In a finale that showcased amazing country talent with performances by Little Big Town (debuting their new song “One of Those Days” with producer Pharrell Williams), Alison Krauss (who shared the stage with Adam Wakefield of Team Blake for a beautiful cover of “Willin’” by Little Feat) and Jennifer Nettles (with an insane duet of her new single “Unlove You” with Team Christina’s Alisan Porter), powerhouse Porter was crowned the winner of “The Voice: Season 10,” giving Christina Aguilera her very first championship (and the first female coach on the show to win).
But on Monday night, The Voice threw a new test into the mix for the final four as for the first time in the show’s history, the contestants sang an original song in addition to a duet with their coach and a cover.
This could have been a bit of a gamble, given that the core purpose of the show is in the title, “The Voice;” if it was “The Singer/Songwriter” then contestants would be expected to have some sort of talent in the songwriting realm. But luckily for NBC, they decided to debut this twist in the right season, as the contestants proved to be talented with words as well as vocals and instruments.
Representing Team Adam was Laith Al-Saadi, the blues guitarist that has been blowing away everyone, especially Pharrell, with his sick guitar solos. He performed his song “Morning Light,” which sounded like it came from another era, easily showing his influences of BB King, Buddy Guy, Jimi Hendrix, and other greats.
Despite writing the song on the beach with a margarita in his hand, Team Blake’s Adam Wakefield performed his heartbreaking “Lonesome, Broken and Blue,” a phenomenal song that had Blake Shelton jealous when Wakefield revealed that he wrote the song completely on his own. The first verse, as Shelton stressed, just pulls in the listener with its poetry “Loving you is like standing to the sun / The more I try the faster the tears run.” Being a multi-instrumentalist, Wakefield performed the song on his guitar, as an entourage of fiddle, keys, and steel, acoustic and electric guitars surrounded him on stage.
Alisan Porter, who had been the favorite to win the show as per Adam Levine even though she was on Team Christina, has made her struggles with addiction and starting over in life thanks to being clean and her family very public since her blind audition. Using her own life as inspiration, she wrote “Down That Road” to help encourage others to know that they are not alone in whatever they are going through.
Hannah Huston’s “I Call The Shots,” written by Huston along with her coach Pharrell, was based on comments from her coach for the past few weeks, who kept telling her to call the shots in her performances. The two wrote a funky song that matched Huston’s quirky personality and allowed her vocals to fly.
Each performer also recorded a music video for their original songs, which can be found on The Voice’s YouTube channel.
