The Voice 28: Team Niall’s Aiden and Ava’s beautiful Battle to coach Niall Horan’s own song, “What a Time”
The Voice Season 28 battles continued on Monday night with a 3rd episode of Battles. There were a few standout battles including the best battle of the season from Team Niall where Aiden Ross and Ava Nat blended beautifully on a duet of “What a Time” by Julia Michaels and their very own coach, Niall Horan.
These artists are two of Niall’s standouts as Aiden turned 4 chairs and Ava turned 3 chairs in their Blind Auditions. The two are super excited to see their mentor, Lewis Capaldi. Aiden even tells Lewis that “Someone You Loved” was the first song he learned to play on the piano. Ava states that they picked each other as she wanted more of a duet out of her partnership. She thought the two of them would blend well. The two take it as an honor, even though Niall calls it “self-indulgent” to pick his own song.
Aiden relates missing his family to the lyrics. He has always lived in College Station, Texas, so this is basically his first time being away from home. Lewis notes Aiden’s ability to go in between his full voice and head voice, and Ava’s ability to tell a story. Niall does regret that they picked each other, and teases a save. He suggests they build the song, and he also mentions that every time Julia sang the song in the studio, she would cry. He reminds the two singer to put feeling into it.
“You aren’t supposed to be giving them songs like that”
I’m a big fan of this song, and also a fan of Julia Michaels, so I’m apt to be more critical. However, both singers open beautifully. Ava’s voice has a storytelling quality to it and excels on the wordy parts of the song. Aiden is technically very sound, is pitch perfect, and his falsetto is a sweet spot. The two blend so well, and the harmonies are chill inducing. The dynamics build with the song ending bigger. I find myself enjoying the character in Ava’s voice more, but Aiden could very well go on to win this season as he is simply flawless. This battle is one of the better ones I’ve seen in recent years.
Reba McEntire believes that if individual careers don’t work out, they could be a duet, describing it a “wonderful performance.” Snoop Dogg jokes, “You aren’t supposed to be giving them songs like that.” Michael Bublé says Aiden’s falsetto “melted” him, so he would lean towards him. Snoop calls it “teenage love,” adding, “I kind of want to shed a tear behind this record.” He teases stealing one of them. Niall felt they “sounded so good together.” He chooses Aiden as the winner.
Niall Horan Saves Ava, Snoop tries to steal her!
He saves Ava, but Snoop tries to steal her. Snoop wants to steal her “because she did an amazing job,” and confesses to wanting her from the start. Niall states, “There is no way you were going anywhere.” He insinuates that the only reason she lost was because of the strength of Aiden. Ultimately, she stays with Niall which in this case is probably smart as Aiden might just be the top contender on his team, and she could very well be his second contender.
The other two battles that stood out on Monday night were Team Snoop’s unlikely pairing of Mindy Miller and Emmanuel Rey where Mindy absolutely nailed “Angel from Montgomery” and won the Battle. The other solid Battle of the night was the final one featuring Team Niall’s Kirbi and Carolina Rodriguez giving it everything on “You Say” resulting in Kirbi winning, and Carolina being stolen by Snoop. Team Niall remains one of the strongest teams, so it’ll be interesting to see how strategy comes into play when the Knockouts start next week.
