end to the other with rhythmic ease. Perhaps it’s because of this that Celeste Betton, while strong vocally, seemed comparatively stiff for the most part. She did show a bit of energy near the end, but I suspect she was feeding off her the energy her Voice rival was giving off. Hood clearly had enough to go around.

And so, I suspect that it will be Mark Hood moving on and Celeste Betton hoping for a steal. That is if Pharrell doesn’t do what he did in Season 8 with Kimberly Nichole and split the baby. She was clearly the better singer in her duet, but he let her go believing she’d be stolen. Fortunately for Kimberly, Pharrell was right.

This battle may be tough to decide because technicalities aside, BOTH singers brought it. And Mark Hood is too good a singer for a truly competitive Voice coach to let go. Odds are, one of these people will be stolen. So that’s good news for Mark and Celeste!

This juicy preview aside, who else is most likely to win their duets and move forward on The Voice? I did a bit of predicting about a week ago, and after thinking it over, I may need to revise my opinion.

To get an idea, I went back and listened to ALL the available performances to get a sense of which contestants stood out the most. And of that group, which few seemed the most confident in their singing to do well in against other Voice contestants.

I think Jordan Smith (Team Adam), Ellie Lawrence (Team Gwen), Krista Hughes (Team Blake), and Mark Hood (Team Pharrell) will have the easiest time moving forward based on the strength of their Voice auditions. In Mark’s case, the added strength of his readily available Battle Round performance.

Who is most likely to be stolen? I predict Celeste will be sticking around, and I think James Dupré might find his way “home” to Team Blake. That’s as far as my predictions go with so little time between now and the start of the show. Hopefully, it’s enough to get YOU thinking about which Voice singers you believe can go the distance.

Do you have any predictions for tonight’s episode of The Voice? Share in the comments. Also, feel free to come back and gloat if I’m completely wrong!

[Image Credit: Screen grab from The Voice Official YouTube]

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