Last night (2/26) was the season 14 premiere of The Voice. How did Blake Shelton do on getting artists for Team Blake?
First of all let me point out that Adam Levine again joins Blake as the only coaches to be a part of every season of the hit singing competition reality TV show to date. Alicia Keys returns as a coach and Kelly Clarkson is making her first appearance on the show as a coach although she has served as an advisor on the show previously. Based on just the first episode of the Blind Auditions Kelly is fitting in well.
Second let me say that we have seen the new twist, “The Block” used and it could be as the show calls it a “game changer.”
Now to how Blake did on the premiere last night.
Right out of the box we saw “The Block” used by Blake Shelton on the first artist of the night. Britton Buchanan chose to sing Ray LaMontagne’s “Trouble” in the Blind Auditions. Alicia hit her button first quickly followed by Blake who hit his button to block Adam. Adam then hit his button not knowing he had been blocked.
While Blake’s block worked to keep him off Team Adam, Britton chose to join Team Alicia so Blake’s block did not work out as well as he had hoped.
Kyla Jade sang Aretha Franklin’s “See Saw” for her blind audition. She talked about how Kelly also sang an Aretha song for her audition on “the singing competition show” she was on … you know … American Idol, which she also won. Blake hit his button first, but because of her comment in the lead up to the performance I figured Kelly had this one when she also hit her button.
It was something of a shock when Kyla chose to join Team Blake.
Kaleb Lee took his turn in the Blind Auditions and performed “Never Wanted Nothing More” by Kenny Chesney. His performance once again pitted Blake against Kelly. Kelly went all out to get Kaleb to join her team as Blake tried his best to counter her to bring him to his team.
Ultimately Kaleb chose Team Blake for the start of his journey on the show.
The night started out with a “Block” being used and it ended with the new twist. Justin Kilgore put his vocal tones to work on Chris Young’s song “Tomorrow.” Blake, Kelly and Alicia all turned their chairs simultaneously. However, Alicia used her “Block Blake” button to turn her chair. Eventually Adam also hit his button to give Justin a “Four Chair Turn” on the show. Adam and Kelly took great pleasure that Blake had been blocked while Alicia seemed like she felt guilty at first and wouldn’t admit it was her that had blocked Blake.
When the three coaches that Justin could choose from began giving their reasons to join their respective teams Alicia did admit to blocking Blake. Adam’s pitch wasn’t really that strong, he again just seemed to bask in the fact that this particular country artists could not choose Blake. Alicia and Kelly gave good pitches. When Justin revealed that he was obsessed with Reba, Kelly was able to point out that Reba is her mother-in-law and I think that gave her the edge.
Justin did choose to join Team Kelly.
By the end of the night Blake had scored two artists for Team Blake. Adam and Alicia also added two artists to their teams. New coach Kelly Clarkson had the best night as she ended with three artists on team Kelly.
Night two of the Blind Auditions continue tonight on NBC starting at 7 PM central time (8 PM eastern time). Blake and Alicia have both used their “Blocks.” Will Adam and/or Kelly use theirs tonight? We will have to wait to find out.
By: Buck Stevens
