The monumental 23rd season of “The Voice” has come to an end following the two night finale that ended with a bang with Gina Miles being announced as the new winner. This was the first victory for Team Niall and was the closest margin of victory in the history of The Voice.

    This season brought two new coaches, the game changer playoff pass, and 40 incredible new artists to battle it out. Within the new coach line up there were two returning coaches, Kelly Clarkson and Blake Shelton who announced that season 23 would be his last. The two new coaches were former One Direction member Niall Horan and Chance the Rapper. Although this was the line up this season, next season’s coaches will be very different with only Horan returning as a coach. The new coaches include comebacks from former coaches Gwen Stefani and John Legend. Reba McEntire will be making her coaching debut although she served as a mentor before and was this season’s mega-mentor. 

    The season finished with a two-night finale. The first night was Monday at 8 ET where the finalists sang two songs, a ballad and an up beat song. There were also two performances from accomplished singers, Alex Newell who performed the breakout song from the new Broadway musical “Shucked” and Lewis Capaldi who performed one of his own songs, “Wish You The Best.” The first performance of the night was from Grace West, this 19-year-old country singer was the last person that Blake will ever turn for. She opened with “The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia,” a song once sung by next season’s coach Reba McEntire. The next performance of the night was for Team Kelly. D. Smooth performed a song with a different style than he had been performing previously this season, a 90’s R&B song “My My My” by Johnny Gill. 

   Before Team Chance’s Sorelle performed, they each read letters by them for their sisters, this group is insanely unique given that it is composed of three sisters who are able to sing and dance in harmony and unison. In the finale and in earlier seasons other coaches have said that this group is one of the only singers that they consider a threat to their team. They sang the Lady Gaga song “Million Reasons.” Before Noivas from Team Blake performed, he read a letter from his wife and a note from his daughter then took the stage to perform “It’s Cold” by Chris Stapleton. Noivas originally joined Team Chance but after he was let go during the battles was stolen by resident country singer Blake Shelton. The finalist Gina Miles performed for Team Niall with the Taylor Swift song “Style” which showed off her pop side. 

   The singers then took the stage for a second time to perform the second song. Grace performed an upbeat song, “She’s Got You” followed by Noivas performing “Fly Away”. Team Kelly’s D. Smooth performed next with “What You Won’t Do For Love”. Sorelle followed that with the mega-hit “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”. Gina then performed with the last song of the night “Nothing Compares 2 U”. The voting opened at the end of the show and remained open until the end of the last performance on the finale part two. 

   Tuesday’s show started with a recap on Monday night and then continued with the live finale starting with Blake being celebrated as he walked out onto the stage for his last episode of The Voice ever. CeLo Green gave the first performance of the night performing a medley of songs with some appearances from past winners from Team Blake during the “Living On A Prayer” portion. Gina joined her coach Niall singing Billy Joel’s “New York State Of Mind”. The rapper and singer Toosii then performed his hit “Favorite Song. Gwen Stefani then gave a tribute to her husband on their The Voice journey together. Blake then performed one of his own songs, “Home” with Noivas. Diplo then performed “Sad In The Summer” featuring Lily Rose. Blake not only received a message from many superstars in sports, music and beyond, but his Blake Shelton “jean jacket” was retired. Kelly performed with her finalist D. Smooth. Chance performed with his sister trio finalist Sorelle singing “Ooh Child”. For a bit of fun, the host of the new Hot Wheels show came and raced four cars, one for every coach to “predict the winner”, although it was technically won by Chance the host Rutledge Wood said he had been “disqualified” and Blake had won. Blake then took the stage for a second time to perform “Lonely Tonight”, another one of his songs, with Grace marking his final performance on the stage of The Voice. Former coach Adam Levine and his band Maroon 5 then took the stage to perform their new song “Middle Ground”. Most of the former coaches who could not make it in person sent video messages for Blake about their time with Blake and their thoughts on Blake for his last season. Toward the end of the finale many of the past members of Team Blake gathered to sing one last song with a video reel of Blake playing in the background.

   Unfortunately last week in the semi-finals singers were sent home who were frontrunners throughout the entire season including Ryley Tate Wilson for Team Niall, Holly Brand for Team Kelley and Ray Uriel for Team Chance. Earlier in the playoffs each team lost three singers some of whom were playoff pass holders. Ryley Tate Wilson is a 15-year-old singer who in the playoffs sang a jaw dropping version of Billy Joel’s “Vienna” and while he did not win the show, made it very far and as noted by his coach has a huge future in music. Holly Brand was the country singer for Team Kelly who performed an amazing version of Reba’s “Rumor Has It”. Ray Uriel, the soul singer from Team Chance sang “Essence” by WizKid. Although none of it made it to the finals, they all have a future in music.