Best Blind Auditions, Adam Levine Winning

“The Voice: Battle of Champions” continued on March 2 with the second week of Season 29 Blind Auditions, and Adam Levine is already done playing nice.

In fact, Levine admitted to going “fully insane” to procure one particular contestant this week — though we can’t really hold it against him, as it bumped him up to first place with his third Triple Turn win. (Sheesh, this game is getting complicated. If only “The Voice” had two totally relevant, absolutely necessary commentators to explain everything to us. Oh, well.)

This week’s 10 lucky contestants represented just about every genre imaginable, from R&B ballads to good ol’ fashioned yodeling, giving the coaches plenty of talented singers to fight over.

Read on to see which singers landed on a coach’s team in Week 2 of “The Voice” Season 29 Blinds, then vote for your favorite contestants and drop a comment with your thoughts on Season 29 so far.

This week’s first addition to Team Kelly came in the form of this bread delivery man from Georgia. JW Griffin may not be a great driver, as we learned in his intro package, but he’s an excellent singer — so excellent, in fact, that all three coaches excitedly turned their chairs to see the face behind such a solid performance of Charlie Daniels’ “Long Haired Country Boy.” Griffin is a big fan of older country music, and you can hear it in his voice when he sings. There’s an ease to his performing style, whether he’s breezing through simple verses or soaring through bolder choruses. Adam Levine said Griffin has one of his favorite voices he’s ever heard on the show… but that didn’t stop Griffin from choosing to align with Kelly Clarkson, giving her a second point in the ongoing Triple Turn mini competition.

TVLine’s grade: “A-“

Kelly Clarkson’s next team member introduced herself as a small town girl with big dreams, someone who left the world of banking because money may have been on her mind… but a song was in her heart. This week, that song was Gladys Knight and the Pips’ “Midnight Train to Georgia” (which always reminds me of “30 Rock,” but that’s neither here nor there). Durant gave us chills with those low notes on “proved too much for the man,” and we could feel the joy in her voice as she sang. Clarkson turned around fairly early for Durant, while Adam Levine took a minute to hit his buzzer. His turn was futile, however, as we knew right away that Durant was bound for Team Kelly.

TVLine’s grade: “B+”

John Legend was all smiles throughout this dental hygienist’s performance of Little Big Town’s “Girl Crush,” whose opening growl immediately caught the eager coach’s attention. We appreciated the added edge to Kendra Remedios’ performance, which balanced out the slower, sultry nature of the song. Kelly Clarkson was not expecting the song to explode towards the end, and neither were we. The stank that Remedios put on “I hate to admit it” was off the charts. Yes, we have our own stank-o-meter with which to measure such things.

TVLine’s grade: “A-“

John Legend’s first Triple Turn point came from Mike Steele, who believes that “coming from small areas doesn’t define who you are as a person.” (Unless you literally come from Whoville, but that’s a whole other headache.) Anyway, Steele’s performance of Giveon’s “For Tonight” was smoother than a fresh shave. He navigated the sexy love song perfectly, peppering the experience with tasty runs and gorgeous falsetto moments. Send this man to the finals! Just don’t tell his daughter that he picked Legend, because she specifically requested Kelly Clarkson.

TVLine’s Grade: “A”

The youngest singer of the night, Bijou Belle’s slightly more powerful take on Billie Eilish’s “Wildflower” elicited an instant turn-around from Adam Levine, who ended up being the only coach to do so. Performed in full cursive, Belle’s rendition went to some very interesting places melodically, and the overall presentation demonstrated more range than we initially expected. Will she be able to hold her own against some of the more seasoned voices in the competition? We’ll find out!

TVLine’s grade:“B+”

First of all, many thanks to Jaali Boyd for bringing Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown’s “No Air” back into the public consciousness. Even better, we thank her for showing everyone that it can be performed effectively as a solo number! Boyd had both Kelly Clarkson and Adam Levine turning around at the “but how?!” moment, at which point you could tell she was starting to have more fun with her performance, making the whole experience infinitely more entertaining.

TVLine’s grade: “B”

Yodeling is one of those things you don’t think you need in your life… until you hear some really good yodeling, and then you can’t remember who you were before you heard it. Your personal timeline is suddenly divided into “Before Yodeling (B.Y.)” and “After Yodeling (A.Y.)” In case you couldn’t tell, we were really impressed with Blaire Elbert’s performance of Rosalie Allen’s “Wide Rollin’ Plains,” which she topped off with some phenomenal vocal trickery. As a kid, Elbert traveled the world as a member of the Cactus Cuties, but now she’s ready to two-step into the spotlight, and we’re ready to welcome her. John Legend wasn’t wrong when he said “there was a lot going on” with Elbert’s presentation, but we’re confident that Kelly Clarkson can sharpen her focus.

TVLine’s grade: “B+”

If this show was a Bruno Mars sound-alike contest, we’d send Adi Arora straight to the finale. As it is, his performance of “It Will Rain” was spot-on, and John Legend was right to turn around almost instantly. Kelly Clarkson eventually joined the club, but Adam Levine — despite saying how much he loves the song, or perhaps because of that — remained unturned by the end. He was tempted by Arora’s impressive falsetto, but it just didn’t happen, leaving him open to join Team Legend.

TVLine’s grade: “A-“

Moses G. came out swinging, grooving his way through the first verse of Rod Stewart’s “Forever Young” before building to a booming chorus. We don’t think we’ve ever heard this song performed with so many runs before. In fact, it was one such run that prompted Adam Levine to finally smash his button in the final moments of the performance.

TVLine’s grade: “B+”

If there’s one contestant that Adam Levine wanted — nay, needed — to recruit this week, it was Hunter Jordan. The desperate coach even admitted to going “fully insane” in his efforts to convince Jordan to join his team. And because Jordan earned a Triple Turn with his performance of Billy Currington’s “Let Me Down Easy,” Levine is now leading that mini competition with three points. In addition to Jordan being a strong country vocalist, there’s an easygoing quality to him that you can’t help but love. There’s also something current about him, perhaps exactly what country music needs more of today.

TVLine’s grade:“A-“