Blake Shelton Faces ‘Horrifying’ Decision During ‘The Voice’ Battles: ‘I Did Not Want To Go Out Doing Something Like This’

Blake Shelton previously opened up about how his very last season of The Voice has been bittersweet, and the beloved coach faced probably one of his most difficult challenges on the show so far last week. As Battle Rounds began, the Grammy nominee, 46, revealed that the Battles have been his least favorite part of the musical competition show setup.

Two very talented teen contestants from Team Blake were paired together for a sing-off: Mary Kate Connor and Kylee Dayne, who wowed the coaches with a live rendition of Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero.”

The idea that Shelton could only save one contestant was “horrifying” to him, as he explained when the singers concluded their performance.”My heart is cracking, literally, right now,” Shelton said, adding, “I did not want to go out doing something like this, but here I am.”

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As Shelton was caught in the middle of a true dilemma for his team, fellow coach Niall Horan noted after the singers finished that he didn’t even think of the battle as a true battle, since there wasn’t a clear winner. He deemed it “honestly one of the favorite ones I’ve seen.”

Coach Chance the Rapper said to the two singers, “It seemed like y’all grew up together, because you were so in sync!” Kelly Clarkson agreed, and added that the two were “so evenly matched,” with their harmonies, praising Connor’s “breathtakingly beautiful passion.” She then told Dayne, “Your voice, it has this thing that singers get jealous of; no matter you sing, it’s going to sound special.”

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So what did Shelton do? Ultimately, the “God’s Country” hitmaker chose Dayne as the winner, while still looking visibly upset that he’d have to say goodbye to Connor. Thankfully, this season of The Voice introduced what it calls a “Playoff Pass,” which Yahoo Music explains is a new “game-changing” twist that allows each coach, once per season, to “not only keep a Battle’s losing contestant in the competition,” but also allow that contestant to “bypass the Knockout Rounds and head straight to the Live Playoffs.”

Shelton acknowledged this after the Battle, and gave Connor his Playoff Pass, meaning that fans will see her grace their screens again in the future! No other Playoff Passes were utilized during last Tuesday’s episode, so and only Clarkson and Horan still have theirs available going into next week.

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