19-Year-Old Hailey Wright’s “Excellent” Voice Made Kelsea Ballerini Yodel (Literally)
Team Kelsea was just so into it!
Hailey Wright hit all the right notes during her Blind Audition for Season 27 of The Voice, inspiring Coach Kelsea Ballerini to sing her praises. Literally. The 19-year-old may be from Redwater, Texas, a town with one gas station and one stoplight, but her voice is ready for the big time.
Hailey Wright had the Coaches battling for her on The Voice
With a self-assuredness beyond her years, Wright sang Freddy Fender's "Before the Next Teardrop Falls" and threw in, as the Coaches astutely noticed, a bit of a yodel, switching between her head and chest voices rapidly. “I love the little yodel in your voice,” Coach John Legend told her.
Ballerini turned her chair first, followed shortly by Michael Bublé. Adam Levine advised Wright to go with Ballerini, but Legend actually stepped in to defend Bublé: “Don’t underestimate Michael’s knowledge of country. I’ve seen his mullet," he said. Bublé pulled out that mullet during an earlier episode in an attempt to prove his country bona fides, though so far it hasn't helped, as those Artists continue to choose Ballerini over everyone.
RELATED: How "Unicorn" Conor James Used "True Originality" to Get 4 Chairs: "He Could Win"
To show she understood Wright's voice, Ballerini sang a line from "Blue" by Leann Rimes, and of course, threw in a yodel or two. “Ooh I love that little twang you have there, wow,” Bublé responded, while Legend called out, "yodel for 'em, Kelsea!" Wright sang a few bars of the song as well, but Bublé made one last effort to convince her that he was the cowboy her her, pointing out previous collaborations with Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton.
Facing each other in one of their many head-to-heads, Ballerini and Bublé held hands while Wright made her decision: Team Kelsea.
RELATED: Kelsea Ballerini Reveals the Brag-Worthy Dinner She Loves to Cook for Chase Stokes
Team Kelsea is trouncing all the Coaches when it comes to country
She may be the newest Coach, but Kelsea Ballerini is collecting country Artists left and right on The Voice Season 27. During a previous Blind Audition, Levine bemoaned his losing track record in the genre.
"My batting average when it comes to convincing country Artists to come to my team is extremely poor because of that big, smelly guy Blake Shelton," he said, to which Ballerini responded, "Don’t talk about my dad like that." It got a laugh from Levine, who recognized that while Shelton and Ballerini are not related, Nashvillians stick together.
