After Monday night’s powerful performances, season 11’s final four artists were announced on The Voice on Tuesday (Dec. 6). Four semifinalists went home, while four moved on to the last week of the competition. First-time coaches Miley Cyrus and Alicia Keys as well as longtime coaches Adam Levine and Blake Shelton were feeling the pressure of the evening.
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After some banter with the coaches, host Carson Daly finally got things started, bringing out the top eight semifinalists to announce who would be the first to advance to the finals. America voted through Team Adam’s Billy Gilman, who brought down the house last night with his performance of “I Surrender” by Celine Dion. Gilman became the first finalist of season 11.
After a performance from OneRepublic and a tour of the Hairspray Live! set from Jennifer Hudson, Daly brought the remaining seven artists back out. The next artist voted through was Team Blake’s only remaining artist, Sundance Head, who has proven to connect with country fans week after week.
Last season’s third-place artist, Hannah Huston of Team Pharrell, returned to The Voice stage before the next round of results were announced. The next artist through to the finals was Team Alicia’s 16-year-old artist Wé McDonald.
With only one spot left in the finals, the bottom two vote-getters were automatically eliminated while the remaining three got to sing for the instant save. But first, Shelton took the stage to fill the time with another performance.
The three artists given a chance to sing their way into the finale were Team Miley’s Ali Caldwell, Team Adam’s Josh Gallagher and Team Alicia’s Christian Cuevas. Team Miley’s Aaron Gibson and Team Adam’s Brendan Fletcher were automatically eliminated.
Cuevas got the performances started. It was surprising enough that Cuevas was even in this position. He has been one of the most consistent artists of the season. And on Tuesday night, he didn’t let nerves stop him from giving another powerful and beautiful performance.
Caldwell, Cyrus’ only shot at getting an artist in the finale, followed with a performance of “Sledgehammer” by Rihanna. Caldwell delivered in this high-stakes scenario. She should have sung this song last night. She nailed it, bringing emotion and powerhouse vocals to the performance. Cyrus, unsurprisingly, was moved to tears.
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Gallagher closed out the instant save performances, sticking to his country roots by singing “I Drive Your Truck.” It wasn’t the best song choice for this situation, but Gallagher sang it well enough. With Head already through though, country music already had its place in the finals. Even though they have different styles that they gravitate toward, Gallagher doesn’t bring much to the table that Head doesn’t already bring. Levine argued that he has been getting better and better all season and that he has more to give.
And apparently, The Voice fans wanted more country in the finale. After the nationwide Twitter vote, viewers saved Gallagher. Team Miley will not be represented in next week’s finals. What did you think of tonight’s instant save?
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.