The battle rounds are in full swing on season 17 of “The Voice,” and that’s always an emotional time for contestants who suddenly find themselves pitted against their friends and fellow teammates.
But the hopefuls weren’t the only ones shedding tears Tuesday night!
Grab some tissues and take a look at the performance that prompted a chain reaction of sobs from the stage all the way to the red seats.
The waterworks began shortly after two of Gwen Stefani’s most talented singers, Rose Short and Jessie Lawrence, took the stage to belt out an impressive dueling duet version of the Weeknd’s hit “Can’t Feel My Face.”
Coach John Legend raved that Short was “a superstar soprano singer,” which immediately had the contestant dabbing away tears — and she wasn’t alone.
Kelly Clarkson wept as the others piled on to praise the singers who moved her so much with their music.
And Short and Lawrence moved their own coach, too.
“I knew you were magical,” Stefani told Short. “I didn’t know you were going to fire up the room. You have something that’s special, and you need to own it. And it’s not even just your voice; it’s you.”
She could have said the same about the other member of Team Gwen, too. That’s what made choosing one of them so hard.
After mulling over the “heart wrenching decision,” Stefani declared Short the winner, which left Lawrence waiting to find out his fate, though not for long.
As soon as host Carson Daly offered up the chance for Stefani to use her save — or for the other coaches to go in for a steal — the No Doubt frontwoman slammed the save button. That was all it took for Lawrence to join in on all the crying (which still hadn’t let up for Clarkson). But then another coach suddenly hit his steal button, throwing everything into chaos.
It’s was Stefani’s beau, Blake Shelton!
Daly joked that it was a clear sign that “Blake wants to sleep alone tonight,” but things took an even more emotional turn when Shelton asked for a moment to “say my piece.”
As it turned out, he never intended to steal Lawrence at all.
"I’m not going to make a pitch to you, because (Gwen) is the coach for you,” he said in a moment of sincerity. “But I wanted to show you how much respect I have for you, and how much you deserve to be on this show, dude."
That’s when Daly remarked, “Who isn’t in tears? Most people are sobbing.”
What a night!