Two seasons ago on The Voice, Christian rock musician Bryan Olesen made it all the way to the final three before being eliminated.
But he was even more nervous — and more proud — when he returned to the NBC singing competition for Monday’s season 27 premiere and watched his daughter, Jadyn Cree, turn two chairs for her rollicking performance of Paramore’s “Still Into You.”
“My dad definitely left some big shoes to fill,” Jadyn, a 23-year-old from Lincoln, Neb., said before she stepped onto the stage. “I’m excited to make him proud and try my best to get anywhere close to where he got in this competition.”
Olesen competed on The Voice in 2024, on John Legend’s team, and he won over the coaches and the audience with his stellar takes on Toto’s “Africa,” Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now,” and Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things.”
It was clear that Bryan was excited for Jadyn, as he threw his fist into the air and teared up after coach Michael Bublé hit his buzzer. The proud papa also bounced up and down after rookie coach Kelsea Ballerini followed suit.
While remaining coaches John Legend and Adam Levine didn’t hit their buzzers, they still sang Jadyn’s praises.
“I feel like I missed out,” Levine said, adding that Jadyn’s voice reminded him of a ’90s pop singer, “because I think you’re going to really go far on this show, because I think there’s nobody like you.”
The premiere also included a clip of Jadyn being called out onto the stage on her dad’s season and singing a snippet of Corinne Bailey Rae’s song “Put Your Records On.” She helped him choose Team Legend.
Legend himself invited Bryan back to the stage Monday, where father and daughter shared an emotional hug. When they were both on, Legend said he was “feeling a little FOMO,” and Levine agreed.
“I suck!” the Maroon 5 singer joked.
Bublé said sincerely that he imagined it was “the greatest moment of your life so far” for Bryan. “And you know how I know that? Because I’ve got two beautiful girls, and every morning we wake up and we dance to Billie Eilish, and we dance to Taylor Swift.” (Bublé and his wife, Luisana Lopilato, share four children, including daughters Vida, 6, and Cielo, 1.)
Bublé called Jaydn “a star” and said she has “so much light pouring out of you,” adding that he hopes to dance with his girls to her music one day when she signs a record deal.
Ultimately, Jadyn decided that her tenure The Voice would be on the team of Bublé, who is the only one of this season’s coaches who sat on last season’s panel.
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Ballerini is in her first foray as a full-time coach for the show (after filling in one night for ailing Kelly Clarkson in a previous season), and Legend is back after coaching from 2019 until 2024.
Levine’s return to the series after leaving in 2019 was a theme of the night, including when Ballerini hit a button that played the voice of country star Blake Shelton, who had a rivalry with Levine when he was a coach, slamming him.
With each push, another chirp came out: “Adam’s a big baby!” and “Adam won’t shut up,” words that Shelton would use to tease his former costar.
Ballerini used one more tool to keep the upper hand: the Coach Replay button. The coaches are each given one per season, in which they can hit their buzzer for someone after the person’s performance is over, something that isn’t allowed otherwise.
The country star used hers for Dan Kiernan, 33, of New York City, after he performed Panic! at the Disco’s “High Hopes.”
Even though Legend deemed the move “very dirty and underhanded,” the singer ended up on Team Kelsea.