‘The Voice’ coaches advance eight artists as “Knockout Round” kicks off

The Voice Season 9 Knockout Rounds premieres tonight, Tuesday, October 26, 2015 on NBC 8/7c. An artist can only be stolen by another coach after losing his or her respective faceoff.

Rihanna will also serve as a mentor for all four teams during Episode 11 of The Voice Season 9 And while Blake has been linked romantically to Gwen for much of the season, the country star joked that he really had his eyes for the Barbadian beauty. In this role, Rihanna helps out members of each of the four teams as they prepare for their performances.

The first performances of the night were from twin sister duo Andi and Alex and Blaine, who Adam stole from Blake’s team in the Battle Rounds. Andi & Alex opt for “Stupid Boy”, one of the songs Cassadee Pope employed during her rise during season three.

COACHES’ THOUGHTS – Adam said it was like see you later puberty for Braiden and he is impressed by the massive bounds he has taken. However, Adam makes one of them get rid of her guitar so that she can have an equal presence on stage to her sister.

Blaine picks “Hold Back the River” by James Bay. They were extremely different performances, which left Levine with a hard decision, and he began the night with a surprise by choosing Mitchell.

Both songs wowed the panel, but Blaine’s dynamic performance won the draw.

Barrett’s performance just had more fluidity to it, and Blake went with an artist who can do more than just country. He commends Ellie for keeping it together up there. And why give away that it resulted in a steal before the last commercial break? Braiden takes on Michael Bublé’s version of “Feelin’ Good“.

‘When I was 15, I couldn’t get any girl to talk to me…you’ve got Rihanna and Gwen all over you, ‘ continued the Maroon 5 frontman, who married to Victoria’s Secret model Behati Prinsloo.

Now, the real mystery is this: Will Rihanna convince him to actually slick back his hair? Gwen surprisingly used her last steal on Riley Biederer, who had been montaged during the auditions. He showed off his strong, bluesy vocals and seemed to come out of his shell as the song progressed. Unfortunately, Ellie didn’t have as good of a performance. She compliments Braiden’s song choice, telling him, “It showed off exactly how talented you are”. Gwen picked 15-year-old Braiden as the victor considering the fact that Ellie didn’t have as much control over her song. For this performance, Blake and Rihanna advised him to sing straight and cut those out, and thus, all the magic of Blind Joe was also cut out. Blake explains that it only seemed “fair” to pair the two up, as they are his resident “veteran country singers”. Barrett selected “Colder Weather” by the Zac Brown Band and aced it. But Blind Joe was no slouch, singing “Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys”.

Once again Rihanna had a lot to do with it. She adored his voice, but induced him to let it go even freer, along with his body movement.

In the end, the judges were all impressed with Barrett’s performance and the emotions he evoked in his vocals. Madi Davis nailed the emotions of her song, compared to Amy Vachal who couldn’t fully commit.

Shelton said he was desperate to be on a nickname basis with Rihanna.

Amy is a soft-spoken singer and therefore “Sunday Kind of Love” by Etta James is completely fitting. Gwen said she loves Chance’s yodel he does and that song was touching her from Ivonne. Amy tried but failed to use all the stage techniques she was taught during her rehearsals with Rihanna and Pharrell, but her voice still had that unique quality that Adam believes he can build on. Amy reveals that she is intimidated by the prospect of trying to feel sexy on stage like Rihanna wants her to.

During the knockout performances, Amy gives a good performance but, unfortunately, there was no huge standout moment.

“There’s something so magical about where your spirit takes a song”, Pharrell tells Madi. Adam chose Blaine to move on, and with only one Steal each, the rest of the coaches just weren’t ready to push their buttons just yet. Jordan gets a standing ovation and the win, but Gwen steals Viktor, ensuring that he’ll continue in the competition, so we’ll see if another artist stolen from Adam winds up making him apologize for it endlessly (see: Josh Kaufman). It’s an odd combination – and at first glance, it might look like a quick ploy to dump Blaine, whom Adam says he stole “on a whim”. Rihanna advises him to be tired of singing flat during the verses, as his voice tends to do so when he sings in his lower register.

Chance sings Imagine Dragons’ “Demons”, and it does not go well. Her vocals were pretty, of course, because he voice is inherently good, but this performance was lacking a little something. Thus, Chance is sent packing. Jordan Smith once again chooses a song by a female artist in Adele’s “Set Fire to the Rain”, while Viktor Kiraly goes the R&B route once more with “If I Ain’t Got You”. The twins chose to sing “Stupid Boy” by Keith Urban.

Blaine proved that passion in a song was more important to Adam than potential. “And just mind-blowing.” Viktor appeared to have electrified his own hair with his performance of “If I Ain’t Got You”.