‘The Voice’ Season 7: What Were The Most Shocking Eliminations?

Once the dust settled on Monday night’s episode of The Voice, we were left with four teams, each filled with unique and talented individuals.

There doesn’t seem to be a voice among them that is exactly the same as the contestants fare from various musical backgrounds.

The seventh season of The Voice is shaping up to be among the best thus far.

Still, it’s hard not to look back at Voice contestants that whatever reason simply did not make the cut.

Of all the people who turned a chair and made it onto the show, these persons probably the more shocking elimination outcomes.

Justin Johnes was the last person to audition for this season of The Voice, giving a performance that suggested the 15-year-old was a natural. So you can imagine the surprise of many viewers when Johnes was not only eliminated early on, but with barely a glimpse into his departure. It just goes to show how unpredictable The Voice can be (or how ruthless the coaches are during early cuts. Luckily the youngster has a pre-existing YouTube fanbase to fall back on.

Perhaps the fact that Ethan Butler was eliminated isn’t so surprising since he was up against clear Adam favorite Matt McAndrew. However, that he wasn’t saved is something of a surprise. It was by no means a bad performance. Perhaps the lack of subtlety in attacking the Coldplay song “Yellow” was noted after the performance. Proving his vocal ability far outweighed respect for the material, and that could be what cost Butler in the end.

Jordy Searcy is another elimination in which a talented artist happened to be paired with a clear early favorite. Searcy wasn’t bad; he just wasn’t as good as Taylor Phelan. And once again a Voice is cut who seemed to have a great deal of potential and no judges willing to risk using a steal.

Blessing Offor might end up being one of the most shocking contestant departures out of the entire seventh season of The Voice. Particularly because this was hand’s down Blessing Offor’s best performance. Despite injecting a lot of soul into his distinct spin on a John Mayer song, it wasn’t enough to save Blessing.

On the surface, Menlik Zergabachew’s departure may have been shocking, but there was something else working against the smooth-voiced singer: He was NOT the only reggae singer in the competition.

Gwen Stefani chose to hold onto Anita Antoinette, who made it to the Top 20 Live Playoff round of The Voice. Antoinette was willing to step outside of her comfort zone and inject the sort of personality and flair into her performance.

If Zergabachew had done the same, he might have survived against an inspiring performance by Jean Kelley.

Even though Troy Ritchie only turned one chair during his blind audition, he seemed to be a rather upbeat and fun performer to watch. He defeated Voice opponent Menlik Zergabachew during their duel, but failed to impress when followed by dark horse Taylor John Williams.

Beth Spangler’s outstanding blind audition featured her belting out Beyonce’s “Best Thing I Never Had”. She earned four chair turns.

Her undeniable talent even resulted in a save by coach Gwen Stefani. Still, second chances don’t necessarily work out for Voice contestants (as we witnessed quite a few times). For Spangler, it likely came down to song choice.

She went with Jojo’s “Too Little, Too Late”, a belter of a song for which Spangler simply does not possess a strong enough voice.

That is a surprising observation to have to make following Spangler’s strong entrance onto The Voice. But song choice is everything. Vocalists must walk a fine line between playing it safe and taking on deceptively difficult songs.

Griffin’s departure from The Voice is perhaps one of the most frustrating situations in the history of any singing competition. Why? Because there wasn’t a man nor woman watching at home that didn’t know Griffin was exiting The Voice the moment he announced that he intended to do a Justin Bieber song!

For whatever reason he thought “As Long As You Love Me” would impress the judges with his range in pop tastes. Maybe if he’d opted for The Backstreet Boys’ version instead, Griffin might have squeaked through to the Live Playoffs.

Which eliminations did you not see coming? What singers do you think at least one coach on The Voice should have tried to save?

[Image Credit: The Voice]