The Voice Recap: The End of the Knockouts Slugs Four Singers — Plus, Is That Really the Next Taylor Swift?

Charlie Mason
·5 min read
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As The Voice brought to a close its Season 25 Knockouts Monday night, the narrative that was being built around one contestant in particular became crystal clear: “Look here, folks! We’ve got the next Taylor Swift on our hands!” But did the show really? I… was not buying the hype. Were you? Let’s go over the evening’s performances, then we’ll have ourselves a little chitchat in the comments.

the voice winners list
the voice winners list

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Team Chance: Maddi Jane performing “New Rules” (Grade: B) defeated Kamalei Kawa’a performing “All of Me” (Grade: B+) — Kamalei stolen by John | If presence alone could sell a song, I would’ve said that Maddi won this Knockout with ease. She just has that “it” factor that would make her compelling even if she was just buttering toast. But here, though she showed solid range and an ability to navigate Dua Lipa’s tongue-twister, I was less impressed by her than by Kamalei. If you plugged him into an outlet, he still wouldn’t be anybody’s idea of an “electric” performer. But he brought a vulnerability to his John Legend cover that I thought gave him the edge. Even John himself thought that Kamalei’s rendition was “beautiful.”

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Team Legend: Mafe performing “Almost Is Never Enough” (Grade: A) defeated Gene Taylor performing “I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing” (Grade: C+) | Loved the enthusiasm with which Gene threw himself into his Aerosmith cover. But the cover itself? Er, that, I didn’t love. It felt like really fun, really energetic… karaoke. (Even Chance dinged him on pitch issues, and you know how rare an actual critique is!) Up second, Mafe absolutely slayed Ariana Grande’s ballad, delivering marathon-length runs and a vocal that went from velvety smooth to ear-openingly powerful. Dan likened her to a world-class painter, owing to the way that she knew when to dip in and out of vibrato. Whether that’s something painters actually do, I got what he meant: She was good.

Team Dan + Shay: Karen Waldrup performing “Georgia Rain” (Grade: A) defeated Ducote Talmage performing “She Got the Best of Me” (Grade: B) | Well, OK! Karen knocked clear outta my head my initial thoughts that this Knockout was Ducote’s to lose by turning out a vocal that was just soaked in emotion and, at times, so delicate that it called to mind a wildflower sprouting from a dirt road. Gorgeous performance. Following up Karen, Ducote did a fine, growly job with Luke Combs’ hit. The trouble for him was that his teammate had just had a capital-M Moment. Under other circumstances, Ducote could’ve taken this Knockout. But under these? No way. Karen even gave Chance “Celine Dion feels.”

Team Reba: Justin and Jeremy Garcia performing “You Are the Reason” (Grade: A) defeated Zeya Rae performing “River” (Grade: A-) | In what was hands down their best-ever performance, the Garcia brothers redefined “tenderness” on their beyond lovely Calum Scott cover. They were in the moment, they were feeling it, and they sounded like a dream made of soft, fluffy, well-harmonized clouds. At first, Zeya suffered, at least in my ears, by comparison to Bishop Briggs on her number; nobody goes as big as Bishop Briggs. There was nothing wrong per se with Zeya’s rendition — it was quite good, actually — but there was nothing to catapult it to (or even near to) the next level… until she hit a looong note toward the end.

Team Chance: RLetto performing “Stay” (Grade: B+) defeated Alyssa Crosby performing “I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues” (Grade: A) | There may be something about Alyssa that reminds me of a Kristen Wiig character — is it the faces she pulls? — but damn, can she sing. With the same casualness that you or I might order takeout, she powered, and I do mean powered, through the Alessia Cara version of Elton’s classic. In turn, RLetto delivered a completely and totally confident rendition of The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber’s hit… that just never quite seemed to explode. He’s a solid singer and as magnetic as hell, but I wasn’t sure that his song selection gave him enough of a chance to set off fireworks. Considering the outcome, guess that shows what I know (again).

Team Legend: Zoe Levert performing “Cowboy Take Me Away” (Grade: C) defeated Jackie Romeo performing “Love On the Brain” (Grade: B+) — Jackie stolen by Reba | OK, so Jackie’s rendition of Rihanna’s hit didn’t hold a candle to Chris Blue’s in Season 12, she nonetheless sang it with a fire and an oomph that said, “You’re gonna love me!” — and I did. Helping her along the way was that she appeared to be really feeling it to the core. Tackling the Chicks, Zoe gave a performance that just kinda sat there. I’m sure the one-chair turn is a sweet kid, and she’s learning, but as yet, her stage presence just isn’t there, and her vocals have all the snap, crackle, pop of a bowl of Rice Krispies that have been left to sit in a puddle of milk for a day. “I think you’re gonna be a star,” Chance said, with Shay agreeing, “You remind me so much of Taylor Swift.” Really? Zoe’s coach went so far as to call her “a great artist who needs to be heard.”

So, who dazzled you on the second and final night of the Knockouts? And do you get the coaches’ across-the-board love of Zoe Levert? Vote in the below poll, then weigh in in the comments.

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