The artists continued to grow in their vocal abilities and stage presence on The Voice tonight as they prepared with Nate Ruess and their coaches for the second night of Knockouts.
Blake Shelton's team took the stage first, as Cody Wickline faced Corey Kent White. Both are strong country singers, but White particularly impressed in his rehearsal with his falsetto and range. Wickline sang “Til My Last Day” by Justin Moore, and his vocals were there, but White outperformed him on the emotional front, bringing authenticity and magnetism to his rendition of “Live Like You Were Dying” by Tim McGraw. Christina Aguilera contemplated stealing Wickline, but decided it wasn’t worth her one remaining steal.
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Next, Adam Levine paired the very different Blaze Johnson and Deanna Johnson. Blaze sang “You Found Me” by The Fray and showed confidence in his rehearsal, but Levine warned him to watch his pitch. Deanna, who made great strides between her season five Blind Audition when she didn’t turn any chairs and this season, continued to improve and show new dimensions of her artistry. Her song choice—“Listen To Your Heart” by Roxette—was perfectly suited for her rich rocker voice. The two performances were very different, but talent-wise, the Johnsons were evenly matched. Blaze’s voice broke on one of his notes, and Deanna had a few pitch issues. Ultimately, Levine picked Deanna.
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Hannah Kirby and Caitlin Caporale from Team Pharrell faced each other in the final Knockout matchup of the night. Pharrell worked with Caporale to get her to really push her voice to its full potential. We’ve seen Caporale hit some huge Aguilera-esque notes, but as the stakes increase in the competition, she has to find ways to continue to make herself stand out and show growth based on her coach’s notes. Singing “Higher Love,” Kirby gave a strong and energetic Knockout performance. Caporale followed with a very beautiful and vocally impressive performance of “Warrior.” They’re very different singers, and Pharrell had trouble picking a winner, but he chose Caporale. But Shelton, who originally had Kirby on his team before Pharrell stole her away in the Battle Round, went in for the steal, bringing Kirby back to Team Blake.
It was a straightforward night of Knockouts, and even though most of the pairings were pretty evenly matched, the coaches made the right decisions, going for artists who really show potential to win the whole thing. The third part of the Knockouts go down next week. Which team do you think is looking strongest right now?
