‘The Voice’ recap: Two go home as top eight are revealed

America has spoken. The top 10 shrank to just eight on “The Voice” on Tuesday night, as the results of what was, according to Carson Daly, a record-breaking vote were revealed: Power vocalist Sylvia Yacoub, of Team Christina, and gritty-smooth singer Bryan Keith, of Team Adam, would head home.

What did these two contenders in was not a lack of talent on their part, but rather a plethora of talent competing this season. Plus, being the first one to perform on Monday night probably didn’t help Yacoub. And Keith, coming off his best performance the previous week, had made perhaps too safe and calculated a song choice with Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind,” never quite claiming the song as his own.

The results arrived amidst a great deal of singing and spectacle: Christina Aguilera performed yet another song off her new album, this time backed by her team members, Yacoub and Dez Duron. Adam Levine stepped out with his team -- Keith, Amanda Brown and Melanie Martinez, on a somewhat looser and lower-key “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.” And there was a performance by Rascal Flatts, on which they were joined by contestants Cody Belew and Cassadee Pope. Not to mention a performance by Teams Blake and Christina of a song (“Hit Me With Your Best Shot”) chosen via a Twitter vote.

We also got a cute video in which the coaches and the contestants revealed some of their own, and a few of one another’s, secrets (Aguilera is “super afraid of the dark” and Team Blake’s Terry McDermott does a spot-on impression of John Travolta in “Grease”) and the news that both Martinez and Pope had broken into the top 10 on iTunes following Monday’s show. (All the artists at least charted, we were told.) Pope’s version of coach Blake Shelton’s “Over You” had even hit No. 1, knocking Psy’s viral hit “Gangnam Style” out of the top slot, Daly said. Since “The Voice” gives a big boost to contestants whose songs hit the top 10, you had to figure both singers would be safe.

And they were. Pope and Martinez were joined in the top eight by Nicholas David, Dez Duron, Cody “Bam-Bam” Belew, Terry McDermott, Trevin Hunte and Amanda Brown.

While it’s unfortunate to see Yacoub and Keith go home (especially since, for one seriously cringe-worthy moment, a confused Yacoub thought Daly had told her she’d made it through), that’s a super-solid lineup. Nicely done, America.

Do you think America got it right?

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