Niall Horan is passing on his teen sensation wisdom to the next generation on “The Voice” – and becoming a four-chair assassin in the process.
Horan, alongside coaches Kelly Clarkson, Chance the Rapper and Blake Shelton, turned his chair for 15-year-old Ryley Tate Wilson during the third round of blind auditions Monday night. The Alabama native stood out with his precocious vocal talent and tender rendition of Robyn’s “Dancing on My Own.”
“I remember what I was like at 15 auditioning for a show like this. I was shaking like a leaf,” Horan, an “X Factor” alum, said. “It’s so nice to hear a 15-year-old have that confidence in their own ability.”
Clarkson, who competed on the first season of “American Idol,” also used her reality-competition pedigree to her advantage. “I love working with young people too,” she said. “I started as a young talent in a singing competition…and it can be a different thing than making an album.”
Clarkson was no match for Horan, as Wilson chose to join Team Niall.
“I could see a lot of myself in there,” Horan said of Wilson. “We’re a match made in heaven.”
Here’s more of what went down Monday night.
Kelly Clarkson scores ‘incredible’ hearing-impaired singer
California singer Ali proved that music lives inside her. The 24-year-old, who was born deaf, floored Clarkson and Chance with her soulful performance of “Killing Me Softly” by Fugees.
“Your runs were so intricate and cool and different,” Clarkson said. “That’s a gift.”
Aside from enjoying her talent, Chance was touched by the representation that Ali’s audition brought to others who share a similar disability.
“I’m just still so stunned to hear that you’re hearing impaired,” Chance said. “I’ve made a lot of friends from the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, and I think it’s so dope that they could look to somebody that loves music as much as they do.”
In the end, Ali chose Clarkson to be her coach.
“Ali is incredible,” Clarkson said. “I’m just excited to work with someone who experiences music on different levels than I do.”
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Foreign Figures member EJ Michels earned chair turns from Shelton and Chance with his emotional cover of the Adele ballad “Easy on Me.”
“People (who) can actually attack and do well on an Adele song, I want to hear them sing some Maxwell, some D’Angelo,” Chance said. “We can do great stuff together, and I cannot wait to be your coach.”
Shelton, who praised the 31-year-old’s “raw and honest” vocal style, also took a shot at his fellow coach, who joined the NBC singing competition this season along with Horan.
“We all know that Chance the Rapper is a great artist, but we don’t know crap about Chance the coach,” Shelton said. “(You) don’t want to be an experiment.”
Shelton’s smack talk seemed to do the trick, as Michels chose to join Team Blake.
“I’m really proud to get EJ on my team,” Shelton said. “There was a moment there that I thought he was going to go with Chance.”
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Kelly Clarkson loses singer to Niall Horan after blocking Blake Shelton
Tennessee vocalist Laura Littleton charmed coaches Clarkson, Horan and Shelton with her bluegrass rendition of Harry Styles’ “Sign of the Times.”
Shelton was denied the opportunity of pitching to Littleton, however, after Clarkson used her block button on him.
“I need you to know that I love you so much that I used my only block on you,” Clarkson said. “I feel like you’re going to attract people from different genres. You just have all these cool connections vocally…this is like Dolly (Parton) meets Florence and the Machine.”
But Shelton wasn’t one to let bygones be bygones. “Remember who took this opportunity away from us,” he told the 26-year-old.
Ironically, Clarkson’s block backfired in the end, with Littleton choosing Styles’ One Direction mate Horan instead.
“Laura was incredible,” Horan said. “She can sing rock. She can sing big pop songs. She can do anything.”
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