Keeping up with ‘The Voice’: The Battles

Assistant+News+editor+Riya+Mahanta+and+Assistant+A%26E+editor+Katherine+Wu+rank+their+top+5+favorite+battles+of+the+latest+episode+of+The+Voice.

Courtesy NBC

Assistant News editor Riya Mahanta and Assistant A&E editor Katherine Wu rank their top 5 favorite battles of the latest episode of “The Voice”.

Riya Mahanta and Katherine Wu

This season of “The Voice” is definitely worth watching; it’s arguably one of the most talented and competitive seasons so far. We know life can be busy, and finding the time to watch a show twice a week may be difficult, so join us as we provide the latest updates with analyses on our favorite performances of the week.

As you may know, “The Voice” is a singing competition show with four celebrity coaches and teams. The 21st season premiered on Sept. 20 on NBC. Blake Shelton, Kelly Clarkson and John Legend returned as coaches for their 21st, eighth and sixth seasons, respectively, and host Carson Daly returned for his 21st season.

Ariana Grande replaced Nick Jonas for her first season. Grande brings a new sense of charisma and humor to the show, making it not only about the singers and performances, but also about the friendly rivalry between the coaches.

The season started off with three weeks of blind auditions during which the coaches picked and finalized their teams to prepare for the battles. The second and final week of battles premiered on Monday, Oct. 18 and Tuesday, Oct. 19. It was just as intense as the week before, which involved 11 battles and all four coaches using their “save” (keeping the loser of the battle on their team). Legend also used his “steal” that week (when a coach chooses the loser of another coach’s battle to join their team) on Jershika Maple. During the battles week of Oct. 11, all four coaches tried to steal/save the same artist, Kinsey Rose, for the first time in “The Voice” history.

This week, there were 13 amazing battles, which made it nearly impossible for us to decide our top five battles of the week. Nonetheless, we did it just for you.

 

Our Top Five

1. Representing Legend’s team, Sabrina Dias and Jack Rogan performed a stellar well-matched battle with Taylor Swift’s “Cardigan.” In the end, the coaches preferred Dias’s tone and energy. We were obsessed with Rogan’s mature tone, but unfortunately he was not stolen.

2. Joshua Vacanti and Keilah Grace faced off with Olivia Rodrigo’s hit song “good 4 you” on Team Legend. The insane vocals and harmonies on both sides left us in shock. While Grace hit some incredibly high notes, Vacanti had a distinguished and professional tone, which made him the winner for us as well as Legend.

3. In the “Here and Now” battle for Legend’s team, Jonathan Mouton and Paris Winningham both put on emotional performances, leaving the audience captivated. They were evenly matched, but in the end, Winningham prevailed. Thankfully, Mouton was stolen by Shelton, so he moves onto the next round of the show. Honestly, regardless of who won, we feel like either would have been stolen/saved, as their tone and portrayal of emotions through their performance was mesmerizing.

4. In an intense fight between Clarkson’s “four-chair-turns” (singers who had all the coaches turn for them during the auditions), Aaron Hines and Gymani sang “Working” by Tate McRae and Khalid. Clarkson’s choice to put these two sought-after singers against each other was shocking, as she had used up her save by that point and could only keep one of them on her team. The energetic performance was well-matched, but in the end Gymani prevailed, and Hines was not stolen by any coaches. 

5. In a fun, energetic showdown for Grande’s team, Raquel Trinidad and Hailey Mia duetted with “Carwash” by R&B band Rose Royce. While both singers had a great tone and range, Trinidad looked more comfortable on stage compared to 13-year old Mia. We loved Trinidad’s fun outfit choice and her singing reflected her personality. Because of this, Trinidad was declared the winner of the battle. However, Clarkson chose to use her “steal” on Mia due to her potential, adding Mia to her team. 

 

Team Rosters (as of Oct. 19) after The Battles

Team Kelly: Girl Named Tom, Gymani, Holly Forbes, Jeremy Rosado, Kinsey Rose, The Cunningham Sisters, Xavier Cornell, Hailey Mia

Team Legend: Brittany Bree, Joshua Vicanti, Paris Winningham, Sabrina Dias, Samara Brown, Samuel Harness, Shadale Johnson, Jershika Maple

Team Ariana: Katie Rae, Katherine Ann Mohler, Jim and Sasha Allen, Raquel Trinidad, Bella DeNapoli, David Vogel, Ryleigh Plank, Manny Keith

Team Blake: Peedy Chavis, Wendy Moten, Lana Scott, Hailey Green, Carson Peters, Berritt Hynes, Libianca, Jonathan Mouton

 

With the battles being so promising, we look forward to the next round: the Knockouts. In this round, singers from the same team once again compete against each other, but now the contestants each pick their own song to sing. Their coaches will once again determine who wins the battle. So many talented singers have already gone home, so it will only get more intense.