The final Knockout Rounds of The Voice season 19 are here -- and John Legend may have saved the best for last!
Two "phenomenal talents" from Team Legend take the stage on Tuesday's episode for a head-to-head battle that leaves the coaches' jaws on the floor.
Cami Clune, a 20-year-old musical theater student, is up first, delivering a hauntingly spare rendition of "I Put a Spell on You" by Screamin' Jay Hawkins that has Kelly Clarkson up out of her seat almost immediately.
"I feel like you get better and better and I am so impressed by you," raves Kelly, who currently holds the final steal of the season.
John praises Cami for her vocal style and flexibility, after the two changed up her arrangement in the week ahead of the big performance. "It was so natural, and you seemed so comfortable and in your pocket," he notes.
However, Cami faces some tough competition on the other side of the stage. John Holiday, a 35-year-old professor of music, has wowed the coaches all season with his otherworldly range and powerful falsetto. He even stunned this season's mega mentor, Usher, when the pair met to work on his performance during the week.
"What just happened?" Usher mused after John's practice run. "How is he able to sing this high? What did I do wrong in this lifetime to not have this voice?"
John's song choice is an iconic one: "All by Myself," by Eric Carmen, which was made famous when Celine Dion covered it in 1996. He hits every note, and then some -- amazing the coaches by nailing the iconic high belt that Celine made a signature of the track.
"I quit," Gwen Stefani laughs after the performance. "I'm actually retired right now."
"It makes me feel so blessed to be on this show to watch someone like you," she adds. "The Olympics that are coming out of your mouth are crazy."
"I heard the key and I was like, 'Wait, what?'" Kelly says of her stunned reaction to John's performance. "'Cause I knew that note was coming at the end...You have such a beautiful gift. You're incredible."
Blake Shelton raves, "As a fan of music and a fan of this show, I want to say, I love you. As a coach on this show, I want to say, I hate you, and you're an enormous pain in my a**."
And John's coach has plenty of praise for him as well. "We've never seen or heard anyone that sounds like you -- on Planet Earth, of seven billion people," John Legend says. "Every choice you made was well-considered, and beautifully executed."
So who will he choose to move on to the live shows? And will Kelly use her save to move the other singer on to the live shows?
"You two are just phenomenal talents," the coach notes as he ponders the decision. "I was sitting here grateful, that I get the chance to work with people like you. These were just flawless performances, by both of you."
The Voice looks a little different this season amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with safety glass distancing the coaches and team members and separate performances spaces on stage for the Battle and Knockout Rounds. But Stefani noted ahead of the season how excited the coaches were to be back in any capacity, bringing some music and joy into people's lives.
"I think that being able to sit down and watch a show that's so inspiring and will bring inspiration to people, it will definitely bring joy," she noted. "Music is the heartbeat of human beings, so I feel really blessed to be here and to be a part of that and to be able to connect around America on the TV."
"Maybe the reason there's so much talent is that a lot of people are kind of paused and they get to kind of, you know, follow the dream in a way they didn't get to because maybe they're working or they were in school," she added. "I think there's kind of a different kind of group of people this time because of the opportunity that we are all paused in the world right now."
The Voice airs Mondays and Tuesdays at 8 p.m. PT/ET on NBC. See more on this season in the video below.
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