Contestant Antonio Ramsey knew how to, as Missy Elliott would say, work it on Monday’s episode of The Voice, where Blind Auditions continued for a fourth round.
The 35-year-old artist, from Boynton Beach, Fla., described himself as more of a dancer than singer for much of his life. He’s even taken the stage behind Elliott, he said. When he sang a lively version of “Every Little Step” by Bobby Brown, he couldn’t help but move to the rhythm a little. Even the coaches were boppin’ in their big red chairs.
But not a single one of them — not Kelsea Ballerini, Michael Bublé, John Legend, or Adam Levine — turned around for him. Their teams of 12 are filling up fast, and no one wanted to take a chance on him, at least not this season.
“You picking that song was a real crowd-pleaser,” Legend said after the song ended, “but it was also a huge challenge for you as an auditioner. You have this rich, elegant tone and the depth and the richness of your voice was like just not correct for the song. But if you sang another song, it would be perfect.”
The “Ordinary People” singer then asked him what he would sing if he was at karaoke, something more mid-tempo or slow. Ramsey answered that it would probably be something like Tyrese or Jodeci. Legend then instructed him to sing a little bit.
After a couple of lines from H-Town’s “Knockin da Boots,” Legend slammed his buzzer. “Okay, let’s do this,” he said. He told the camera that the original song choice had just been a “mismatch.”
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Legend lost out on another contestant that all four coaches had turned their chairs for: Lucia Flores-Wiseman, a 22-year-old from Maple Valley, Wash., with her rendition of Ángela Aguilar’s “La Llorona,” which she notably sang in Spanish.
Flores-Wiseman explained that she hails from close to where singer Brandi Carlile calls home and that she’d even once had a chance to sing with the Grammy winner when she was 16.
Levine told her after her impressive audition that Carlile was able to “disrupt and change the way that people perceive what good singing is,” and added that the contestant had “that versatility and that passion, all of that, you have it all in spades.”
Bublé pleaded with her — in Spanish, no less — to go over to his team, but it didn’t persuade her. She eventually selected Team Adam.
Legend joked that his costar had been playing the long game, because he had married an Argentinian — a reference to Bublé’s wife since 2011, Luisana Lopilato.
The Voice coaches will make the final picks for their teams on the next episode, which is the final night of the Blind Auditions. It airs March 3 at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. Central on NBC.