Poor Usher. So far in his first season on “The Voice,” he’s having a tough time even getting his second choice of singers, and the ones he did get aren’t making him very happy.
For the second time in two nights, the coach lost out on a singer he tried to steal. After begging for Sasha Allen only to see her choose Shakira on Monday, he couldn’t convince Caroline Glaser to pick him over Adam Levine on Tuesday. And considering Blake Shelton seemed to be steering her toward Adam, now Usher has reasons to hold a grudge against all three of his fellow coaches, plus host Carson Daly.
Caroline suffered an agonizing defeat to Danielle Bradbery, as ultimately Blake decided that he would look pretty dumb if he passed up on the teenage Danielle and she wound up being a country star. For those of you in “The Voice” pools, this just in: Blake will almost always pick the country artist if it’s close. And while Caroline’s voice is more unique and, as Adam noted, ethereal, the coffeehouse singer is unlikely to wind up sharing a bill with Blake in Nashville, so there’s less chance of awkward dialogue backstage.
Caroline's defeat set up some drama among the judges, which viewers had to be thankful for because the rest of the night was a whole lot of dull.
Adam pulled a veteran coaching move and started his sales pitch before the results were even announced. “Caroline, I’m an imbecile. I actually caught it on TV and saw myself not turning around and said, ‘What is wrong with you, you idiot?’ ”
Monday recap: Shakira makes some fast steals on 'The Voice'
Then once Blake picked Danielle, both Adam and Usher pounded their buttons as if the result would be decided by the speed and power of their response. Carson let Adam speak first, causing Usher to stand up on his chair in protest that he’d pushed the button first. Sadly, we did not get the slow-motion replay to determine who, in fact, shot first. You know “American Idol” would have thought of it.
“What you do just astonishes me,” Adam said. “I don’t know why I didn’t hop to it earlier, but I can promise you that I will do everything in my power to make that up to you if you come to my team. You lost the battle but you definitely haven’t lost the war.”
Usher was unfazed. “I love your voice. I love the potential of what I can do with you. I understand who you are. I’m willing to set myself on fire.”
“That was my line! I said that already!” Adam protested.
“You said it but I mean it,” Usher retorted.
Blake chimed in with his own thoughts. “Caroline is a singer-songwriter. That’s very important to her. Which one of you can coach her as that type of an artist?”
Adam took that to mean himself, and apparently so did Caroline. Usher was philosophical in defeat. “I gave it my best shot. I even stole one of Adam’s lines. But it didn’t work out for me.”
Perhaps Caroline had heard stories about Usher’s coaching and shied away. He’s definitely more intense than the others, trying unique approaches to get the best out of his people, and is not afraid to challenge them in ways viewers haven’t seen from the others this season.
Jeff Lewis found that out in his battle against Josiah Hawley. Usher wasn’t pleased that the waiter was laughing after a brutal rehearsal of “Roxanne,” and channeled his inner Joe Pesci to ask what was so funny. Fortunately, tragedy didn’t ensue as it did in “Goodfellas,” but Jeff did lose what was the least impressive battle of the season so far.
At least Usher has some more time to get his team in shape. And pretty soon, he’ll have more luck stealing people, if only because at this point, he’ll soon be the only one left who won’t have used up both of his opportunities.