Miley misses mark
Seeking country cred, Voice coach Cyrus backs wrong horse in reality TV show
To the surprise of few fans of NBC’s The Voice, Chloe Kohanski won season 13 on Tuesday night. Not only did the 23-yearold psychedelic rocker from Nashville dominate the iTunes charts with her performances after almost every episode, but the celebrity coaches deemed her a front-runner the first time they heard her sing.
“I think that you can be in the finale,” Blake Shelton said at Kohanski’s blind audition in October, when she wowed everyone with Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain. Indeed, she went on to triumph over the other acts in the final four. Kohanski now has a recording contract with Universal Music Group.
But things almost went differently — because Kohanski could have been eliminated early on when her coach, Miley Cyrus, dropped her during the knockout round. Thanks to a special rule added in the fifth season, the other coaches get one shot to steal the artist who loses the knockout. Shelton and Jennifer Hudson both swooped in to offer Kohanski a spot on their teams, and Kohanski chose Shelton.
Cyrus was determined to win with one of her artists, particularly over Shelton, who has now won six times. So Kohanski’s victory really twists the knife.
So why did Cyrus make such a big mistake and let the clear front-runner go?
You can actually trace it back to the season premiere in September, when Cyrus declared her true goal for the season: Discover a country music star. “I’m here to win The Voice with a country artist,” she said.
Cyrus doubled down on her country roots this season, reminding everyone about her residence in Nashville and legacy status as daughter of Achy Breaky Heart singer Billy Ray Cyrus. There are a few possible reasons for this: First, to get under Shelton’s skin for the sake of drama on the show. Second, Voice winners who seek careers in Nashville tend to have more success than their peers in other genres.
Third, and perhaps most important, Miley Cyrus — the goddaughter of Dolly Parton — has signalled she wants to be taken more seriously by the country music community. She feels those fans abandoned her in her pop star days, when she twerked with Robin Thicke and was naked on a wrecking ball.
On the Oct. 30 knockout round, Cyrus paired Kohanski against Ashland Craft, a talented 21-year-old country singer. Cyrus said she wanted to turn her into a “punk rock Dolly Parton.”
In the knockout, Kohanski sang a stunning version of Fleetwood Mac’s Landslide, while Craft belted out an excellent twist on Bon Jovi’s Wanted Dead or Alive. Cyrus fretted over whom to choose, but went with Craft.
Kohanski moved to Shelton, who called her “the most iconic voice we’ve ever had on this show.” With a firm grasp on her artistic identity, Kohanski knocked her performances out of the park every week.
Kohanski’s cover of Landslide broke a record for the highestcharting song from the knockout rounds in Voice history. If Cyrus hadn’t been so preoccupied with her country goals, perhaps she would have chosen differently. Though to her credit, Craft made it all the way to the Top 10 before viewers voted her out.