Jordan Matthew Young went old school on NBC’s The Voice with a cover of Keith Whitley’s 1989 chart-topper, “I’m No Stranger to the Rain,” during the latest round of blind auditions on Monday evening (March 15).
The Texas native earned an impressive three-chair turn as Blake Shelton, Kelly Clarkson and Nick Jonas each pressed their buttons with hopes to add Young to their respective teams.
John Legend, the only coach who didn’t turn his chair for the contestant, encouraged him not to join Team Blake because it was an obvious choice.
“What is going on around here? ‘Cause I’m the only one that can tell him what song that was and who sings it,” Shelton exclaimed.
“Jordan,” he added, “you started off kind of shaky man and that’s what took me a minute and then I realized it was a completely different performance after about a quarter of the way through. And you really found your footing and just laid out a solid performance, you know? I don’t get to work with guys like you that often on this show.”
Clarkson begged to differ.
“You don’t normally work with country male singers on the show?,” she questioned.
“Not like Jordan, I don’t! There’s a lot of different genres of country music,” Shelton went on to say. “You do some things like Eric Church those little quick fall off of your notes, but at the same time you have a deeper baritone-sounding voice and that gives you your own spot. You don’t sound like anybody else in country music. I’d love to be your coach, dude.”
Clarkson pulled out all of the stops to try to convince him to join Team Kelly.
“Jordan, I love your vibe,” she told him. “I like that you sound like old school country and I’m going to let someone else speak for me because Blake loves this person and I think that this person should probably tell you who you should go with and who you maybe shouldn’t.”
A video montage of Gwen Stefani, who happens to be Shelton’s fiancée, then appeared on the screen. In the pieced-together clips, Stefani says, “I would probably have to say Kelly would be the best choice to go with. Blake Shelton would be terrible as a coach. I love Kelly She is perfect.”
“Just pretend like that didn’t happen,” Shelton told Young.
Jonas also tried to convince Young to join his team, telling him, “Jordan, I love your performance I turn at the very end just because I had it in my head that it was a done deal between Kelly and Blake…. Given the chance to be your coach I’d have an amazing time to go on that journey with you.”
Young said that the decision was “incredibly difficult” and explained how it came down to Shelton and Jonas and Nick. He ultimately chose to join Team Blake.
