Blake Shelton Challenges Universal Records After Sundance Head Wins ‘The Voice’
Sundance Head won big on The Voice finale on Tuesday night (Dec. 13), but the battle for marketplace success has just begun. At a press conference after Head was crowned the Season 11 winner, his coach, Blake Shelton, called out Universal Records for their poor showing in breaking winners in the market, urging them to do better with Head.
“I want to say one more thing here, because it’s important. I want to personally issue a challenge to Universal Records," Shelton told reporters (quote via Yahoo! Music).
"This is Season 11 of The Voice, and I’m sitting here right now next to a guy who has won over America’s hearts. He’s so popular … He has proven that he sells tons of music. His biggest-selling song, arguably, is going to be the song he wrote by himself," he added, referring to Head's new single, "Darlin' Don't Go," which shot to the top of the iTunes charts after he debuted it on The Voice on Monday night (Dec. 12).
Shelton has often helped out artists that he coached on The Voice, and he's completely on board to do everything that he can to assist Head in building his career moving forward.
"I hope that we can all come together — meaning us and Universal Records," the "A Guy With a Girl" singers states. "This is the guy that I think can break the mold and become a star out of this show. And I give my word that I’ll put my work in, and I know [Sundance] will. This guy deserves to be a star, and there’s no excuses anymore. We need to make the record and put the work behind it that he deserves, to have this success that he deserves. And that has to start with Universal Records getting involved and behind him."
Shelton's comments echoed those of fellow The Voice coach Adam Levine in 2015, when he called Universal Republic onto the carpet over their failure to turn some of his winners into hits. Shelton has won The Voice five times now, and of his previous winners Cassadee Pope and Danielle Bradbery have gone on to different levels of success, while Jermaine Paul never even wound up releasing a full album.
Craig Wayne Boyd scored a one-off hit with "My Baby's Got a Smile on Her Face," but then parted ways with Republic before releasing a full-length project. He has gone on the record as to how badly he felt his shot was fumbled by the label.
Head previously placed in the Top 15 on Season 6 of American Idol in 2007 and subsequently recorded for Universal Motown, but has admitted that he did not make the most of that opportunity. His win on Tuesday night was a one-in-a-million dream come true about the power of second chances.
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