Kelsea Ballerini Breaks Silence on Fans Upset Over ‘The Voice’ Elimination

With so many talented artists, it can be difficult for “The Voice” coaches to decide who to pick and eliminate. This is why John Legend, Adam Levine, Kelsea Ballerini, and Michael Bublé were so excited about the Super Save option. For Ballerini, this meant bringing back Derby singer Jaelen Johnston. He had been eliminated in favor of Iris Herrera and Alanna Lynise. While she stands by her decision, she understands why fans were disappointed that Johnston wasn’t one of her first picks.

Ballerini Has No Regrets Defending Her ‘Undeniable’ Picks

“As much as I represent country, I want to represent good music and I want to represent artists that are storytellers, and I believe Alanna and Iris to be two of the best on the show that do that,” Ballerini told Parade, defending her decision to choose them initially. “My goal as a coach was never to only support country artists, it was just to support great artists.”

“Sometimes there’s an artist that just has such a slam dunk of a performance on that stage that it’s undeniable, even if that’s not what you thought going into it, and then sometimes you really buy into the growth that you’ve seen of the artist and you believe that they can continue to show up well,” she explained about her selection. But she also recognizes that Johnston is a great artist and country singer. Now that he’s been brought back, he could be victorious.

“If Jaelen were to win, I would not be surprised at all,” Ballerini admitted. “Then everybody would be like, ‘Kelsea, we told you so.’ And I’d be like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m a newbie here.’”

The Other Coaches Admit They Could Be Wrong About Their Season 27 Picks

Legend and Levine admit they struggled as much as Ballerini when creating the Top 8. After seeing the Super Saves perform, they realized they may have made a mistake with their initial choices.

“Honestly, I was agonizing over the fact that I could only pick two, and I was like, ‘Obviously, I have three people that should be going to the Lives,’ and I knew that,” Legend said. “It was so painful not picking Olivia because she was amazing, Bryson was amazing, RENZO was amazing, and it was an agonizing decision.”

Levine agreed. “Everybody was so good and everyone had done so well that there was just no version of this that was going to make everybody happy, including myself, I don’t think, unless I could take everybody with me. So that was really where I was at,” he revealed.