‘The Voice’ makes history with its Season 19 winner
Instagram/@gwenstefani
Congratulations are in order for Carter Rubin! On Tuesday night, the 15-year-old singer from New York became the youngest male contestant to ever win The Voice(stream the full season on CTV), taking home the season 19 trophy. Carter’s win was not only history-making for the young singer, but it also marked the first ever win for his coach Gwen Stefani. Is that worth a Covid-hug? No, but it’s pretty close.
Tuesday’s finale saw the final five contestants, including Desz, Jim Ranger, Ian Flanigan, John Holiday and Carter Rubin perform with their coaches. The evening was packed and also included performances by Lewis Capaldi, Florida Georgia Line and Nelly, Jason Derulo, 24kGoldn and Iann Dior, Dan + Shay, Lauren Daigle, Julia Michaels and JP Saxe and Keith Urban and Pink.
Ahead of the announcement that Carter had won Season 19, host Carson Daly revealed the final standings. Team Legend’s John Holiday placed fifth, Team Kelly’s Desz placed fourth and Team Blake’s Ian Flanigan placed third. It came down to newly engaged Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani facing off with the final two contestants and it looked like Shelton was on his way to win back to back with pastors when Jim Ranger was named as this season’s runner up. Following Carson’s announcement that Carter was this year’s winner, the stunned teen and his coach had the confusing reaction of trying to decide whether they could finally celebrate with a hug. Things are weird in 2020.
🎉🥳🎉🥳🎉🥳 @carterjrubin #TheVoice #TeamGwen gx pic.twitter.com/xEqE0hgZJr
— Gwen Stefani (@gwenstefani) December 16, 2020
At the beginning of Tuesday’s finale, Daly and Legend talked about the silver lining of the pandemic, which has included artists who otherwise may not have auditioned in previous seasons showing up this year. Artists like John Holiday, who would typically be touring venues and working as a music professor, suddenly found themselves without any gigs and for the first time considered auditioning for The Voice. This meant season 19 skewed much more heavily toward working musicians than it has in the past, bringing the talent and the stakes for winning to an all-time high. Being crowned the winner of The Voice is cool if you’re a senior in high school, but winning after years of slugging it out in bars in clubs is life changing.
The performances
As always, Tuesday’s finale included the contestants performing with their coaches, which typically shows the marked division in talent between the pros and the amateurs. With so many strong performers this season, the spread wasn’t nearly as jarring as it has been in the past. Case in point: Kelly Clarkson performing with her finalist Desz. The powerhouses took on Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman” and delivered all the runs and soaring notes that the feminist anthem demands.
The Johns, aka John Legend and John Holiday, put their piano skills to good use for their duet of “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” The silky smooth stylings of John Legend and incredible falsetto powerhouse that is John Holiday don’t share many vocal similarities, but the inspiring classic allowed both men to showcase their incredible talent and make it look effortless. What they’re doing is so incredibly difficult, but you’d never know it by watching their cool as cucumber performances.
With two finalists this season, Voice king Blake Shelton made two appearances on stage, first performing “Mammas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys” with Ian Flanigan and then again for “Streets of Bakersfield” with Jim Ranger.
Both men leaned much harder into the country genre than we’ve heard all season to perform with their coach, possibly helping to satisfy the huge country audience that watches The Voice and surprisingly found themselves without a traditional country artist in the finale.
The final coach-contestant duet of the night went to Gwen Stefani and her winning teen singing sensation Carter Rubin, who performed Stefani’s holiday single “You Make It Feel Like Christmas.” Ignoring the fact that Stefani typically sings the love song with fiancé Blake Shelton and this time performed it with her 15-year-old protégé, it was great. But it’s a weird tinsel-and-light-covered elephant in the room to ignore. At least Carter sounded great and looked ecstatic to finally get to perform with his coach and not be separate by plexiglass. So, there’s that.
Stream all of The Voice season 19 anytime on CTV.ca and the CTV app.
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