The Voice top 16 competed on Monday in the live playoffs, where America chose the top two contestants from each team, the coaches saved one, and one performer from each team was sent to a wildcard round to sing for their life.
Team Blake was up first, with America voting to save indie singer Bodie and country heartthrob Brayden Lape. In a surprising twist, Coach Blake chose to save teen pop singer, Rowan Grace over his boy, Bryce Leatherwood, sending the country singer to the wild card round.
Team Legend results came next, and America chose Parijita Bastola, unsurprisingly, after Monday night’s stellar performance that earned her a standing ovation. The second choice was the rocker with range, Omar Jose Cardona, and Coach Legend chose to save The Velvet Powerhouse, Kim Cruse, sending Sasha Hurtado to sing it out in the wildcard round.
For Team Gwen, America’s top picks were new wave artist Kique and the old-school R&B artist Justin Aaron. Alyssa Wiltrado appeared visibly distressed, standing with Kevin Hawkins waiting to be saved, but although Kevin had a noticeably better performance Monday night, Coach Gwen chose the artist she called her “daughter” over Kevin Hawkins, sending him to the wildcards.
The last team up was Team Camila, and America chose storyteller singer Morgan Myles, and Alt rocker, Devix for their top 2 artist picks. Coach Camila made the hard choice of saving Eric Who over former frontrunner Kate Kalvach, whose performance was derailed by an audio malfunction Monday night.
Four performers are sent to the wild card round, only one will remain
The four singers sent to the Wildcards, Bryce Leatherwood, Sasha Hurtado, Kevin Hawkins, and Kate Kalvach then sang for America’s wildcard vote where only one can be saved.
Team Blake singer, Bryce Leatherwood, performed a Billy Currington song Let Me Down Easy for his redemption song in a subdued bid for the top spot.
The next performer, Sasha Hurtado, from Team Legend, picked Sia’s fight anthem Elastic Hearts to battle for the last spot. Coach Legend quipped about her great song choice and confident performance despite the circumstance.
The third performance went to Team Gwen performer Kevin Hawkins. Kevin chose the soulful Childish Gambino song, RedBone, which made the in-studio audience erupt with applause after the heartfelt performance.
Last up for redemption was Kate Kalvach from Team Camila, singing Miley Cyrus’s’ When I Look At You in arguably her best performance this season.
America can only choose one for the instant save
In the end, America voted for the last save to continue on in next week’s live show, one step closer to the finale. Blake Shelton took to Twitter to urge fans to vote for the artist he thought for sure was a top 13 pick in Monday night’s show.
The pleas must have worked because fans chose Bryce Leatherwood to continue to next week’s live playoffs sending Sasha, Kevin, and Kate home.
Tune in next week when the top 13 will compete in the next round of playoffs.
The Voice airs on Mondays and Tuesdays at 8/7c on NBC.