Going into the Live Shows for Season 27 of The Voice, coaches John Legend, Adam Levine, Kelsea Ballerini and Michael Bublé each had two artists they’d selected to represent their teams.
Adam had Kolby Cordell and Lucia Flores-Wiseman, Kelsea selected Iris Herrera and Alanna Lynise, Michael chose Adam David and Jadyn Cree, while John went with Bryson Battle and RENZO to create the Top 8. But then they got the exciting news about the Super Save and they each got to bring back one eliminated team member in this season’s twist.
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Adam saved Conor James, Kelsea saved Jaelen Johnson, Michael saved Kaiya Hamilton and John saved Olivia Kuper Harris.
And after watching the Super Saves rise to the occasion, the coaches had to admit that they may not have been correct in their initial choices. Meaning, one of the Super Save contestants could win Season 27 of The Voice.
“I would not be surprised,” John told Parade. “A lot of times that happens. People that either get stolen or saved go on to do better than the people that were originally picked, so we never know.”
And Adam agreed, saying, “Not at all. I mean, honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone else’s save [won]. It’s one of those wacky things that at this point, this late in the game, it’s impossible to tell.”
If Jaelen were to win, Kelsea said, “I would not be surprised at all. Then everybody would be like, ‘Kelsea, we told you so.’ And I’d be like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m a newbie here.’”
As to why Kelsea didn’t pick Jaelen in the first place, she explained that it was an in-the-moment decision, “Sometimes there’s an artist that just has such a slam dunk of a performance on that stage that it’s undeniable, even if that’s not what you thought going into it, and then sometimes you really buy into the growth that you’ve seen of the artist and you believe that they can continue to show up well.”
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So that was the case in her selection of Iris and Alanna, but she does admit that a lot of people were upset with her for not selecting Jaelen.
“As much as I represent country, I want to represent good music and I want to represent artists that are storytellers, and I believe Alanna and Iris to be two of the best on the show that do that,” she continued. “My goal as a coach was never to only support country artists, it was just to support great artists. However, Jaelen is both.”
As for why John brought back Olivia, he said, “Honestly, I was agonizing over the fact that I could only pick two, and I was like, ‘Obviously, I have three people that should be going to the Lives,’ and I knew that. It was so painful not picking Olivia because she was amazing, Bryson was amazing, RENZO was amazing, and it was an agonizing decision.”
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Adam says that selecting two of his five team members to head into the Lives was an impossible task, so he based his decision solely on the performances at face value that night.
“Everybody was so good and everyone had done so well that there was just no version of this that was going to make everybody happy, including myself, I don’t think, unless I could take everybody with me. So that was really where I was at.”
The decision to bring Conor back over Britton or Ethan was a feeling. Adam said, “Something about Conor, I felt like he had a great performance that night and he did something really different, which I always like to reward. It was a really fearless choice, and I loved that about it, and so I just wanted to stay with that in that moment.”
Tune into The Voice tonight at 9 p.m. ET/PT on NBC for the results of America’s vote when the Top 12 will be reduced to the Top 5 going into next week’s finale. Streams next day on Peacock.
Next, The Voice Brings Back All-Star Coaches for Season 28
