In singing competitions, song choice can truly make or break an audition, which is something that last night’s voice contestant, Hunter Jordan, mastered perfectly.
Entering into the second week of Blind Auditions, season 29 of The Voice returned for its Monday night slot at 9/8c on NBC. Continuing with its high-octane three-celebrity panel, competing in what the show has deemed the “Battle of Champions,” coaches Kelly Clarkson, Adam Levine, and John Legend have been vying for contestants who get a 3-chair turn-around.
Not only is having all three coaches try to fight for you a highly flattering moment for the singers, but during this season, it also gives the coaches a leg up, given that whichever team has the most triple turns will earn a ‘Super Steal.’ Towards the end of the episode, the battle for 22-year-old Kentucky native, Hunter Jordan, capped off the night with a persuasive brawl between the coaches.
Jordan performed Billy Currington’s 2010 hit “Let Me Down Easy,” which proved to be a stellar choice given all three chairs spun around within the first 30 seconds. Besides the fact that Jordan has an incredible voice backed by a charming southern drawl, no doubt choosing a song like “Let Me Down Easy” set him up to be a crowd-pleasing favorite.
This is one of those songs that never gets old and immediately makes you wanna sway and belt along. The sultry romantic single off of Currington’s 2010 album Enjoy Yourself became his fourth consecutive number one hit (marking six in total at the time) on the U.S Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. During this era, Currington was on an absolutely unstoppable generational run that made him one of the leading male voices of the 2010’s. Songs like this have long outlived their initial popularity and have since become staples of country music.
The coaches, clearly enjoying Jordan’s performance about as much as I groove to this song on a warm sunset-lit summer night on the back porch, were equally immersed and eager to steal him for their teams. His final drawn-out soulful note sealed his status as a surefire force in this competition. Clarkson voiced the crowd’s round of applause, exclaiming, “I love that song. I was singing, we just had a duet, you just don’t know.”
Levine, who’s been headstrong about gaining his first country artist addition to his team this year chimed in, “What’s gonna happen today is im going to finally make a country singer realize sometimes the best thing to do, and no one’s done it, so you will be blazing a trail my friend and we all want to blaze trails, don’t we? You are going to break the mold because you are gonna finally do what no country singer has ever done before.” He then confidently added, “Today’s the day when I will get a country singer on my team.”
Before taking the stage, Jordan revealed that he had pondered his coach choice previously, stating, “Kelly has always been my favorite since she was on the show. She’s won four times! You can’t argue with four.” However, following the campaign pitches from all three chairs, Jordan went with the curveball pick, ultimately persuaded by Levine’s passionate monologue, he exclaimed that he would be “blazing a path” and joining Team Adam. In response to this news, impressively, the 46-year-old Maroon 5 frontman physically leaped for joy and somersaulted onto the stage.
Given Levine’s undeniable excitement and faith in this budding voice and the raw potential that Jordan has in this competition, it’ll be exciting to see how the “odd couple” grows through the season. Part 3 of the Blind Auditions will take place next Monday as the coaches continue to build out their teams before heading into the Battles and Knockouts, with the finale ultimately airing on April 14 on NBC.