Spoiler alert! This story discusses The Voice’s Season 24 Knockouts that aired on November 7.
The Knockouts continued Tuesday night on The Voice, with Wynonna Judd returning as the Season 24 Mega Mentor to grace this batch of contestants with four decades of music industry expertise. However, she wasn’t the only guest coach of the evening, as we got a sneak peek of what Dan + Shay will offer when they become The Voice’s first coaching duo next season. The country-pop duo subbed in for Niall Horan, and I can’t help but feel like one of his team members, Azán, got the short end of the stick with the surprise switcheroo.
After John Legend and Reba McEntire’s teams kicked off the three-way Knockouts a night earlier, it was Gwen Stefani and Niall Horan’s artists who took the stage on Tuesday in the harshest round of competition. Three team members each take turns singing a song of their choice, and The Voice coaches are tasked with saving just one to advance, and Team Niall was dealt a pretty big blow when he informed his team that he was unable to be at rehearsals due to his tour schedule.
This was likely especially jarring for Azán, who just joined Team Niall after being stolen from Team Legend in the Battle Round, saying that she was excited to learn from him. In her words:
I love Niall. I love his artistry. I love the way that he performs. I really wanted to learn a little bit of that from him, so I feel so blessed.
So if Azán had known she’d be working with Dan + Shay rather than Niall Horan, would she have made the same choice? Because here’s the thing: Reba McEntire also tried to steal her from John Legend after the Battles. The artist (presumably) didn’t know at the time that she was actually choosing between McEntire — who also turned for her in the Blind Auditions — and Dan + Shay, and that’s a big difference, especially with both of those coaching options being in the country music genre.
Only Azán knows if she would have done anything differently, so now the question is whether or not Dan + Shay mentored her as well as Niall Horan would have. There were plenty of compliments given during her rehearsal and a note about keeping her eyes open, but as far as what we saw on the episode, it was hard to tell if she got the experience she was looking for. And in the end, Horan — who did return to see his team perform — chose Nini Iris as the winner, sending Azán and their other challenger Olivia Minogue home.
You can check out Azán’s powerful performance of Anita Baker’s “Caught Up in the Rapture” below:
It seems really unfair to me that Azán chose to be on Niall Horan’s team and then was eliminated before even getting to work with him. Hopefully the coach was able to rectify the situation somehow off-camera and the artist got everything possible out of the experience.
The Voice Season 24 is moving right along, with new episodes airing at 8 p.m. ET Mondays and 9 p.m. ET Tuesdays on NBC. You can also stream episodes the next day with a Peacock subscription.
