Dakota Cohen walked onto The Voice stage with one of the most unexpected song choices of the Season 30 Blind Auditions — and it eventually gave Adam Levine exactly the kind of rock singer he had been looking for.
The 25-year-old performer chose Black Sabbath’s emotional ballad “Changes,” originally released on the band’s 1972 album Vol. 4.
Rather than delivering a loud, aggressive rock performance, Dakota leaned into the song’s more vulnerable side, allowing her raspy tone and emotional delivery to become the focus.
For much of the audition, however, none of the coaches turned.
Then, near the end, Adam Levine finally pressed his button.
Riley Green followed moments later, giving Dakota a two-chair turn and suddenly creating a battle between two coaches who believed her voice could become something special.
Queen Latifah didn’t turn, but she still praised Dakota heavily afterward, describing her voice as “astounding” and the performance as “insane.”
Riley was equally impressed.
He told Dakota that “Changes” had been the perfect song choice because it allowed the coaches to understand who she was as an artist within only a few minutes.
Adam, however, seemed especially excited by what he had heard.
He explained that Dakota’s song choice alone told him something about her artistic instincts.
Adam said he had rarely heard singers attempt the Black Sabbath classic and argued that choosing something so unexpected immediately made him want Dakota on his team.
Then came an even bigger comparison.
Adam said there was something about Dakota’s raspy rock voice that reminded him of Miley Cyrus, praising the combination of power, grit and personality in her sound.
For a singer rooted in rock music, hearing that comparison from the Maroon 5 frontman made Adam’s pitch particularly convincing.
But Dakota soon revealed that Adam had another advantage neither coach initially knew about.
This wasn’t actually the first time they had crossed paths.
Years before The Voice, Dakota had been singing Maroon 5’s “Sunday Morning” at a restaurant when Adam happened to be there.
She remembered him hearing the performance and giving her a simple thumbs-up.
It may have lasted only a moment, but Dakota never forgot it.
So when she suddenly found herself years later standing on The Voice stage with Adam Levine personally asking her to join his team, that old memory gave the decision much more meaning.
Dakota ultimately chose Team Adam.
The choice also made sense musically.
Dakota grew up loving rock music and has spent time performing with cover bands before reaching The Voice. She has also performed at major festivals including Lollapalooza, SXSW and Summerfest.
That background made Adam’s pitch about understanding her direction particularly important.
He told Dakota that rock ’n’ roll was a major part of his own background and insisted that he understood what she was trying to accomplish as an artist.
For Dakota, the Blind Audition therefore became a strange full-circle moment.
Years ago, Adam Levine gave an unknown young singer a quick sign of approval after hearing her perform one of his songs in a restaurant.
Now, that same singer stood in front of him on The Voice, earned his chair turn with Black Sabbath and chose him to guide her through the next stage of the competition.
And sometimes, one small thumbs-up from years earlier can make a very big decision much easier.
