Queen Latifah proved she is willing to do much more than simply make a convincing speech to land the singers she wants on “The Voice.” During the second night of Season 30’s Blind Auditions, she turned one coaching battle into a full performance.
The contestant at the center of the showdown was Alt Bloom, who stepped onto the stage with his own distinctive version of Maren Morris’ “The Bones.” His soulful, genre-blending approach quickly caught the Coaches’ attention.
Queen Latifah turned her chair for Bloom, and Riley Green eventually joined her. Kelly Clarkson and Adam Levine didn’t turn, but both still had plenty of praise for what they heard.
Riley explained that he deliberately waited because he wanted to hear Bloom do something different with the song. Once Bloom began putting more of his own personality into it, Riley decided he wanted him on his team.
Riley particularly liked that Bloom’s voice was difficult to place into one musical category. He heard elements of soul and blues in the performance and believed that versatility could become one of Bloom’s biggest strengths.
Queen, however, needed much less convincing. She described turning for Bloom as a “no-brainer” and pointed out that she didn’t already have anyone on her team who sounded quite like him.
Then Queen decided that words alone weren’t enough. She grabbed a microphone, brought in two background singers and began serenading Bloom right there on “The Voice” stage.
Her recruiting pitch suddenly became its own musical number. Queen sang that getting with “the Queen” could lead Bloom toward the trophy, while Bloom happily joined the fun by dancing and singing along.
The performance was so elaborate that Bloom turned toward Riley and jokingly asked whether he had any background singers of his own ready to come out.
Riley knew he had been seriously outdone. He jokingly called for pyro and dramatic lighting before admitting that he didn’t have dancers, background singers or anything comparable prepared for his recruiting pitch.
When it was finally time for Bloom to make his decision, Queen’s efforts paid off. Alt Bloom chose Team Queen, giving Latifah another distinctive voice for her growing Season 30 roster.
Riley later joked that the whole thing hardly seemed fair because Queen had background singers and even the band ready to help her. He admitted that once she turned the coaching battle into a full-blown serenade, he “didn’t have a chance.” For Queen Latifah, however, it was another sign that she has arrived on “The Voice” prepared to fight creatively for every Artist she truly wants.
