‘The Voice’ Season 27 Episode 9 recap: Tears from Kelsea Ballerini cap off an emotional ‘Knockouts Premiere’
The Voice Season 27 moved on to the third stage of the competition on Monday with the first installment of "Knockouts" performances. In this round, each coach will set four head-to-head matchups from their team and will be forced to choose only four winners. While they won't be able to save any of the losers from their own team, each coach will have a Steal to bring a loser from another team with them to "The Playoffs." By the end of the round's 16 performances, 20 artists will remain in the competition.
One hallmark of this round is that the artists get to choose their own song to perform rather than have it selected by their coach, as was done in the "Battles." Another is that without guest mentors assisting during rehearsals, it's the first time that John Legend, Kelsea Ballerini, Michael Bublé and Adam Levine get to work one-on-one with the artists on their team.
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"You give it a little bit of a kick in the ass... I hope I can say 'ass' on TV, but I'm saying ass" — Adam Levine
For the first performances of the round, John pitted BD.ii against Kolby Cordell for a knockout between two soulful singers that he wanted to see handle the pressure of going against each other. Knowing that he wouldn't be able to save either of them, John told them during rehearsal that his plan was to coach them to a place where the other coaches would be interested in using their Steal. BD.ii chose to perform "Back at One" by Brian McKnight in order to go "outside [his] comfort zone" and Kolby went with "Lately" by Stevie Wonder so that he could do something different than the uptempo tracks he took on in the earlier rounds.
BD.ii, Kolby Cordell on The Voice (Photo credit: Tyler Golden/NBC)
After the two performances, Adam told BD.ii that he was "transfixed" by his performance and called Kolby a "discovery" before suggesting heavily that he'd be using his Steal regardless of the decision John makes. Kelsea told Kolby that he has the same "smokiness" to his tone that John has, but advised John that BD.ii seems "more ready." Michael appreciated Kolby as well, negating Adam's comment that he sounded "tired" by saying that it was just the natural rasp to his voice and he liked it. When John chose BD.ii as his own winner, that gave both Adam and Michael the opportunity to claim an artist they're drawn to in Kolby. To appeal to Kolby, Adam had to walk back any suggestion he made that he sounded tired and clarified that he actually loved it. In the end, that was enough for Kolby to join Team Adam, rejecting the offer from Michael.
"My voice takes a bad turn when I cry" — John Legend
The last knockout of the evening was from Team Kelsea between Angie Rey on "Dirt Cheap" by Cody Johnson about the value of childhood memories and Iris Herrera with the addiction-themed ballad "Jolene" by Ray LaMontagne to honor her family. In their song choices, Kelsea was drawn in to the storytelling that these women chose to focus on and got emotional during rehearsal of their powerful and vulnerable renditions of the songs. Before making her decision of who to keep, Kelsea referred to them both as "firecracker" singers, but was ultimately pulled in by the "emotional and vulnerable" Iris for feeling "farther along in her vocal journey."
After his unsuccessful attempt at a Steal at the top of the episode, Michael hit his button again in the last minute to save Angie from being eliminated from the competition. He explained that he waited so long to hit it because he "wanted her to be able to hug her coach before she came to win the show with her new coach." He believes that she "fills that country void" on his team and hears a "wonderful, rich depth" to her "soulful" voice.
"Can you just say Michael Bublé is really good looking? Let's go with incredibly good looking" — Michael Bublé
By the end of Episode 9, four other knockouts decided who would advance. Adam stuck with Lucia Flores-Wiseman on "Slow It Down" by Benson Boone over Grace-Miller Moody with "Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac. In another knockout, he went with Ethan Eckenroad on "I Won't Back Down" by Tom Petty instead of Trevon Dawson with "Red Dirt Road" by Brooks & Dunn.
BD.ii, Kolby Cordell on The Voice (Photo credit: Tyler Golden/NBC)
In her own second team matchup, Kelsea chose Tinika Wyatt on "Best of My Love" by The Emotions as the winner instead of Dan Kiernan chose "Impossible" by Shontelle. Michael only showed one knockout tonight and kept Barry Jean Fontenot on Michael's own song "Haven't Met You Yet" over Simone Marijic with "She Used to Be Mine" by Sara Bareilles.
The updated teams are:
TEAM LEGEND — BD.ii, Bryson Battle, Jacquelyn George, Nell Simmons, Olivia Kuper Harris, Renzo, Tatum Scott
TEAM BUBLÉ — Adam David, Angie Rey, Barry Jean Fontenot, Carlos Santiago, Divighn, Jadyn Cree, Kaiya Hamilton, Kameron Jaso
TEAM KELSEA — Alanna Lynise, Hailey Wright, Iris Herrera, Jaelen Johnston, Page Mackenzie, Tinika Wyatt
TEAM ADAM — Ari Camille, Britton Moore, Conor James, Darius J, Ethan Eckenroad, Kolby Cordell, Lucia Flores-Wiseman
The four-time Emmy Award-winning musical competition series The Voice is in its 27th season featuring five stages of competition: Blind Auditions, Battle Rounds, Knockouts, Playoffs and Live Performance Shows. In the coaches' chairs, Michael is the defending champion after winning Season 26. He is joined by John, in his 10th season, and Kelsea, competing for the first time. Adam rejoined the panel of coaches for his 17th season after taking a hiatus following Season 16.