The Voice recap: Season 11, Episode 26

We have a (surprise?) winner!

RECAP: 12/13 - THE VOICE -- "Live Finale" Episode: 1118B -- Pictured: (l-r) Billy Gilman, Sundance Head, We McDonald, Josh Gallagher, Carson Daly -- (Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC)
Photo: Trae Patton/NBC

Are you stunned?!

Three hours and some billion cameo performances later, we finally have a winner for The Voice‘s 11th season. Did your pick make it into the winner’s circle or fall just short? Before we get to discussing the bombshell results, let’s review some of the pomp and circumstance (*cough* filler *cough*) that lead up to the big winner reveal, shall we?

First there, were the theatrical cutaways…

Adam Levine’s Day Off — Props for whoever made room in the production budget to get an actual cameo from Ben Stein for this Ferris Bueller’s Day Off riff, featuring Adam Levine trying to get away for the day and Blake Shelton playing Principal Buzzkill (and getting distracted by the mere mention of “Gwen” because, you know, they had to slip a wink to the season 12 coach in there somewhere).

Miley’s closet — The running joke about Blake Shelton’s obsession with denim has been played out for years, but with Miley Cyrus’ wacky wardrobe in the mix for this season, there was definitely some room to dabble with some new digs. And it’s all worth it to see Blake try out halters and satin capes and bedazzled headbands and such.

Dolly Parton, godmother/translator — Another consistent gag (or lack thereof) for this season has been Miley’s loquaciousness. Girl can go a mile a minute — props to the producers for editing her commentary down to size for the audience’s sake — so Blake obviously had fun calling in an audible for assistance understanding her. Who else but Dolly Parton, the down-home dame.

Alicia’s piano school — The star pupil of Alicia Keys’ school of, well, keys is Blake Shelton, whose instant ascension to maestro status is bogus to the point of ridiculousness. But considering how he’s been the MVP of these shorts, maybe there’s a future for him in acting yet.

Then there were the celeb performances and duets…

Stevie Wonder and Ariana Grande performed their catchy Sing soundtrack duet “Faith” with the help* of the Top 4 (*except they really didn’t have much to do and just kind of swayed around like good props).

Wé McDonald teamed with John Legend for a howling (on her part, at least) rendition of his single “Love Me Now,” and did that thing where she stuck on that one uncomfortable note two seconds too long again and made it…just okay. Per usual.

Sting rocked the house with his song, “I Can’t Stop Thinking About You,” and I don’t care if it’s exactly the same thing he’s done for decades because he’s LIT.

Josh Gallagher took the stage with Cam to sing her breakthrough single “Burning House,” and maybe he needs to sing female vocals more often because it wasn’t too shabby at all — perhaps his most vulnerable showcase yet.

The Weeknd‘s “Starboy” performance was exactly as fire as his new hairdo.

Kiss popping off with Sundance Head in the center was weird and also kind of delightful as they doubled down with “Detroit Rock City” and “Rock and Roll All Nite.” (Of course, Miley Cyrus got to live up to her rep as a mini-Gene Simmons by licking a broken guitar — how could she resist?!).

Billy Gilman got a tiny taste of what that coveted W might feel like when he shared the stage with American Idol season 1 winner Kelly Clarkson, whose career is no doubt the envy of every contestant to ever grace one of these stages. They both kind of sounded like confused kittens who wouldn’t dare to meow too loud for fear of waking the dog.

And last but certainly not least, Bruno Mars closed it out with a lively performance of his “24K Magic” that made equal use of the ’90s neon trend and The Voice‘s signature stage offerings, including a red chair all his own. (Anyone else kinda like the look of that? As in, Voice coach recruiters take note…).

NEXT: We have a winner…

There were also the comebacks…

It’s not a real Voice party until some of our old friends come back to play one last time (or twice, in some cases).

Josh Gallagher brought Austin Allsup and Brendan Fletcher back to do yet another country cover with “My Kind of Party” by Jason Aldean. Hey, at least they appear to be having a lot of fun with this one, and we were reminded YET AGAIN that Austin >>> Josh.

Billy Gilman turned to his bestie crew of Ali Caldwell, Courtney Harrell, Sa’Rayah and Christian Cuevas to treat the world to another rendition of “Proud Mary” because we haven’t heard that song quite enough for one lifetime, huh? (How about a new rule that this tune is banned from all singing competitions henceforth in perpetuity? Who’s with me?)

Wé McDonald took on “Love Lockdown” by Kanye West with Aaron Gibson, Darby Walker, and Brendan Fletcher, and it’s probably one of the more fun performances tonight — Darby and Aaron actually sound pretty great here. Whodathunkit?

Finally, Sundance Head joined forces with his Team Blake fam (Austin Allsup and Courtney Harrell) to tackle “Ain’t Worth the Whiskey” by Cole Swindell in what is arguably the most awkward performance of the evening. Courtney, for all her strengths, can’t find her place here between these two bluegrass beasts.

THEN THE RESULTS…

After all the fluffy stuff, we finally got down to the whole reason we came here and started looking at the results. Going into tonight, I knew Sundance had put up a phenomenal fight in last night’s live finale performances, but given Billy’s long-standing status as the season favorite, it seemed like Sundance might have his work cut out for him to beat out the child-star-turned-Voice hopeful.

But alas, the results were like so:

  • Fourth place: Josh Gallagher (Team Adam)
  • Third place: Wé McDonald (Team Alicia)
  • Second place: Billy Gilman (Team Adam)
  • WINNER: Sundance Head (Team Blake)

That’s right. One heaping finish with a personal single (“Darlin’ Don’t Go”) turned out to be enough to seal the deal for the once-American Idol castoff to become The Voice‘s 11th champ. And while he might’ve needed Blake Shelton’s ear to hear his laments about not being picked for People Magazine‘s “Sexiest Man Alive” this year (gulp!), he’s not going to be sobbing into any pillows tonight.

Was it a momentum build that had been going on all along which pushed Sundance ahead of Billy, or was yesterday’s kicker just that well-timed? Was he right there on top this whole time, or did he just recently convince you he deserved it? Spill, voters, SPILL.

‘Til next season!

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