‘The Voice’ recap: The four finalists sing for the win

Let’s not kid ourselves. Any of the four Season 10 finalists could win “The Voice” on Tuesday night. Fans of Team Adam’s guitar-shredding blues rocker Laith Al-Saadi, Team Blake’s country-soul singer Adam Wakefield, Team Pharrell’s charming and beautiful preschool teacher Hannah Huston, or Team Christina’s golden-piped former child star Alisan Porter could all put their faves over the top. We’ve seen unexpected, come-from-behind victories on this show before.

But even Adam Levine, who really likes to win, but may like even more to be proved right, has predicted that Porter will take the Season 10 crown, and declared that, vocally, she totally deserves it.

“I would say that your voice is ... the voice that deserves to win,” Levine said during Monday night’s show, in a rare moment of placing a rival team member ahead of his own. “You do have an incredible voice, and so if I’m judging it based solely on that, you’ve come so far, [and] from the very beginning I’ve felt that way, and so I’m not going to change my tune now. I still believe that.”

And that was before Porter brought down the house with her show-capping final number, a dramatic take on “Somewhere” from “West Side Story.”

Over the course of the two-hour show, in which the four contenders each sang a cover song, a duet with his or her coach, and an “original” tune that he or she had written, each one made a strong case for victory. But Porter’s win would be historic: As a member of Team Christina, she would be the first “Voice” contestant to earn a win under the mentorship of a female coach. Finally, after nine straight male-coach wins, a female coach -- “The Voice’s” founding female coach, no less -- could finally claim victory. For Christina Aguilera and the show, and for us all, frankly, seeing Porter get the win of which she has proved herself more than worthy -- standing out in a field of exceptionally strong contenders -- would be especially sweet.

The voters will have their say Tuesday night. Here’s how each of the finalists performed on Monday night:

Laith Al-Saadi (Team Adam): For his cover, the amply bearded Michigan musician tackled Cream’s “White Room,” stepping away from the mic at one point to solo impressively on guitar. Blake Shelton noted that Al-Saadi had “made it to the finale” by doing things his own way, and Levine said he’d provided the show with something it had been missing. After a bro-sweet Beatles medley duet with his coach, Al-Saadi gave us a taste of his own music, a sort of a blues ballad called “Morning Light.” Levine said the singer and guitar player had evolved over time into his favorite contender in the competition, commending him on the way he filled the room with joy and made everyone around him happy, a comment that certainly seemed to make Al-Saadi happy.

Adam Wakefield (Team Blake): Wakefield’s coach duet, singing Waylon Jennings to Shelton’s Hank Williams Jr. on “The Conversation,” was kind of so-so, but both his original song, “Lonesome, Broken and Blue,” and his cover of Vince Gill’s “When I Call Your Name” were stellar. Shelton, too, knew just how to position Wakefield to collect the country-music vote and boost downloads. The Nashville musician’s own song, he said, reminded him of “something Keith Whitley would have recorded,” name-checking a country favorite who died (at age 34) in 1989. The Gill song earned praise from both Aguilera and Levine, who commended Wakefield for his talent and “impeccable taste,” and from Shelton, who said that he knew people “across the country” were celebrating what Wakefield had done with an “iconic” country song. Well played, Blake.

Hannah Huston (Team Pharrell): The preschool singer may have shown herself to be the most adventurous singer remaining, mixing things up with a completely different take on the Police’s “Every Breath You Take,” which she described as “dark and moody” and someone else called “James Bond”-like. (Just descending a high set of steps in a long, narrow red gown was brave, and Levine was right to call Huston “bad-ass” for that alone.) She and coach Pharrell Williams seemed to have lots of fun dueting on Williams’ own Justin Timberlake collaboration “Brand New,” but it was nothing compared to the joy they seemed to take working together on Huston’s “original” song, “I Call the Shots.” Levine called the glimpse at their creative process “one of the coolest things we’ve seen on the show.”

Alisan Porter (Team Christina): The onetime star of “Curly Sue,” who has been consistently incredible since she first stepped out onto “The Voice” stage to sing her blind audition rendition of “Blue Bayou,” hit it out of the park three times on the final performance show. Her original song, “Down That Road,” reminded viewers of her struggles (early success followed by addiction, and now defining herself post-motherhood) prompted Levine’s reluctant admission that she deserved the win. Her duet with Aguilera on “You’ve Got a Friend” showed she could stand shoulder to shoulder with a star like Aguilera and shine just as bright. And her show-closing (and show-stopping) rendition of “Somewhere” from “West Side Story” brought Aguilera to tears and inspired her to declare that Porter was “an inspiration for everybody and anybody that ... has a dream and wants a second chance” not to mention “the definition of ‘The Voice.’”

We will find out soon enough if the voters agree -- and whether there’s a place for Porter in the pantheon of “Voice” winners.