‘The Voice': Team Blake’s Jim Ranger Goes Big With Unexpected ’70s Classic [Watch]
On Monday (Dec. 7), The Voice continued along with a pared-down Live performance, having just chopped its roster down to nine last week. The evening, per usual, was not without its share of surprises, which should make for interesting results when America puts its hand to the vote to determine who makes it through to next week's finale.
A big surprise of the evening was Team Blake Shelton's Jim Ranger, who — if you all recall — was memorably fought over by Shelton and fellow coach John Legend back in October, after giving a lilting version of Keith Urban's "Blue Ain't Your Color." Legend (who, along with Gwen Stefani are the most non-country-oriented coaches on the panel) went so far as to trot out a funny video spoofing the presidential election, asking Ranger to "pick a coach you can believe in."
Ranger did...Shelton, unsurprisingly. That said, this evening, Ranger proved that Legend did see a multi-genre spark in him from the very start by performing a wildly flexible '70s classic, "Without You," which was originally done in 1970 by Badfinger, more widely recognized in 1971 by Harry Nilsson, and then covered in 1994 by diva Mariah Carey.
Ranger showed he could ably take on a pop/R&B song, and the fact that the set had him standing on an odd prop — what appeared to be a huge rock — belting out his huge vocals, didn't hurt matters at all. Shelton had advised him to go big with the song and he didn't just go big, he went yooge.
Legend, in awe and clearly still a fan, called the performance "moving, emotional, flawless." Meanwhile, Shelton approved with a simple "You did it," but managed to get some cracks in about possibly falling off that ridiculous rock. At least Ranger rocked, right?
After America puts in its votes, Tuesday night's show will reveal the Top 5 (four from votes, and one who manages to earn the Instant Save). Tune in to find out if your favorites made it!
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