‘The Voice’ Finale: No Surprise That Jordan Smith & Adam Levine Won
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As we inch closer and closer to the end of the year, many of the big shows on TV are wrapping up their seasons or heading on hiatus. This includes NBC’s The Voice, which aired its 9th season finale this week. On Monday, all four of the remaining singers got to take the stage for two different songs– one performance piece, one Christmas song and one duet with their coach.
On Tuesday night, remaining coaches Gwen, Blake, Adam (who still have a team member in the competition) and Pharrell (whose team members were all eliminated) watched as the final artists anxiously awaited the results from last night’s performances.
Who is left in the running?
Jordan Smith of Team Adam
Barrett Baber of Team Blake
Jeffrey Austin of Team Gwen
Emily Ann Roberts of Team Blake
So here is a recap of this season’s final episode:
The episode opened up with the Top 24 artists collaborating for a rendition of “Lean On” by Major Lazer and DJ Snake. Unfortunately, it started off pretty choppy. There are just way too many different voices to make for a cohesive performance.
Afterwards, finalist Barrett invited former teammate Zach Seabaugh for a duet of “Forever and Ever, Amen.” The performance was mediocre. However, I am sure country fans were pleased with it.
After the commercial break, The Voice welcomed Coldplay to the stage, which performed their song “Adventure of a Lifetime.” Their performance was good, but that’s to be expected from them. However, they did opt to have weird monkey-suited dancers inexplicably appear in place of where the coaches usually sit and then join Chris Martin on the main stage; Although, this does go with the theme of the song’s music video.
Next, they showcased a little skit that the coaches put together that claimed Blake was part of a “Country mafia.” In it, Blake claims, “I’m not the biggest country star in the world…Garth Brooks is, but I am going to have something done to him.” This is one of the aspects that The Voice does different than many of its counterparts, it really relies on the chemistry and personality of its judges.
Eliminated contestants Nadjah Nicole, Regina Love, Mark Hood, Celeste Betton and Darius Scott, return to the stage with “Love Train.” Since many of them have powerhouse voices, it was sometimes a struggle, as they all wanted that last moment in the spotlight. However, it does make me mad to realize that many of these people were sent home before Braiden Sunshine.
The next little skit the show put together for tonight was a series of clips of Gwen crying throughout the season. This leads to the other judges’ singers jokingly pleading for their mentors to shed a few tears after their performances like Gwen does for her artists.
Then, Emily Ann Roberts is joined by Ricky Skaggs for a performance of “Country Boy.” Emily reminded me a lot of Reese Witherspoon’s portrayal of June Carter in Walk the Line during this performance. She definitely seemed in her element as she jammed out with her bluegrass peer.
Jeffrey opts to bring back Team Pharrell’s Madi Davis for a rendition of Amy Winehouse’s “Tears Dry On Their Own.” I think Madi deserved a spot in the finale, but nevertheless, it was nice to see her back on stage even as a guest.
With a huge stage set-up, Missy Elliot took the stage with Pharrell with their latest single “WTF (Where They From),” which was everything you would expect from Missy.
Jordan joined part-time Voice coach Usher for his song, “Without You.” While the song is mostly upbeat pop, it did have a few moments for Jordan to get in some impressive vocals. Afterwards, country artist Sam Hunt sang his song, “Break Up in a Small Town.”
Following some scenes of the contestants promoting this season’s partner, Nissan, Jeffrey Austin returned to the stage to duet with newcomer Tori Kelly for her song, “Hollow.” While Jeffrey did well, Tori has an amazing voice and somewhat stole the show this time around. Afterwards, Barrett was joined by Wynona Judd to sing “No One Else on Earth.”
One of the most popular singers right now, The Weeknd, took the stage to sing a medley of “The Hills,” “Earned It” and “Can’t Feel My Face” He put more of a rock edge onto the beginning portion of it, which was a nice change up as those songs are literally played 24/7.
An interesting mash-up of singers come together to sing “Any Way You Want It” – Evan McKeel, Amy Vachal, Regina Love, Korin Bukowski, Mark Hood and Jordan Smith. It was definitely one of the most high-energy performances of the night and Jordan was able to shine – as he has throughout the season. Following this is Emily Ann and some of her fellow female competitors singing “Summer Nights.”
The last performance before the results was by Justin Bieber, who sang his current single “Sorry.” He started off with a stripped down, piano rendition but then got back into his teen idol, dance routine.
After the commercial break, Carson brought the four contestants – Jordan, Jeffrey, Barrett and Emily Ann – to the stage. Shortly after, he announced that Team Gwen’s Jeffrey Austin had placed fourth, trailing Team Blake’s Barrett Baber in third.
Thus, the final two left fighting was Team Blake’s Emily Ann Roberts and Team Adam’s Jordan Smith. Honestly, these two earned their spots, and I doubt either of them will be out of the spotlight for long following the season – even if they aren’t the one who comes out on top.
However, after nearly 2 hours of waiting, Carson finally announces the winner: Jordan Smith. Since he came onto the show with his jaw-dropping blind audition, it has been pretty clear that he was headed towards the title. Thus, it hasn’t been the most unexpected season of the show, but nevertheless entertaining.
Jordan proceeded to close out the show with another performance of “Climb Every Mountain.” I was hoping he would do “Chandelier” or even better yet, “Somebody to Love” again.
This marks Adam’s third win as a coach on The Voice.
While that is the end of the road for this group of contestants, The Voice will be back on NBC in February with coaches Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, Pharrell Williams and Christina Aguilera. (I don’t get why the network isn’t milking the Blake-Gwen ratings boost while it lasts, but oh well).
Are you happy with the winner, Jordan Smith, this season?
Let us know by commenting below!
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