The Voice Contestant Sends Fans Wild with Luke Combs Cover—But Adam Levine Already Feels Defeated!
A rising country star took The Voice stage by storm with a powerful Luke Combs cover, sending the audience into a frenzy during his Blind Audition. While the singer hadn’t even chosen a coach yet, Adam Levine couldn’t hide his disappointment, already feeling like he had lost the battle. With the competition heating up, this contestant’s decision was bound to shake things up!
Country singers have long found success on The Voice, especially with Blake Shelton and Reba McEntire representing the genre. But this season, there’s a fresh country artist sitting in one of the red swivel chairs and Kelsea Ballerini brings a younger vibe as a coach.
Halfway through night 2, Kelsea was listening for a male country artist with a true country voice, and she found it in 21-year-old Jaelen Johnston from Derby, KS. But she wasn’t alone in her appreciation. Adam Levine and Michael Bublé also turned their chairs.
Jaelen, who got his first guitar at 16, won them over with his performance of “Where the Wild Things Are” by Luke Combs.
Watch his performance below.
“How long have you been singing,” Kelsea asked.
“About six years now,” he responded.
“Do you write?” she asked.
To which Jaelen responded, “Yes, ma’am,” setting off the jokes.
“How does it feel being called ma’am at your age,” John asked.
And Adam teased, “Not feeling so young anymore.”
But Jaelen took it in stride. He had been taught manners and–he had a card game of dos and don’ts — at a very young age and his mother even told viewers that his first words were, “More food, please.”
“I’m going to turn my chair back around,” Kelsea joked back. Then she more seriously asked, “What is your end goal?”
“Up until today, it was a chair turn,” Jaelen honestly answered.
“That’s a good answer,” Adam chimed in.
“In all seriousness, I love all kinds of music, but I am die-hard country music,” Kelsea said, getting down to business. “I have had 10 years putting out music in that genre, and your voice is unreal. And range? You’re not just a singer, you’re an artist. I really think leaning into the songwriter of you is going to be fun. And I want to see where that takes us. Your full discography of what you listen to and figuring out what the full realm of who you are as an artist is…that’s my bread and butter. I love it.”
“But I want it too,” Adam said, adding, “My batting average on convincing country artists to come on my team is extremely poor because of that big smelly guy Blake Shelton, who…”
Kelsea interrupted Adam, “Don’t talk about my dad like that.”
