Reba McEntire had an emotional moment during an unexpected song during Monday’s battle rounds in The voice.
The country legend reunited two of his team’s “good ol’ boys,” Josh Sanders and Donny Van Slee, for a performance of Luke Combs’ “When It Rains, It Pours.” Although the song mostly has a fun, upbeat country vibe, Josh admitted to his coach that he was getting a different message from some of the lyrics.
“’When it rains, it pours,’ that lyric hits me a little hard,” he shared. “I’m a father of four girls. We had one son. He was born and passed away on my birthday.”
“It’s such a fun song and I don’t want to take it away,” he added, as Donny and Reba supported him emotionally.
Growing choked up as she spoke, Reba shared, “Before I go on stage, I ask the Holy Spirit to walk for me, speak for me, speak for me, sing to me… Ask Him, ‘Put me in the right place to that music.'”
Josh certainly wasn’t emotional when it came to his stage performance. Her stunning vocals and jaw-dropping runs have Reba’s fellow coaches – Dan + Shay, John Legend It is Chance the Rapper – applauding Batalha’s performance.
And the Queen of Country herself couldn’t help but get emotional once again as she praised the singers, calling Donny’s performance “cute as a button”.
“It was fun, I enjoyed watching you,” she added.
However, between Josh’s emotional attraction and impressive vocals, Reba had to name him the winner of the Battle, sending him to the Elimination Rounds.
“Your runs, when you hit the high notes, everything was perfect,” she marveled. “Whatever you got out of that song was right.”
“I feel like I’ve known you forever,” she added to the two singers, pausing to compose herself. “I just felt like we were united, and that was really, really special to me.”
ET spoke to the season 25 coaches before the premiere, where they shared what it was like to receive The voicethe first pair of coaches in the history of the competition.
“They give great grades. They are very good”, praised Reba. “They know the business well, but they also have a lot of heart and that’s what they’re looking for.”
Dan + Shay say they’ve been fans of the show for years – they served as mentors to Blake Shelton team back in season 20 and even entered the scene guest coach Niall Horan’s team last season – but acting as a full-time coach for the first time was a whole new experience.
“It changed everything for us,” Shay admitted. “I really enjoy the process of working with these artists, and you really get attached. It’s painful when you have to let people go. But it’s been an amazing experience.”
Chance the Rapper returns this season for the first time since Season 23 Voice debut, where he joined Blake, Niall and Kelly Clarkson. He told ET that it’s especially exciting to be back with a whole new roster of coaching talent.
“I’ve always looked up to John and he’s helped me in so many different ways,” he reflected. “Being working with him and then being around Reba, and Dan + Shay, and this amazing team… I miss Blake, but it’s really cool to be back in the building.”
Despite the good vibes, however, the coaches are still quite competitive. With Niall stepping aside this season after winning back-to-back titles, the Voice the trophy is up for grabs – and there’s a better than average chance that it could go to a first-time champion, as only John has won the competition before.
“It’s getting hot out there, for sure,” Shay revealed.
“That’s why we’re here,” Reba agreed.
The voice airs Mondays at 8pm PT/ET and Tuesdays at 9pm PT/ET on NBC, and streams the next day on Peacock.
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