Monday night during the Season 15 premiere of NBC’s “The Voice,” Tyshawn Colquitt performed Sam Smith‘s “Like I Can” and initiated a battle between coaches Jennifer Hudson and Blake Shelton. Jennifer was the obvious choice as Tyshawn aspired to an R&B/soul singer, but Blake still gave it his all during his pitch. In the end, Tyshawn decided to join Team Jennifer. Watch “The Voice” blind audition video above and read Jennifer’s comments below.
“Hi Tyshawn,” Jennifer told the aspiring artist. “You voice is like limitless. Not only the range in it, but the depth, the soul. Did y’all not feel that? Did you not hear that? The energy that you bring to the stage is just amazing. It’s signs of a superstar. You have such a heavy sound in there. You’ve got that church bass up in there. Again, the soul — it’s just everything. That’s what we need to bring it back. [Blake] don’t know nothin’ about no R&B.”
Kelly Clarkson and Adam Levine also told Tyshawn that he should pick Jennifer as his coach. When Kelly remarked that Tyshawn sounded like Brian McKnight and Mariah Carey, Jennifer added that she also heard a bit of Teddy Pendergrass, Luther Vandross and Curtis Mayfield in his voice. “I thought that was a baseball player,” Blake remarked when Jennifer asked if he could name a Curtis Mayfield song.
In his “The Voice” live blog, our recapper John Benutty had this to say about the performance: “The second performance came from Tyshawn Colquitt from Ohio. His rendition of ‘Like I Can’ by Sam Smith, specifically his falsetto, impressed Jennifer first, but Blake also chimed in to try and reel him on to his own team. I got the sense that the other coaches knew Tyshawn would be best fit on Team Jennifer, and even Blake acknowledged it in his pitch, and sure enough he went down the expected road. With his dedication to the soul and R&B tradition, I’d say that’s a good choice!”
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