The coaches pushed their artists vocally on night three of The Battle Rounds! (Photo property of NBC)
By: Jacob Elyachar
It’s night three of the Battle Rounds on The Voice!
So far, Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, CeeLo Green and Christina Aguilera have sent 12 artists to the Knockout Rounds and gave four artists a shot at redemption as Blake stole both Nic Hawk and Briana Cuoco, CeeLo stole Monika Leigh and Christina added Anthony Paul to her team.
Did Adam use his two steals tonight? Who won their respective battles? Read on to find out!
The “Your Body” singer started the night as she put rocker Josh Logan and Latin crooner Michael Lynch together. Christina chose them to perform Maroon 5’s “Harder to Breathe.” Season Two’s Tony Lucca had a hard time with the words and it looked like from the pre-battle footage that Michael would be having the similar problem. However, once the battle started, Michael remembered the words but Josh delivered punch-after-vocal punch, which made Christina pick the 33-year-old New Hampshire native.
CeeLo and Miguel paired George Horga, Jr. and Juhi together. I think this was the battle of the personalities. Team CeeLo’s youngest members tackled Gavin DeGraw’s “Best I Ever Had.” This was a very high energetic song and both of them gave it their all. I loved Juhi’s raw vocals and they sent a shock to my system. However, CeeLo decided to go with George because he put all of his eggs in one basket. But in an 11th hour save, Adam came to Juhi’s rescue and stole her from CeeLo!
Team Blake’s first battle of the night belonged to Austin Jenckles and Brian Pounds. Blake paired them together because both artists are edgy but can be very vulnerable. He decided to give them the Bee Gees’ “To Love Somebody” because he wanted them to step outside their comfort zone. Both men took the advice of Blake and Cher to heart and delivered a soulful rendition that impressed the coaches. Christina and Adam gave the edge to Austin and Blake agreed with the judges. I am so glad Austin is heading to the Battle Rounds, he has a great recording voice and I cannot wait to see what he does!
Adam paired his two comeback kids (James Irwin and Matt Cermanski) together and challenged them to perform Ryan Tedder’s “Counting Stars.” Ryan told the guys that “Counting Stars” was about his struggle to pursue music. It turned into one of the biggest battles of the night! Their vocal performance was pure vocal nirvana! The coaches were divided as Christina suggested Matt while Blake and CeeLo sided with James. He decided to go with James.
Possibly the weakest Battle Round of the night potentially could have belonged to Team Christina’s Destinee Quinn and former model Lina Gaudenzi. Before the battle, it seemed like both girls were all over the place when they practiced the Dixie Chicks’ “Not Ready to Make Nice.” Luckily, Christina stepped in and showed them what to do! At the battle, Lena moved me and took it to CHURCH with her beautiful high notes. While Christina called it a win-win for both girls…it took her a while to declare a winner…. In the end, the “Genie in a Bottle” singer chose Destinee. Lina was stolen by Adam and received a second chance in the competition.
In every season, there has been a battle that has blown everyone away! Jesse Campbell and Anthony Evans’ “If I Ain’t Got You” in Season Two, Trevin Hunte and Amanda Brown’s “Vision of Love” in Season Three and Judith Hill and Karina Iglesias’s “It’s A Man’s World” from last season are considered to be the pinnacle of Battle Rounds. Tonight’s final battle between Team Adam’s James Wolpert and Will Champlin will be remembered as the best battle of the season!
Both James and Will brought their A-games to conquer Imagine Dragons’ “Radioactive.” I loved both of their falsettos and gave me chills! This was the second time during the Battle Rounds that I gave a standing ovation! Once again, the judges were once again divided, as Christina liked Will’s consistency but Blake and CeeLo enjoyed James’s style. While Adam chose James, Will was able to move forward to the Knockout Rounds thanks to Christina.
Tomorrow night…with one steal left…the remaining artists must impress CeeLo in order to move on to the Knockout Rounds.
