“The Voice” Season 21 Biggest Blunders

The shocking events leading up to some of the most unfortunate early exits of the season.

by S4B0T4G3FIRE | December 18, 2021, 8:00 AM EST

Now that the latest season of “The Voice” is in the past and a winner has been crowned, it is time to revisit all of the moments that left the audience scratching their heads and searching for answers. There were a lot of these moments this season, especially due to the unpredictability of the addition of the latest coach, Ariana Grande. Many talented contestants never quite lived up to their expectations, and some of the best actually flopped out of the competition altogether, which left viewers wondering, “How could this happen?” Follow along as we discuss the singers whose capabilities were never fully realized in their time on the show.

Disclaimer: Absolutely no offense to any of the names discussed. They were chosen because they were capable of so much more, and that is a compliment.

Jonathan Mouton — Team Blake

Unlike many of the artists who exited the competition on bad notes (literally), Jonathan Mouton exited way before his time. If you already forgot about him, feel free to check out his “Battle” and “Knockout” performances. You will very quickly notice that the first was against Paris Winningham (stolen from Team Legend and eventually went on to finish 3rd in the competition), and the second was against Wendy Moten (who placed 2nd in the competition and maybe even deserved to win the whole thing).

Jonathan may have been outdone by Paris on Team Legend and Wendy on Team Blake, but he was definitely in at least the 80th percentile this season (After doing the math for his performances, he was actually in the 79th percentile, but still. He was better than 79% of the other contestants, yet he left after just three weeks). Statistically, the only contestants equal to or above him in terms of average performance scores out of 10 were all of the Top 5 contestants (no shock there) and a couple other early exits which will be discussed later in this article. Despite never putting a foot wrong, he was somehow always in the wrong place at the wrong time. Giving anyone a third chance sounds silly, but he deserved it more than some contestants deserved a second chance. Arguably, he should have returned instead of Hailey Green to compete in the Wildcard Competition. Regardless, he is the one that got away.

Katie Rae — Team Kelly

Before Katie Rae left Team Ariana, she was an absolute force. If you somehow forgot about her already, feel free to check out her “Battle” and “Knockout” performances. They will blow you away. The first performance was against an in-form Bella DeNapoli (more on her later in this article), and the second was against an average Raquel Trinidad.

Over on Team Ariana, Katie Rae actually stood out. In fact, her performances averaged the highest score out of everybody while she was on the show (a relatively small sample size, but still). Ariana reluctantly gave her the win over Bella DeNapoli (whom was saved anyway) in the Battle, and then she was stolen by Team Kelly after Ariana surprisingly chose Raquel in the Knockout. That was pretty much the end for her on the show as she no longer stood out among the wide variety of talent that Team Kelly had to offer. To be fair, she only slipped from the 100th percentile down to the 79th percentile, but people stopped voting for her.

Holly Forbes — Team Ariana

Before coming to Team Ariana, Holly Forbes could sing just about any song perfectly for Team Kelly. Like Jonathan Mouton, however, her path was not the easiest. From the 20 seconds that producers aired of her “Battle” performance, her opponent, Wyatt Michael, was not going down without a fight. As for her “Knockout” performance, she was pinned against none other than the winner of the entire competition, Girl Named Tom, so it was sad to see her leave Team Kelly, where she clearly belonged.

Holly was such a cool, unique, and talented four-chair turn, but it always seemed to viewers like Ariana was not pushing or encouraging her hard enough because her vocals were already in a good place from her time on Team Kelly. No assumptions can be made, but Ariana did say that “the best gift of this whole thing has been meeting Jim and Sasha Allen.” Obviously, she cared for and rooted for Holly Forbes, but there is no way that she pushed her as the favorite while Jim and Sasha Allen were still on the team. Despite Holly’s performances on Team Ariana placing her in the 77th percentile, by the time the Top 8 came around, she simply ran out of steam while Jim and Sasha Allen (the 39th percentile) survived to sing another week.

Peedy Chavis — Team Blake

You probably did not expect to see Peedy Chavis in this list. He is mainly remembered as a “gimmicky Elvis Presley impersonator,” but he actually managed to prove his talent in the “Instant Save” round, right before getting eliminated in the second week of live shows. It was his best performance of the entire competition because he actually focused more on the singing than the impersonating.

Despite only being in the 18th percentile and giving too little too late, he actually had a good vocal foundation that Blake Shelton was never really able to build upon (nobody’s fault). He only made it as far as he did because he knew how to light up a stage. With the right coach, his singing probably would have improved enough in time to make the Top 13, but the “right coach” was neither Kelly nor John nor Ariana nor Blake. To be fair, Hailey Mia was just beginning to heat up for Team Kelly as well, so Peedy never really stood a chance at redemption anyway. If he practices hard enough, however, he can become the full package in a year or two.

Bella DeNapoli — Team Ariana

Bella DeNapoli’s path on this show is one where you just have to ask, “What happened?” She showed so much promise in early weeks, and then all that promise evaporated into thin air. Her “Battle” against Katie Rae was excellent, probably the best or second-best of all the Battles, and her “Knockout” was not necessarily the worst despite sounding awkward at times (not that she could outdo her Battle performance, but tidying up a couple of things after the Knockout stage should not have been that tough for her).

Then she took a really unexpected dive when things went live (Hey. That rhymes). Her first live performance shocked the world in the worst way and probably scared Blake Shelton and his wife a little bit as well (Bella sang Gwen Stefani’s song). If you missed this performance, no worries. You are better off. It was a pitchy, strained, screaming mess that literally nobody saw coming. Then, things went from bad to worse as she competed for the Instant Save. To be fair, she was in the same boat as Peedy Chavis, getting eliminated by a rapidly-improving Hailey Mia. Still, her imminent exit from the show goes down as the most confusing exit of the season.

David Vogel — Team Legend

David Vogel’s time on the show started with Team Ariana, and it ended immediately after his transition to Team Legend. Both of his “Battle” and “Knockout” performances sounded quite good, and even his “Blind Audition” had a cool energy to it. Getting a chair turn from Ariana seemed to some viewers like a “pity turn” because he was singing her original song with a twist, but the performance was not even bad. He probably could have gotten upwards of three chair turns if not for his genre.

The “mixed reactions” and “huge stirs” talked about in headlines were all overexaggerated. While on the show, David made very few mistakes. In fact, his time on the show was really entertaining, and he outperformed many of the artists (except those in the Top 5). His singing actually placed him in the 66th percentile, and his energy and passion for music was something that a lot of other contestants were lacking. The only problem was that nobody ever really appreciated the genre or “spin” he was applying to the songs he was singing. His elimination after reaching the Top 20 may have been correctly timed, but he never got the credit he deserved before then, especially considering how much further some far-worse performers made it on the show.

Ryleigh Plank — Team Ariana

Ryleigh Plank also makes the list. Like so many others, her potential almost seemed limitless at times, especially in her “Battle” against KCK3. Her “Knockout” performance was pretty great as well. Unfortunately, she peaked very early in this competition, and her vocal form steadily declined until elimination.

Riding out the next three weeks in the 45% percentile, she was never going to make the comeback that everybody, especially Ariana, wanted her to. Eventually, desperate times called for desperate measures, and she sang one of the most difficult songs of the entire competition in an attempt to make up some ground. Little did the audience know, this was something they would never be able to unhear. For the first time in the competition, Ryleigh’s voice was nowhere to be found. No power, no breath, hardly any sound at all when it mattered most. What little sound managed to escape during the high notes was strained even worse than those of Bella DeNapoli’s performance the week before, and most of the notes that followed were flat. You could even see Ariana trying to shake and deflect the second-hand embarrassment multiple times by waving her arms around and playing with her hair. Another one of Team Ariana’s “vocal titans” was down and out in a manner nobody could have predicted. She was simply not prepared to sing this song, and you just have to ask Ariana “What went wrong?”

Ariana Grande — Team Ariana

One final singer who did not meet expectations at all is none other than, well, Coach Ariana. Cut her however much slack you want because it was her first season as a coach, but something about her team members and their exits did not make much sense. You probably even noticed that 5 out of the 7 singers discussed in this article were on her team at some point in the competition. That is largely because the promise that Ariana shows as a master of her craft (combined with the potential that many of her team members showed in the first and second weeks on the show) never came to fruition.

She is a strong advocate for vocal health and ensuring that “people are singing technically, properly” and “the artists that she works with have longevity,” but her advice and “Vocal Health Kit/Lunchbox” clearly never contributed much to her team. Correlation obviously does not equal causation, but the worst voice cracks and strains came from her team. Viewers saw this with Bella DeNapoli and Ryleigh Plank, and Sasha Allen even had laryngitis during a performance. Although no assumptions can be made about Sasha’s case because laryngitis can be caused by many factors, singing too much or too improperly can cause laryngitis…and you would not expect that to happen when a vocal perfectionist swears by certain techniques, teas, supplements, and other preventative measures to make sure only the healthiest sounds are coming from a singer’s vocal chords.

Speaking of preventative measures, song choice is also extremely important. Even if her team members’ chords were strong and healthy, they clearly were not capable of consistently delivering good performances of difficult songs, and that just shows more oversight on Ariana’s part. There is no way Bella and Ryleigh sang their renditions of “Sweet Escape” and “Dangerous Woman” perfectly in rehearsal just to then miss every high note live. If, by some miracle, they did nail those notes in rehearsal, their vocal chords were not conditioned enough to do it again. Even if their goal was to “just have fun” or “just sing” or whatever else, things still do not add up.

Disclaimer: Obviously, Ariana Grande is no doctor or miracle worker, and teaching vocal technique is too big a task to accomplish in just a couple of months. Still, the mistakes and oversights were confusing. That is all.

Summary

Right off the bat, it does need to be said that mistakes are far more common in live performances than in prerecorded performances. For the singers who were eliminated after bad performances, that stuff tends to happen due to audience noise/distractions, flashy lighting and choreography, and nerves. As for the singers who never got the hype they deserved, that is common in competitions where there are dozens of other singers. Unless you are in that 90th percentile every single week, you can get lost in the mix because the 40th-80th percentile range sometimes blurs together.

Had this not happened to a few very good singers, the Top 5 may have looked slightly different. Girl Named Tom, Wendy Moten, and Paris Winningham were all shoo-ins from the Blind Auditions to the Grand Finale, but Jershika Maple and Hailey Mia were not. Early on, in fact, Katie Rae and Holly Forbes looked to be the other two favorites to go the distance. After they swapped teams, all bets were off. Then, Jershika Maple moved to Team Legend and immediately improved just enough to reach the Top 5, and Hailey Mia put in the work and jumped from the 16th percentile with Team Ariana all the way to the 93rd percentile after joining Team Kelly. It is amazing how far a bit of a confidence boost can take someone.