Spoiler alert! This story contains the result of one Night 4 Battle for The Voice episode that aired on October 29. Episodes are available to stream the next day with a Peacock subscription.
As The Voice Season 26 progresses on the 2024 TV schedule, we’re coming close to the end of the Battles. The teams are getting smaller, which means the front-runners are starting to separate themselves from the pack. While each coach on The Voice boasts multiple artists capable of going all the way, Reba McEntire may hold the key to the trophy and the history books. In fact, there’s a specific record currently held by Gwen Stefani that — after watching Night 4 of the Battle round — I think the Queen of Country has a good chance at stealing away.
Longtime followers of The Voice might remember that Carter Rubin was crowned the champion in Season 19, giving his coach Gwen Stefani her one and only win so far. Carter was just 15 at the time, earning the distinction of being the competition’s youngest male winner. (Brynn Cartelli, a member of Kelly Clarkson’s Season 14 team, is the youngest overall winner. She was also 15.) Well, Reba McEntire just happens to have a young man named Jaukeem Fortson on her team this season, and this 13-year-old has what it takes to win it all.
Jaukeem Fortson has an incredible voice — not just for a 13-year-old, but for anyone — and he went up against someone twice his age on the October 29 show. Of course, that’s not saying much, as his teammate Tsola is still pretty youthful herself at 27 years old, but the duo sang the crap out of “Higher Love” before Reba McEntire made the decision to move forward with Jaukeem.
The teen continues to blow the other coaches away, too, as Michael Bublé hilariously marveled at the skill that Jaukeem Fortson already shows. He said:
Jaukeem, I don’t know if you ever watched those Will Smith alien movies or whatever, but there was a point there where I thought you might just unzip [your skin] and go, ‘Haha! I’m 40!’ Forget about five years from now, what are you going to be in, like, two weeks from now?
Men in Black alien or not, Snoop Dogg had a different comparison, illustrating the improvement he’s already seen in the young singer, saying:
You’re growing right now, like one of them Chia Pets, when you put the water on, they grow right in front of you.
It’s worth noting that both Michael Bublé and Snoop Dogg also turned for Jaukeem Fortson in the Blind Auditions, and my biggest question is why Gwen Stefani didn’t! I thought immediately when he broke into Adele’s “Easy on Me” that we might be looking at the eventual Season 26 winner. Just take a look at that performance:
No wonder Reba McEntire called this season her favorite. The Queen of Country definitely could be on the road to her second-straight win, unseating Gwen Stefani (and former daughter-in-law Kelly Clarkson) from the record books in the process. I mean, we call her the queen for a reason.
Tune in to see how Season 26 plays out. Will Jaukeem make it through the brutal three-way Knockouts? Will another singer rise to challenge Team Reba’s young star? The Voice airs at 8 p.m. ET Mondays and Tuesdays (except Election Day) on NBC.