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Nick Jonas is the youngest, coach on NBC’s reality singing competition The Voice. While the beginning of the season made it seem like he might be off to a bit of a slow start, he’s started pulling more and more contestants onto his team.
Jonas joins Voice coaches Kelly Clarkson, Blake Shelton and John Legend in the big red chairs for Season 18. The coaches fight it out to get talented performers on their team using any means necessary. One time during the premiere, Blake actually brought out a puppy to convince a contestant to join his team rather than Nick’s.
The contestants on Nick’s team so far are Joanna Serenko, Tate Brusa, Arei Moon, Allegra Miles, Joanna Serenko, Jacob Miller, Roderick Chambers, Michael Williams and Samuel Wilco. Read on to learn more about each contestant and get a recap of their blind auditions.
Joanna Serenko
During her audition, Joanna Serenko performed a stripped-down acoustic version of “All My Loving.” All the coaches were interested almost instantly, with Kelly, John and Nick turning around in the first verse of the song. Blake turned around shortly after, meaning Serenko earned the favor of all four judges and was able to choose between them.
Serenko is an 18-year-old from St. Louis, Missouri. After being asked who she was going to pick as her coach, the 18-year-old hesitated before Nick jumped back in saying, “You know what? I’ve got one more thing to say. I’m sorry, I’m going to fight for you right now. I wrote this down before, and it was related to a singer that was up here that really fought during their performance. I’m not just gonna throw in the towel and say it’s John’s. I want you on my team.”
Serenko did pick his team, leading to him celebrating and giving her a hug to welcome her to Team Nick.
Arei Moon
28-year-old contestant Arei Moon sang Kelly Clarkson’s “Miss Independent” during her audition, leading to Nick blocking Kelly from choosing the singer for her team. As soon as the first few notes were out of the singer’s mouth, Nick hit his Block Kelly button. Kelly turned around a second later to see the “BLOCKED” indicator in front of her.
When she realized she was blocked near the end of the song, she instantly started yelling at Nick, letting out a dramatic “NOOO!” and “Oh my God,” saying she didn’t even notice until the end. Nick was the only other coach who turned around, so Aeri didn’t have a choice to be on anyone else’s team.
“I was blown away by her powerhouse voice,” Nick said.
Tate Brusa
16-year-old Salt Lake City, Utah contestant Tate Brusa showed up to the audition with his guitar and a rendition of Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect.” Nick was interested almost instantly, but he waited until a little ways into the song before hitting the button. He was the first coach to hit the button followed closely by Blake.
Nick fought with Blake over the contestant, though John jumped in saying that Nick has traversed the music industry since he was a young man and gave Tate the advice to go with Team Nick. Kelly told him he’d do well in either team.
Nick then got out of his seat, offering to do some “real-time coaching” with him. He took Tate’s guitar and told him to think about his posture when singing. He then played the guitar and allowed Tate to sing along with him for a bit before hugging him and handing the guitar back over.
Blake then brought out a real-life puppy to try to convince Tate to join his team. He said that if he doesn’t join the team, then the puppy goes straight back to the animal shelter.
“Sorry Blake, I gotta go with Nick,” Tate said.
Allegra Miles
Allegra Miles is another 16-year-old who joined Jonas’ team in the third episode of Blind Auditions. She played her keyboard and performed a rendition of “Use Somebody.” Nick and Kelly were interested almost immediately, with Kelly turning around first.
Nick seemed to be gauging the reactions from John and Blake before deciding if he would be turning around, but he ended up pressing his button after hesitating a bit and looking at them questioningly. After the performance, the first thing Kelly said was “I don’t know if you remember that moment when I turned around first,” as a way to get Allegra on her side before even having a chance to speak with Nick.
After connecting with Nick over the fact that he wrote his first song at 12 years old and came from a musical family and a comment from Blake about him being “Nick Freaking Jonas”, she decided to join Nick’s team. Before that happened, though, Kelly showed off her Team Kelly jackets. Nick offered up the jacket he was wearing to counter that, though.
Samuel Wilco
Sam Wilco is a 39-year-old father and military man. He performed Stevie Wonder’s “Lately” for his audition.
The audience started a standing ovation not long into the audition, prompting the coaches to think harder about turning around. Once he hit a long, higher note, Kelly turned around, followed almost immediately by Nick. This is when the chair malfunction occurred, causing both of them to be turned back around and Blake to talk to Samuel while still being turned away from the stage.
Kelly said she would have sung that song for her audition if she were trying out for The Voice, and Nick said he was jealous of Samuel’s ease when it came to bringing out the kind of voice he did (of course, Kelly had to make a pun for Nick’s song “Jealous” at that point). He said they’d make a great team because song selection is so important.
“I’m trying to think of something to help sell Nick here,” Blake said when it was his turn to talk. “But last time I did that, it didn’t help.”
“Well, um, I watch the show, it’s my wife’s favorite show,” Samuel said. “And she’s the one who got me into this whole thing… I’ve loved watching you, Kelly, and I really love everything you do with your artists, but my kids love you, Nick. So, I’m gonna go with Team Nick.”
Jacob Miller
Jacob Miller performed “The Times They Are a-Changin'” for his Blind Audition. He earned three chair turns, one from each coach besides John Legend, who is notoriously picky when it comes to contestants.
Nick loved Jacob’s voice and said he thought he’d fit in well with the Jonas Brothers, saying he’d love to collaborate with the artist even if he doesn’t join his team. There were a few jokes made about Jacob now being “Jacob Jonas,” and his choice was pretty much made for him at that point.
After a bit of deliberation, Jacob joined Team Nick.
Roderick Chambers
Roderick Chambers is a 38-year-old singer from Miami, Florida. He performed “Back at One” for his audition, and Nick was the only coach to turn around for the performance.
When speaking with the contestant after his audition, John compared Roderick’s tone to Nick’s, which made it seem like it could be a good match for both coach and contestant later on in the season.
Michael Williams
Michael Williams is an 18-year-old performer who sang the song “You Say” for his audition. He earned Nick’s chair turn, but it wasn’t for what he did right. It was actually for what he did wrong.
Nick told him that he heard the struggle with the high note, and he said that he believed that he could help him out on that front, comparing their voices and saying he struggled with falsetto for a long time before getting to the point he’s at today where he can stay in that range for most of the Jonas Brothers concerts.
Of course, Michael looked happy to join Nick’s team, especially after Nick sang in falsetto as a way to help coach him right there on the stage, which is becoming part of Nick’s strategy. He enjoys coaching people right after their Blind Audition to show off a bit of his expertise and getting them to pick him over the other coaches.
Tune in to The Voice on Monday, March 9 at 8 p.m. to see who else Nick gets to join his team.
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