The Voice Recap: Top 8 Cut to Four in Season 17 Live Semi Finals

And your top four are...

Written by Tammy Ragusa
The Voice Recap: Top 8 Cut to Four in Season 17 Live Semi Finals
THE VOICE -- "Live Semi Final Results" Episode 1719B -- Pictured: (l-r) Trace Adkins, Blake Shelton -- (Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC)

Although it was a night jam-packed with music, the evening also saw the Top eight contestants get cut to four finalists during the Live Semi-Final Elimination Round of NBC’s The Voice. Before the music began, though, host Carson Daly explained that the top three artists, based on viewer voting, would advance to the finale, the bottom two would be eliminated, and the middle three would compete for the final spot with Instant Save performances.

With only an hour of showtime, the hits — both the songs and the eliminations — rolled rapidly. Fortunately, the show started with a hot groove as coach Blake Shelton took the stage with his longtime pal and “Hillbilly Bone” collaborator, Trace Adkins, to sing their newest fun duet, “Hell Right.”

Following the performance, the first finalist announced to move forward in the competition was Team Legend’s KATIE KADAN.

The second performance of the evening was Tones and I singing “Dance Monkey and the second finalist whose name was called to go to the finale was Team Kelly’s JAKE HOOT.

Coach Kelly Clarkson was next up on stage and behind the microphone, but she wasn’t alone. Season 14 contestant Kaleb Lee returned to The Voice stage to sing his killer new collaboration that features Kelly, “I Dream in Southern,” available now on iTunes.

You could cut the anxiety with a knife as the remaining six contestants waited for Carson to name the next aspiring young artist to automatically advance to the finale. And the name called was Team Blake’s RICKY DURAN.

After the break, Carson revealed the three artists who would compete for the Instant Save that would earn them a spot in the finale. And they were:

HELLO SUNDAY from Team Kelly
KAT HAMMOCK from Team Blake
ROSE SHORT from Team Gwen

That means that the journeys for MARYBETH BYRD and WILL BREMAN, both of Team Legend, had come to an end and the battle for the final spot began.

Team Kelly’s Hello Sunday took the stage first singing Sia’s “Chandelier.”

KELLY: “You are 14-years-old tackling this huge Sia and Celine Dion hits. You are amazing. I am so blessed this season.”

Team Blake’s Kat Hammock was up next with James Taylor’s “You’ve Got a Friend.”

BLAKE: “This competition is what it is and it’s tough, but you’ve got a record to make no matter what happens here tonight….and your journey.”

Finally, Team Gwen’s Rose Short stepped up to the mic with Aretha Franklin’s “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.”

GWEN: “That was ridiculous. There is no question that you are the most talented human being I’ve been around. it is unbelievable to watch you work this room.”

With that, voters had five minutes to make their picks. But before Carson announced the Instant Save, he gave each of the coaches a chance for a final word to their contestants.

KELLY to Hello Sunday: “Even if they were my age, the songs they sing are insane, their range is insane.”

BLAKE to Kat Hammock: “I think you’re one of the most creative, inventive, imaginative vocalists I’ve never met…this journey doesn’t matter. I hope you make it through, but if you don’t, I’ll talk to you in a couple of days.

GWEN to Rose Short: “You keep blowing my mind because I don’t know what it feels like to be so perfect as a performer and a singer.”

And the last singer to perform in next week’s two-part season 17 finale is ROSE SHORT of Team Gwen. And, as Carson pointed out, this is the first time in 17 seasons that each coach has a contestant in the finale.