The winner was revealed in a night full of stars, as season 6 of The Voice came to a close.
Bring Back Performances
Jake Worthington
Jake Worthington invited a bunch of his Voice pals to join him onstage for a nice sunny performance of Kenny Chesney’s “Summertime.” Kat Perkins, Kristen Merlin, Audra McLaughlin, Brian Whyte Maloney, and Morgan Wallen all took turns singing lines of the country hit, and seemed to enjoy each other’s company even though the performance was a bit chaotic. There were six of them sharing the stage, plus the band, and there were so many palm trees and lifeguard towers littering the stage, it looked like The Malibu Sands Beach Club from Saved By The Bell.
Josh Kaufman
Josh Kaufman brought back his friends T.J. Wilkins, Stevie Jo, and Sisaundra Lewis for another soulful performance of Nico and Vinz’s “Am I Wrong.” The new song is the perfect fit for Josh’s soulful style, and his voice was like melted butter. The quartet sounded great together, and did the original artists proud, as Nico and Vinz were both in the audience, and looked absolutely thrilled.
Christina Grimmie
Christina Grimmie brought her best friends onstage to perform with her: Bria Kelly, Tess Boyer, and Jake Barker. They performed Lorde’s “Team,” which was only appropriate, as it was like Christina had her very own team up there with her. They looked the happiest of all of the groups performing tonight, especially Christina and Bria. It’s nice to see that contestants are able to form real friendships during this show, and that not every reality show needs to be built on cutthroat misery.
Finalist Celebrity Duets
Christina Grimmie and Ed Sheeran
Christina Grimmie joined season 5 Voice mentor Ed Sheeran onstage to sing his new song “All of the Stars,” from The Fault In Our Stars soundtrack. It’s a beautiful song that evokes tears just thinking about the plot of TFiOS, but certainly a step down in intensity from Christina’s other performances. But it was a very sweet performance, and it was nice to see a more tender, stripped-down vocal from her.
Jake Worthington and Alabama
Jake Worthington was living a dream this week, as he got the chance to perform with legendary country band Alabama. He seemed right at home with the Alabama guys, performing their hit “Mountain Music,” and Alabama seemed very friendly and welcoming to him, proving that Jake is already a welcome presence in the country music scene.
Josh Kaufman and Robin Thicke
Josh Kaufman was joined by Robin Thicke to perform “Get Her Back,” and thankfully Robin managed to keep it clean for family man Josh. It was a great soul song for Josh to take on, but he didn’t really get much of a chance to shine. Also, you can perform this song as many times as you’d like, Robin, I don’t think you’re going to get her back anytime soon.
Season 6 Finalists
The Boys
Proving Josh Kaufman is not the only soul man on The Voice this season, Jake Barker, Patrick Thomson, Morgan Wallen, Stevie Jo, and Delvin Choice took the stage to perform Hall and Oats’ “She’s Gone.” They each got a chance to shine in the performance, and it really served as a reminder just how strong all the teams have been this season.
The Girls
Season 6 girls Dani Moz, Deja Hall, Madilyn Paige, Melissa Jiminez, and Tess Boyer came together to perform Rihanna’s hit “Umbrella,” and let’s just say Rihanna doesn’t really need to worry about her thunder being stolen. The performance was a little bit all over the place, and unfortunately, none of these girls really left a good, lasting impression.
Guest Performances
One Republic
Frequent Voice visitor Ryan Tedder took the stage with his band One Republic to perform their new song “Love Runs Out,” which Josh Kaufman just performed on the show last week. This was unsurprisingly more of a flash-bang performance that Josh’s, put it didn’t take the ribbon dancers and backup singers to prove that Ryan Tedder can’t seem to write anything but hits.
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran took the stage one more time, this time on his own, to perform his hit “Sing.” The song is hugely catchy, and though we could hear upcoming season 7 coach Pharrell’s shouts of “Sing!” and “Louder!” throughout the chorus, the new coach unfortunately didn’t join Ed onstage for the performance.
Tim McGraw
Tim McGraw took the stage to perform “City Lights,” raising the question of whether it is really appropriate for a grown man, or really anyone, to still be allowed to wear leather pants.
Coldplay
Coldplay performed their song “A Sky Full of Stars,” in some sort of confusing performance in which they performed in front of video screen versions of themselves performing.
The Results
Like every other reality competition finale we’ve ever seen, the entire episode was 99% guest performances and filler, fitting in the news everyone’s been waiting to see at the last minute. With the three finalists lined up onstage, Carson first revealed that YouTube star Christina Grimmie finished in third place. This left country gentleman Jake Worthington, and soulful family man Josh Kaufman, representing Team Blake, and Team Usher, respectively.
Blake and Usher looked just as nervous as their contestants onstage, but after a typically dramatic pause, Carson revealed that Josh Kaufman is the winner of season 6 of The Voice. This means that Usher becomes the first non-Shevine coach to win The Voice since the show began.
The Voice returns for season 7 this fall with Pharrell Williams and Gwen Stefani joining Adam and Blake on the coaching panel.