Last night was the final night for contestants to land on one of the four teams on "The Voice" during the blind auditions phase of the show. Season Nine coaches Gwen Stefani, Pharrell Williams, Blake Shelton and Adam Levine all started the night off with two spots to fill on their team and had to be very selective with their "I want you" buttons.
The talent this season has been incredible, and nothing changed last night.
The first contestant of the night was 35-year-old Dustin Christensen. Christensen had some previous experience in the music industry, but he has not experienced the type of success that he thought he could. His Neil Diamond-like voice was a perfect fit for the song "Downtown Train" by Tom Waits.
Shelton was the first coach to turn for Christensen, followed immediately after by Levine and Stefani. Williams held out a little longer before he eventually pushed his button and gave Christensen a four-chair turnaround.
Going into his audition, the singer admitted that if he got all four chairs to turn around for him, he would pick Team Adam in order to bring out his rock side. While Christensen went into the audition thinking Levine, Shelton gave him a good argument as to why he should pick him as his coach.
"I want to talk to you about similarities," Shelton told Christensen. "We are the same person. This is jeans and boots... he has a vest, I'm a vester."
Shelton then turned to the audience and asked them who they thought Christensen should choose as a coach. The audience all told him to pick Shelton as his coach, and that was exactly what he did.
The biggest surprise from the final night of blind auditions was an incredibly talented teenager named Shelby Brown. The 16-year-old from Elberta, Ala. sung a flawless version of "Stars" by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals and incorporated some of her natural country flair into the song.
The second Brown opened up her mouth, the coaches all stared in amazement at each other. The second she hit the huge chorus and the first big note of the song, all four coaches pressed their buttons at the same time and earned her the final four-chair turnaround of the blind auditions. At the end of her performance Brown could hardly believe she got all the coaches to turn around for her, and could barely talk through her happy tears.
"Deep breath, deep breath," Levine told her. "Just breathe in and out."
Like many times before, Levine, Stefani and Williams found themselves fighting for a country artist to pick them over the Nashville superstar Shelton. At this point in the blind auditions Levine only had one spot left and begged for Brown to pick him. In a surprising turn of events, the country singer did just that and picked Team Adam over country artist Shelton, and grabbed the final spot on Levine's team.
One of the most beautiful auditions last night came from a 26-year-old named Amy Vachal. Vachal grew up surrounded by music, and her dad was even in a Grateful Dead cover band. She wanted to be just like her father when she was little, so she started singing. Vachal sang a gorgeous stripped-down version of "Dream a Little Dream of Me" that stood out from the rest of the contestants.
Her performance was a little slow at points but her beautiful voice convinced the remaining coaches with spots on their team to turn around for her. After her audition concluded, Levine admitted to her that if his team was not full, he would have turned around for her.
Shelton compared Vachal to Nora Jones and Colbie Caillat and basically begged her to pick him. After a tough decision, Vachal picked Team Pharrell.
The final artist to audition for a chance to fulfill their dreams on "The Voice" was Sydney Rhame. The 16-year-old looked visibly nervous as she tackled Ed Sheeran's "Photograph." At this point in the blind auditions phase Shelton, Stefani and Levine all had zero spots left on their team and left Williams as the only coach able to push his button.
Williams had previously passed on a number of singers who he said were "good but not great" before he finally pushed his button for Rhame.
The teenager was so good that even though Shelton, Stefani and Levine could not press their buttons to turn around, they faced her anyway. Team Pharrell was finally complete and the last night of "The Voice" blind auditions was finally finished.
All four teams now have 12 contestants on their team before the battle rounds begin next week. Tuesday's episode will recap all the blind auditions and will revisit some of the highlights from the audition phase of the competition.
In the Battle Rounds phase of "The Voice" each coach tries to develop their talent to the greatest success with help from celebrity advisers. This year the advisors will include Selena Gomez for Team Gwen, Brad Paisley for Team Blake, John Fogerty for Team Adam and Missy Elliot for Team Pharrell.
After the advising, the coaches will pit two of their team members against one another as they sing the same song. After the battle, the coach must choose which one person to move on to the next round, and the other contestant is either eliminated or available to be stolen by another coach. Each coach only has two available steals during the battle rounds so they must be careful!
