The final Knockout of “The Voice” Season 17 was a match-up between two 16-year-old artists from Team Kelly Clarkson: Damali and Gracee Shriver. At this stage in the competition the contestants get to pick their own songs, with Damali going with “Sober” and Gracee choosing “Leave the Pieces.” During Tuesday’s episode Kelly advanced Damali to the live Playoffs, but Gracee’s journey on the reality TV show wasn’t quite over as Blake Shelton swooped in to steal the country teen for his team. Are you happy both Damali and Gracee made it through to the next round? Watch “The Voice” video above and then sound off down in the comments section.
“You’re both really good,” Kelly declared when it was time to critique her young artists. “Damali, you have this Annie Lennox thing for me. And Gracee, God, you are so original. You are both fantastic. It’s like a young Mariah Carey and a young Dixie Chicks, both things I grew up on and love.”
Kelly then started fidgeting in her chair, explaining, “This is a really, really hard one for me. I have never twisted this ring on my finger so hard because I really do love both of you. I am so nervous. I’m so sorry, just like 10 seconds with me and the Lord, I’ll be right back.” Finally it was decision time. “The winner of this Knockout round is Damali,” she stated.
Before Gracee could exit the stage, Blake slammed his hand down on his “steal” button. “You’re not going anywhere!” he told his fellow Oklahoma native. “I’ve had my eye on Gracee since the blind auditions. You can definitely hear Dolly Parton in there, you can hear some Patty Loveless, but it’s also mainstream country at the same time.”
In his “The Voice” live blog, our recapper John Benutty had this to say about the performance: “Damali’s performance was, well, astounding. The vocals and emotional delivery were both of star quality and she even managed to make the song sound her own apart from the original. Gracee presented a classic country performance at the mic with her guitar, but it’s clear she took the advice of Kelly and Taylor because there was definitely levels to her vocal that gave it all a dynamic quality.”
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