Blake Shelton’s First Battle Round Picks on ‘The Voice’
How was your Monday night? If you happened to be Blake Shelton, it was an interesting one indeed, at least as evidenced by the premiere of the Season 14 Battle Rounds on The Voice March 19.
Shelton, along with fellow coaches Adam Levine, Kelly Clarkson, and Alicia Keys, enlisted the help of celebrity mentors to ready their teams for battle—with two singers from each team going head to head. The winner of each battle moves on to the Knockouts round. The loser goes home, or can be stolen by another coach!
Things started off on a good foot with Team Blake welcoming Trace Adkins for assistance (Shawn Mendes lent a hand to Team Alicia, Hailee Steinfeld helped Team Kelly, and Julia Michaels worked with Team Adam). It got hot right away when Shelton decided to use one of two steals off the bat, grabbing Clarkson's first loser, Dylan Hartigan—who spiced up one of Taylor Swift's reputation tunes—at the very last second.
From there, Shelton only had to observe one of his own team battles, and it was a good one. Two strong-voiced women, Jesslee Stuart and Kyla Jade, prepped to pit their vocals against each other.
Here, Adkins put in his two cents, although he wasn't particularly generous with advice. He seemed to favor Jade—a backup singer who's shared the stage with Jennifer Hudson and Wynonna. "Got to be good to sing with her," Adkins noted, of the latter. He added that he felt Jade "Hears things in her head" that us mere mortals can't musically comprehend. Fair enough.
The two women sang the lilting, romantic "One Last Time" by Ariana Grande, a song that crawls up and down the scale with potential for showing off range. Both women killed it, but Jade, as she did with Adkins, appeared to impress the panel across the board just a little bit more. "I never in my life want to sing with you, Kyla," raved Clarkson. "I’d feel so bad!"
Turns out the only one feeling bad was Stuart, who was sent home (alas, no steal) when Shelton made the expected decision. As the star noted, Jade's voice seems to be undiscovered, exciting territory. "I don’t think we’ve discovered yet her range," he marveled.
Tune in tomorrow for more of the Battle Rounds picks, and every Monday and Tuesday as we follow Season 14 along.
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