‘The Voice’ season 26 episode 10 recap: Snoop invites two artists to ‘the big leagues’ with a pair of steals in ‘The Battles Part 4’
Tonight on “The Voice,” the Battles continued with coaches Michael Buble, Snoop Dogg, Reba McEntire and Gwen Stefani pitting two of their 14 acts against each other in head-to-head match-ups. In this round of the competition, only one of the battling artists advances as a member of their team while the other is eliminated… unless another coach uses a steal to save them and bring the artist over to their team.
Michael and Gwen both used their first of two steal options during “The Battles Premiere” on October 21 and Reba used her first one in “The Battles Part 2” on October 22. Then, in “The Battles Part 3” on October 28, Gwen used her second steal and all three of the other coaches hit their button to steal Austyns Stancil from her team in a cliffhanger moment. Having the chance to join the team of his choice, Austyns decided to become the newest member of Team Snoop.
Snoop’s successful steal of Austyns put him on par with Reba and Michael in use of the advantage, but by the end of the night he had maxed out with his second and final hit of the button. Team Buble capped the night off with a battle between who Michael called “two of the strongest singers in the competition, Sofronio Vasquez and Aliyah Khaylyn. Sofronio was a four chair turn while Aliyah maxed out of three on the technicality that Gwen’s team was already full.
Michael gave Sofronio and Aliyah the Celine Dion mega ballad “The Power of Love” after studying both of their voices and trusting them with one of his favorite songs from one of his favorite singers. During rehearsals, Michael worked with the vocalists on sharing harmony duties at different points in the song and predicting that “people are going to go crazy for this” because of how connected the two of them are on the song.
Following the performance for the audience and coaches, Snoop recognized that both artists “allowed each other to have those moments to stretch out” and said their performance “really hit [him] hard and touched [him].” Reba called it “the performance of the night” because of the chills she got when they sang together and Gwen gave them props for perfecting “the hardest song in the world.” After Michael made the decision to keep Sofronio on his team, Snoop saved Aliyah, stating that she deserves to stay because she held her own against a strong singer like Sofronio.
The other battles shown in episode 10 were: Georgia Starnes beating DREION from Team Snoop with “Perfect Combination,” Kay Sibal outshining Beya from Team Gwen with “Please Please Please,” and Jaukeem Fortson defeating Tsola from Team Reba with “Higher Love.”
The updated teams:
TEAM SNOOP – Aliyah Khaylyn, Austyns Stancil, ChrisDeo, Christina Eagle, Georgia Starnes, Jake Tankersley, Mary McAvoy, Michael Alexandersson, Mikaela Ayira, Torre Blake
TEAM REBA – 323, Adam Bohanan, Danny Joseph, Frankie Torres, Jaukeem Fortson, Katie O, Kendall Eugene, Lauren-Michael Sellers, Tanner Frick, Tate Renner
TEAM GWEN – Camryn Brooks, Deon Jones, Felsmere, Gabrielle Zabosky, Jan Dan, Jose Luis, Kay Sibal, Mor Ilderton, Rowdy Shea, Sydney Sterlace
TEAM BUBLE – Cameron Wright, Cassidy Lee, Edward Preble, J.Paul, Jeremy Beloate, Kamila Kiehne, Kiara Vega, Shye, Sloane Simon, Sofronio Vasquez
The four-time Emmy Award-winning musical competition series “The Voice” is in its 26th season featuring five stages of competition: Blind Auditions, Battle Rounds, Knockouts, Playoffs and Live Performance Shows. In the coaches’ chairs, Reba is the defending champion after winning season 25 with Asher HaVon, the show’s first openly LGBTQ champ. She is joined by Gwen, in her 8th season, and Snoop and Michael, both competing for the first time.