Earning a Four-Chair Turn on The Voice is a big deal. With the Blind Auditions forcing superstar coaches like Season 24’s John Legend, Reba McEntire, Gwen Stefani and Niall Horan to turn their backs on the potential contestants and just listen to their voice, it really is impressive when a singer is able to pique the interest of all four. The mentors on the show over the years have represented many different demographics, offering expertise in varying genres of music and having their own personal preferences of what they look for in a team member.
Therefore, one might assume that a singer who appeals to such a wide range of coaches would also grab the attention of a larger section of the viewers at home, thus earning more votes en route to winning the overall competition, right? Well, not so fast. Surprisingly, in The Voice’s 23 completed seasons so far, contestants who earned a Four-Chair Turn have been named champion only 10 times — less than half! Let’s take a look at every one of the winners who turned all four chairs in the Blind Auditions.
Javier Colon (Season 1)
The Four-Chair Turn theory started off strong, with Javier Colon — the series' very first winner — as he turned the chairs of Blake Shelton, Adam Levine, CeeLo Green and Christina Aguilera, before ultimately choosing to join Team Adam. The 33-year-old from Connecticut wooed all of the Voice coaches with his acoustic version of “Time After Time.”
Cassadee Pope (Season 3)
Season 3 winner Cassadee Pope caught the attention of the four OG coaches as well with her rendition of Natalie Imbruglia's “Torn.” She chose to join Blake Shelton’s team and became his second artist to go all the way in the competition. Pope is one of the winners who found success after The Voice, as she released a trio of studio albums. Also, her duet with country singer Chris Young, “Think of You,” went No. 1 on the US Country Airplay chart in 2016.
Tessanne Chin (Season 5)
Jamaican singer Tessanne Chin sang “Try” by Pink in her Blind Audition back in 2013, choosing Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine over Blake Shelton, CeeLo Green and Christina Aguilera. The decision worked well for her, and she became the third Four-Chair-Turn contestant in five seasons to win it all, giving Team Adam its second overall victory.
Josh Kaufman (Season 6)
Josh Kaufman made history in Season 6 by becoming the first singer to win the competition after being stolen by another coach. In the auditions, he sang George Michael’s “One More Try,” but he didn’t need more than one attempt to turn the chairs of Blake Shelton, Adam Levine, Usher and Shakira. Kaufman joined Team Adam and made it through the first round of Battles but, in the second showdown, the Maroon 5 rocker went with Delvin Choice after a duet of “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours.” Team Adam’s loss was Team Usher’s gain, and Kaufman delivered the “U Got It Bad” singer the only win of his Voice career.
Sawyer Fredericks (Season 8)
Sawyer Fredericks has similar bragging rights for his Season 8 victory, which gave Pharrell Williams his singular win on the show. After impressing the “Happy” singer, as well as original coaches Blake Shelton, Adam Levine and Christina Aguilera, with his version of “Man of Constant Sorrow,” he chose Team Pharrell and wowed audiences throughout the season, charting on iTunes with his renditions of John Lennon’s “Imagine,” Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Simple Man” and Goo Goo Dolls’ “Iris” en route to the win.
Jordan Smith (Season 9)
From the moment Jordan Smith opened his mouth to belt out Sia’s “Chandelier” in the Season 9 Blind Auditions, I had no doubt he would be the winner. The coaches must have felt it, too, because Blake Shelton, Adam Levine, Pharrell and Gwen Stefani all made their pitches to try to get him on their team. Smith went with the “Sunday Morning” performer — despite the fact that Levine took significantly longer than the others to turn his chair — and that ended up being a good decision, as he provided the rocker his third and final win on The Voice.
Alisan Porter (Season 10)
Christina Aguilera returned for the 10th edition of The Voice, reuniting with Blake, Adam and Pharrell. She grasped onto her moment, too, winning Curly Sue star Alisan Porter over the guys after Porter's audition performance of “Blue Bayou.” Aguilera became the first female coach to win the show, and Porter’s win in Season 10 made three in a row for Four-Chair Turns in the series' history. Through the competition’s first 10 seasons, an impressive seven of the winners had caught the attention of all four coaches in the auditions, but a bit of a drought would follow for the next several seasons.
Maelyn Jarmon (Season 16)
It wasn’t until Season 16 that another Four-Chair Turn would claim the Voice trophy, and it was Maelyn Jarmon who did it. The singer covered “Fields of Gold” in the Blind Auditions, eliciting chair turns from Blake, Adam, Kelly Clarkson and rookie coach John Legend. Jarmon took a chance on the first-timer and, when it came time to represent Team Legend In the finale, she was up against three members of Team Blake. She emerged victorious, giving the EGOT winner his only win on The Voice so far.
Todd Tilghman (Season 18)
The NBC hit's 18th season was a historic one for more than one reason. Todd Tilghman became the first person to win after being the initial artist introduced in Blind Auditions (earning a Four-Chair Turn for “We’ve Got Tonite” by Bob Seger). However, this season -- which aired from February to May 2020 -- will likely be remembered more for producing “quarantine episodes” (along with American Idol) in order to avoid canceling the season altogether. Tilghman said he was disappointed at having to do remote performances at first — and continuing to go live from several different locations came with some technical difficulties — but I’m sure he and his coach Blake Shelton weren’t upset with the end result.
Girl Named Tom (Season 21)
Speaking of making history, the sibling trio Girl Named Tom became the first group to win The Voice in Season 21. Joshua, Caleb, and Bekah Liechty wowed Blake Shelton, Kelly Clarkson, John Legend and Ariana Grande with their harmonies in the Blind Auditions, where they performed “Helplessly Hoping” by Crosby, Stills, and Nash. The trio went with Team Kelly, giving Clarkson possibly her final win, since it looks like she won’t be returning to The Voice anytime soon.
While it would make sense that Four-Chair Turns have a better shot at getting votes from the viewers at home — or being saved by other coaches, should they lose in one of the pre-recorded rounds of competition — it doesn’t seem to be that much of an advantage when you look at the series as a whole. Season 24, however, could even the scales a bit, as there are a large number of Four-Chair Turns competing, and many of them belong to one John Legend.
Will Team Legend be able to claim its second victory? Tune in to find out, with new episodes of The Voice airing at 8 p.m. ET Mondays and 9 p.m. ET Tuesdays on NBC.
