‘The Voice': Blake Shelton and Adam Levine Bring Their Country to the Battles
On Monday night (Apr. 15), The Voice ushered in a new feature, the Live Cross Battles. The concept? The coaches (Blake Shelton, Kelly Clarkson, John Legend and Adam Levine) choose an artist from their team to compete against an artist from an opposing team. The pair of singers face off with their own respective songs, and the decision is left to America's vote as to who wins.
Shelton had his moments during the evening, but the producers of the show wisely left the best for towards the end of the evening, when the country coach pitted his most down-home artist, Dexter Roberts, against his arch rival Levine's country offering, Andrew Jannakos.
Roberts, although talented, is nobody's shocker landing on Team Blake. However, "Andrew is the biggest surprise on my team," Levine notes. "Blake was genuinely not happy about me getting Andrew, which I love. He's one of the better country singers we have. Your talent level is astonishing."
Roberts kicked things off with a heartfelt version of Brooks & Dunn's "Believe." Jannakos countered this with the more modern "Yours," by Russell Dickerson.
"That was a tough one. I'm not going to lie," Shelton mused when both were through. "You brought it. Dexter, that song you performed is sacred ground in country music. That song is one of their greatest in my opinion. The way you performed it, you made it your own, but you did it justice. You made it stand out. It was absolutely pitch perfect."
Levine countered this with: "I want to talk about the fact that, Andrew, you got up here and there might be not be anybody more country than Dexter. You're countrier than he is."
"Well, no," argued Clarkson to that, but added that the two artists represent new and old country respectively, and that she felt Jannakos gave Roberts a valid challenge.
Legend, who originally turned for Roberts, said that Jannakos was his favorite this evening.
We'll find out who makes it to the next round tomorrow, when America's votes are tallied! If your favorite does not make it through, cross your fingers, as each coach has a save and a steal to use.
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