UNIVERSAL CITY, CALIFORNIA: Gwen Stefani used her maternal instincts to win over a Team Niall vocalist. During the first round of the battle on Tuesday, October 17, Gwen faced up against fellow coach John Legend.
However, on the other hand, viewers are now trolling 'The Voice' coach Niall Horan for losing out on what they call the Season 24 front-runner.
During the battle phase, each coach paired up their singers for a series of vocal battles to determine who would remain on their teams.
Lennon VanderDoes and Tanner Massey of Team Niall competed with a delicate performance of Billy Joel's ballad 'She's Always a Woman'.
Tanner's powerful, theatrical presence made him an instant standout for Gwen. "I am dead in love with you. You are just magical," Gwen said to Tanner, adding, "It's hard to not want to just keep watching you."
While Lennon's "captivating" tone won over coach Niall, the Phoenix singer's duet with Tanner left him conflicted.
Niall pronounced Lennon the victor of the battle, jeopardizing Tanner's status in the competition.
"I've always been super attracted to really interesting tones," Niall explained about his choice. He added, "There's nobody in this competition that has a tone even remotely near (Lennon), and that makes him a very, very dark horse."
But before Tanner could say his goodbyes, Gwen and John pressed their steal buttons in the hopes of bringing the Oklahoma singer into their teams. "I think America's going to love you, so I feel like we could go pretty far together," John remarked.
"You have something in you that you’re showing us that we want more of. What I could do to help you bring in even more of that out is put a mirror up and highlight," Gwen suggested to the 19-year-old singer.
Gwen's maternal instincts proved to be correct. Tanner ultimately opted to join Team Gwen.
Internet dubs Niall Horan an 'idiot'
Tanner had a minor advantage over Niall's other coaches, with Reba McEntire complementing the 19-year-old singer, adding, "To be as young as you are, you've got great stage presence."
Niall, on the other hand, knew it would be a difficult decision from the outset, saying, "This is one of the Battles where I've really been battling with myself, and now I'm regretting putting you in the same pairing."
Niall chose Lennon as the Battle's winner based on his instincts.
On X, fans wrote, "Not niall not picking tanner… thank god he got a steal so now he’s on team Gwen and is staying on the voice." Another person chimed in, "I wanna say tanner Massey coach niall horan made a big mistake in not choosing tanner Massey over lennon and gave gwen stefani the winner of the show in my eyes i think tanner has the potential to go all the way in the voice show this season."
One user also tweeted, "Niall is an idiot. He chose the wrong contestant by a mile. Tanner was the standout tonight." A fourth user wrote, "Kinda wish Niall chose Tanner like Gwen and Legend said but Lennon is great."
People congratulated Gwen on the win, saying, "Miss gwen stefani congratulations on stealing tanner Massey and I wanna tell u I thought tanner Massey was the battle round winner over lennon." "I predict that Tanner will win #thevoice this season. He’s got it all," wrote another.
Who is Tanner Massey on 'The Voice' Season 24?
Tanner was born in Choctaw, Oklahoma, in 2004. He began training with a vocal coach a few months after his parents discovered he could sing when he was 11 years old.
Tanner also joined the powerhouse of 1251 Ave (a music label) in 2021 on a one-year developmental agreement with UMG (Universal Music Group).
Tanner is also a member of the acapella children's ensemble 'Acapop! KIDS', which was co-founded by Scott Hoying of Pentatonix.
Tanner co-starred in a music video for a cover of 'Shallow' that has had over 15 million views, making it Acapop Kids' most loved and seen video.
'The Voice' Season 24 airs on Mondays and Tuesdays on NBC at 8 pm ET.
