Georgia Entertainment Scene

Who was cut this week on 'The Voice'? Did Atlanta's Aaron Gibson survive?

THE VOICE -- "Live Top 12" Episode 1114B -- Pictured: (l-r) Darby Walker, Aaron Gibson, Ali Caldwell -- (Photo by: Tyler Golden/NBC)
THE VOICE -- "Live Top 12" Episode 1114B -- Pictured: (l-r) Darby Walker, Aaron Gibson, Ali Caldwell -- (Photo by: Tyler Golden/NBC)
Nov 15, 2016

This was posted by Rodney Ho on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog on Tuesday, November 15, 2016

R&B singer Sa'Rayah's out-of-the-box performance of "Living on a Prayer" didn't resonate with the voters and cost her a spot in the top 11 on "The Voice."

She was the only singer who failed to land in the top 200 on iTunes.

There are at least three other black female singers that outpaced her: Ali Caldwell (who did a commanding cover of  a song by the late Leonard Cohen that was a favorite among MJ's Big Blog fans) and We McDonald, who tackled "Take Me to Church" with fervor and got the most download sales on iTunes. Somehow, Courtney Harrell survived singing one of those over-used songs, Aerosmith's crappy "I Don't Want To Miss a Thing."

Atlanta's Aaron Gibson picked an obscure alt-rock song Monday and it didn't help him although he was very committed and sounded great.

He landed in the bottom two but survived over Sa'Rayah courtesy of the Twitter Instant Save. He opted for something more familiar to save himself: "Lego House" by Ed Sheeran.

Sa'Rayah's "Rock Steady" wasn't bad but Gibson was a bigger crowd pleaser.

Former Atlantan Darby Walker made the cut after a clean, unadorned, unaffected "Ruby Tuesday."

Here is that hot Ali Caldwell performance:

And We McDonald's Hozier cover:

Brendan Fletcher got the pimp spot and was one of the more popular performances.

Billy Gilman's Queen cover also did well among fans:

And here is Sa'Rayah's performance that hurt her:

About the Author

Rodney Ho writes about entertainment for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution including TV, radio, film, comedy and all things in between. A native New Yorker, he has covered education at The Virginian-Pilot, small business for The Wall Street Journal and a host of beats at the AJC over 20-plus years. He loves tennis, pop culture & seeing live events.

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