The Voice Season 28: 16 Singers to Watch
The Voice Season 28 is almost here, and I couldn’t be more excited. The cast is diverse featuring a variety of genres and the talent is the best we have seen in a long time. Here are a preview of 16 notable contestants. Some have appeared on other competitive singing show, have a ton of experience, or are just flat-out great singers.
This season’s coaches lineup consists of Michael Bublé who returns after two straight wins, marking his 3rd consecutive season coaching since starting the show, Reba McEntire who returns after a season off, Niall Horan who returns after three seasons off, earning two consecutive wins in Season 23 and 24, and Snoop Dogg who comes back for a second season after a season off.
The Voice season 28 premieres on NBC Monday September 22 and Tuesday September 23 at 8 pm on NBC, streaming next day on Peacock.
Aiden Ross
Aiden Ross, a 20-year-old student at Texas A & M, from College Station, Texas, is studying engineering, and he may be the top male contender of Season 28 of The Voice due to his ability to hit elaborate runs and riffs. He has a very pure and soulful tone and a nice falsetto to top it off. His voice is timeless, making it perfect to tackle both oldies and current songs in pop and R&B.
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“Your Idol” Cover:
Ashton (Yoshi) Beauchesne
Ashton Beauchesne, also known as Yoshi, is an R&B singer originally from Orlando, Florida who now lives in Atlanta. She has years of experience, performing in lounges and local venues. The singer has an incredible voice that is full of soul, and a style reminiscent of Chaka Khan. It makes sense as she has performed a Chaka Khan tribute act before. She has the ability to do intricate runs and soulful growls. With a voice like hers, Yoshi will go far.
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“For The Love of You” Cover:
Aubrey Nicole
Aubrey Dittmar, who goes by the stage name of Aubrey Nicole, is a 19-year-old student at Belmont and a country soul singer. She was featured during Christmas at Belmont on Prime Video as a part of South Bound, Belmont’s country ensemble group. Her voice has a nice richness to it, harkening back to classic country. She also has the ability to crossover into pop music which should make her versatile in the competition. On a cover of “We Don’t Fight Anymore” by Chris Stapleton and Carly Pearce on Tik Tok, Carly was impressed and commented “Gorgeous” on Aubrey’s cover. Also fun fact: Aubrey is an actress, starring in Rosemary Street, a web series that starred The Voice Season 22 alumni, Kique Gomez and Parijita Bastola.
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“We Don’t Even Fight Anymore” Cover:
Ava Nat Milone
Singer-songwriter Ava Nat Milone is a freshman at Belmont University. Hailing from Long Island, New York, her style feels very current. It bridges together pop, folk, and jazz music, and is a bit reminiscent of singers like Olivia Rodrigo and Gracie Abrams as she has the storytelling phrasing down that both of these singers possess. She is a talented songwriter too, releasing an EP titled Align in 2024. Having the amount of artistry she has could take her far in the competition. Her voice also has a surprising amount of power too.
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“All I Want” Cover:
Carolina Rodriguez
Carolina Rodriguez is a 19-year-old singer who has been featured in most of The Voice promos this season as a Niall Horan superfan in which she says, “I know where you have birthmarks.” Her voice proves she deserves to be featured in the promos as it is a smooth pop voice that boasts range and big notes.
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“All I Ask”:
Promo:
Cori Kennedy
Cori Kennedy is a country singer from West Concord, Minnesota. She is multi-talented as she was a division 2 college softball player at Minnesota State Mankato where she started and was an all-conference selection her senior year. She also had a massively viral moment on Tik Tok when she took a news story and wrote a song about someone shooting a hole in a town’s Johnny Cash water tower. The video had 15.8 million views and 1.7 million likes. Cori’s voice is twangy and super powerful and is sure to wow.
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“The Man in Black” Original – Viral:
Dek of Hearts
Dek of Hearts is a Nashville based country-pop trio consisting of Dylan John, from Munroe Falls, Ohio, Emily Clapp, from Terre Haute, Indiana, and Kollin Bailey, from Marshfield Missouri. The group is diverse when it comes to their sound with Kollin possessing a rich deep country tone, Dylan has a light pop voice, and Emily is the powerhouse of the group with a more soulful, gospel sound. Dylan and Kollin recently released standalone songs, and as a group they recently released “Taillights” which leans more into their country sound. Their covers sometimes lean more pop, and together they bring in sync harmonies and powerful vocals.
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“New Rules”/“Training Season” Cover:
Dustin Dale Gaspard
Dustin Dale Gaspard is an alternative folk singer from Cow Island, Louisiana. His music fuses many genres together with his website describing his sound as “expanding the boundaries of ‘cajun’ music.” He is bilingual and sings in both English and Cajun French, so it will be interesting to see if he highlights that on the show as I’m not sure French has been showcased on the show before. He is also very experienced, having released original music since 2015, and is a touring musician. In 2025, he did a 10,000 mile tour which included stops in the U.S and Canada. Dustin also plays the banjo, and fuses many of the unique elements of his music into classic songs. His voice is full of old soul.
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“When A Man Loves a Woman”:
Jazz McKenzie
Jazz McKenzie is an R&B and soul singer from Huntsville, Alabama who also goes by Just Jazz. She graduated from Alabama A & M, and has shared the stage with Grammy Award nominee James Fortune and winner Chrisette Michele, and more. The old saying of “you can sing the phone book” applies here as she can sing anything including surprising covers like “Don’t Stop Believing” where she made it her own and absolutely nailed it utilizing soulful adlibs. Jazz is great employing restraint and beautifully placing runs. She is definitely one to watch!
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“Don’t Stop Believing” Cover:
Kanard Thomas
Kanard is a 34-year-old singer, originally from Jacksonville, Florida. He is a returnee who won the 2nd season of the comeback stage in Season 16. The singer failed to turn a chair, but was chosen to compete in the Comeback stage with Bebe Rexha as the judge. He won every round in the comeback stage, but eventually lost in a playoff instant save to LB Crew who won a second chance after losing his cross battle. Had he won, he would have been in the top 13. He has been a backup singer for Grammy award winners, Monica and Brittany Howard, and was also the lead singer of the BB KING LIVE ALL-STAR Band. His voice is soulful and one of his biggest strengths is his falsetto. Since his time on The Voice, he has released a few original songs.
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“ICU” Cover:
The Voice Season 16 Highlight Video:
Kayleigh Clark
Kayleigh Clark is a 20-year-old country singer from Sumrall, Mississippi. She appeared on American Idol Season 21. For her audition she sang both “The Dance” and “I Surrender.” and received two yeses from Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie and a no from Katy Perry. She got Covid during Hollywood Week, forcing her to perform two rounds from her room including a duet round that became a solo for her. She advanced past those rounds to the top 55 showstoppers, but failed to advance to the top 26. Kayleigh was raw at the time, but she has developed since She has released her first two original songs in the past few weeks, so maybe she is finally ready to go the distance in a competition. She has a very clean, twangy country sound.
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American Idol Audition:
“Have You Ever Seen The Rain” Cover:
Kirbi
Kirbi, also known as Savanna Kirby, is a country pop singer from Florence, Alabama who moved to Nashville in 2023. Her voice is truly limitless being a country singer who also covers R&B music and able to hit whistle notes. She may be the type of singer who can draw in the entire audience as she can crossover genres, and has crazy range with the ability to belt.
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“Tennessee Whiskey” Cover:
Max Chambers
Max Chambers, a 13-year-old from Shreveport, Louisiana, is likely the youngest of the season. He won a local competition called Artbreaks Got Talent which sent him to America’s Got Talent auditions in 2023 at the age of 11. His audition was not aired, however. Max also has been on Broadway, playing the replacement for Little Michael and Little Marlon in MJ The Musical. Max has impressive range, and I can see why he has been on Broadway considering his emotive voice. He also can hit some pretty amazing runs and riffs especially for his age.
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“Where Is Love” Cover:
Rob Cole
Rob Cole is a 34-year-old country rock singer from Pembroke, North Carolina who auditioned on The Voice with “Must Be Doin’ Somethin; Right” by Billy Currington in Season 25 and failed to turn a chair. Reba may recognize him as she was on that season. His audition was solid for a no chair turner, but his approach was a bit laid back. For me his covers of southern rock and his originals is where his voice shines they bring out his grit. We will see if he shows his rock side more this time.
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The Voice Audition:
“Free Bird” Cover:
Sadie Dahl
Sadie is a pop and R&B singer from Draper City, Utah. She won the senior category of Draper Idol in 2024. She has had a few viral covers on Tik Tok including a video she posted of a moment she shared with Tori Kelly at Tori’s concert where she did a freestyle “run off” on Tori’s song “Hollow.” Her runs are silky smooth, and her style is reminiscent of Tori’s. Tone wise, Sadie may be my favorite of the entire season.
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Tori Kelly Viral Moment:
“One Last Time” Cover:
Trinity Giselle
Trinity Wilson, also known as Trinity Giselle, is a singer-songwriter and model from Connecticut. She plays piano and tackles R&B, soul, and jazz music. Her style is reminiscent of Alicia Keys as she is very musical and her tone is pure with the ability to shine on the quiet moments of a song just as much as the bigger moments.
