UPDATE with VIDEO.
Spoiler alert! This story discusses the March 21 episode of The Voice Season 23.
The Blind Auditions have come to an end for The Voice’s 23rd season, and that means Blake Shelton’s final team is in the books. The longtime coach, who will exit the show after the current season, had one spot left on his team when the March 21 episode kicked off, and Grace West was the “perfect” artist to complete the cowboy’s 12-year run. He had a little help in securing her for Team Blake, though, and surprisingly, it was Kelly Clarkson who gave him the assist, with a sweet message in honor of her fiercest rival.
Grace West took the stage as The Voice neared the end of its audition round, singing the Pam Tillis classic “Maybe It Was Memphis.” In addition to getting Blake Shelton to turn his chair, the singer also enticed the cowboy’s “son” Niall Horan. As The Voice coaches presented their cases for why West should choose their team, Kelly Clarkson threw her support behind Shelton, telling the artist:
I 100 percent believe in you. I cannot wait to see what you do on the show. And I can’t even believe I’m doing this, but it’s his last season. I will say Blake is a great coach for you in this sense. I love Niall, and I’m gonna be honest with you, Niall has been killing it, and he is a singer/songwriter, and everything he said does ring true. But I also have known Blake for years, and he’s the guy that really does help artists out.
Grace West did choose Team Blake — no surprise there — and Kelly Clarkson remarked that was her gift to Shelton on his way out. The American Idol champ may have been feeling a little bit sentimental in the moment, reflecting on how long she’s known the country star and recalling how much she’s seen him do for his team members, even after their run on the show is over..
Kelly Clarkson wasn’t the only one who got a little emotional, as Blake Shelton admitted that hitting his button for the last time affected him more than he’d expected it to. He told Carson Daly:
I don’t normally get wrapped up in, like, these moments, but when I hit my button for Grace, who ended up being the last person that I’ll ever do that for, I was like, ‘Oh,’ I felt myself, I was like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe I just said that.’ I kind of got emotional. And, you know, I knew coming into this, I was trying to take all the moments in, and it’s going by so fast, so when I said that out loud, it was like, it became real.
For Grace West to be his final team member, he sure picked a good one, and he called her the “perfect female country singer.” You can check out her audition below:
Now that the Season 23 teams are set, it’s time for the Battles to kick off! Team members will go head-to-head in the next round of competition, and we’ll get to see if Team Blake can bring it home in the cowboy’s final season. Tune into NBC at 8 p.m. ET Monday, March 27, to see it all go down, and check out our 2023 TV schedule to see what premieres are coming up.
