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The teens of The Voice are really showing everyone the fun of the Blind Audition process. On night three of the Blinds, we had 14-year-old Jaylen Durham shock the judges with his Beyoncé performance — in fact, he shocked Gwen Stefani so much, she couldn’t help but use her replay button on him — but on night four, Jaukeem Fortson takes it to another level.
At 13 years old, Jaukeem takes the stage as the youngest contestant of season 26 so far. He already oozes maturity in a sharp suit — his mother calls him “an old soul” who always dresses up to perform — and carries himself with confidence as he tears into Adele’s “Easy on Me.” It’s not an easy song to perform for an experienced adult let alone, again, a 13 year old. And yet, Jaukeem gets three coaches to push their buttons for him before he even hits the chorus; Michael Bublé goes on the first line. All three of those coaches — Michael is joined by Snoop Dogg and Reba McEntire — can’t believe they’ve turned around to face a teenager. It simply doesn’t match up with his strong vocal performance. You can see it on all of their faces, and while Michael tries to play it cool, Snoop can’t hold back an astonished “What?!” when he gets a look at Jaukeem.
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Tyler Golden/NBC
Gwen Stefani doesn’t push her button, but the moment she turns around after the performance, she is full of regret over who she missed out on. (Although, she probably doesn’t need two tiny vocalists on her team, if we’re talking strategy.) She tells Jaukeem that he has “so much potential” and she knows any of the three other coaches will help him out in honing his skills, especially in “how to really define [his] runs.” The three coaches in the running to win Jaukeem over are mostly just excited to have someone like him on this show, regardless of where he goes. Reba feels like they will learn a lot from the young singer, and predicts that he’s “gonna be around for a while.” You know Jaukeem is a Reba fan because the kid responds to her critique by singing back Reba’s hit “I’m a Survivor” — a ballsy move if ever there was one!
Michael and Snoop reiterate how impressive it is to see someone Jaukeem’s age handle himself like a professional in such a pressure-cooker situation. While they agree he has all the ingredients to be great, they’d both love to help him grow as an artist. “I don’t know if I’m more excited for us as coaches or for you,” Michael tells him.
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While any of these three coaches would be helpful to Jaukeem, the moment he sang out “I’m a survivor,” you knew which way he was going. Team Reba wins the teen wunderkind. The Voice competition only grows in pressure as the season moves along, so we’ll see if Jaukeem will stay as cool and calm as he is now. If he does, he might be one to watch.
The Voice airs Mondays and Tuesdays on NBC.