The Miami Heat are one game away from winning their second consecutive NBA Finals. “The Voice” coach Blake Shelton has already done one better–he now lays claim to a three-peat on NBC’s flagship reality series.
Shelton’s teen sensation Danielle Bradbery officially won season four of “The Voice” Tuesday, giving one of the key country ambassadors his third consecutive win on “The Voice” and second consecutive win with a country-skewing artist.
Following Javier Colon’s win for Team Adam in season one, Shelton’s scored victory with contestants Jermaine Paul, Cassadee Pope and now Danielle Bradbery.
Though she was considered the season’s frontrunner from the get-go, Danielle’s path to victory was not without its questions. Runner-up and Team Usher member Michelle Chamuel had amassed significant recent popularity and received social media support from Usher’s protege Justin Bieber. And insofar as fellow country acts and fellow Team Blake members The Swon Brothers were the other act in the final three, there was always the fear that they would split votes with Bradbery and cost her the crown.
But following a night of consistent performances, including a reprise of “Maybe It Was Memphis” and debuts “Timber, I’m Falling in Love” and “Born to Fly,” Danielle Bradbery clinched victory and became the fourth winner on “The Voice.”
Insofar as Bradbery is potentially the most marketable, “total package” contestant ever to win a music competition series, the pressure is on for “The Voice” to prove it can launch a star. Season one and two winners Colon and Paul were always going to be tough sells in the mainstream music market, and Cassadee Pope, though certain to be far more successful than the previous winners, still faces some challenges in marketability.
But with Bradbery, “The Voice” has a young, cute, blonde, charismatic, powerhouse singer who fits firmly into the country-pop sweet spot occupied by acts like Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift (in her earlier years) and now Hunter Hayes. It would take a major disaster for Bradbery not to sell reasonably well, so if “The Voice” is going to show it can launch a Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood or even Phillip Phillips of its own, it will never have a more stacked deck.
