Adam Levine is one of the most competitive coaches on The Voice, but even he was willing to admit that one of his Season 30 rivals may be building something special.
The surprising admission came after 31-year-old surgical technologist Chari delivered her emotional Blind Audition of Oleta Adams’ “Get Here,” earning one of the most important four-chair turns of the season.
Chari’s performance immediately put Adam Levine, Kelly Clarkson, Riley Green and Queen Latifah into competition for her.
Adam made an especially strong pitch. He told Chari that he believed she had the ability to go extremely far on The Voice and even suggested she had the potential to win the entire competition.
But Queen Latifah had clearly heard something she had been searching for.
Playing off Chari’s career as a surgical technologist, Queen praised the “surgical precision” in her singing and made it clear that Chari represented exactly the type of vocalist she had hoped to discover when she joined the show.
The pitches left Chari with four possible teams, but she ultimately chose Queen Latifah.
It was another significant victory for the first-time coach, who had already been assembling an impressive group of singers during the Blind Auditions.
And Adam noticed.
After watching Queen win another major battle, Levine admitted that Team Queen may currently be the strongest team in the competition, saying she had the “best team” and describing her lineup as stacked.
Coming from Adam, the remark carried extra weight. He is one of the most experienced coaches in The Voice history and entered Season 30 fresh off another successful run on the show, so openly praising a rival’s roster wasn’t exactly the reaction viewers might expect from him.
Queen, however, has been winning several important battles. Along with Chari, she secured Bryan Jaymes after his three-chair performance of “Every Time You Go Away,” Morgan Lett after her soulful “I’m Goin’ Down” audition, and other distinctive singers who have helped give Team Queen a wide range of styles.
Chari may have been the singer who finally convinced Adam to say it out loud. The Blind Auditions are still underway and every coach continues to strengthen their lineup, but after losing a four-chair-turn artist he badly wanted, Levine couldn’t deny what Queen Latifah had accomplished: Team Queen had become one of the most formidable groups of Season 30.
