Dylan Carter’s stunning rendition of Whitney Houston‘s “I Look to You” during his blind audition on The Voice sent a wave of emotion through the room.
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It only took a few notes for Gwen Stefani to turn her chair as fellow coach Niall Horan sat transfixed in the seat next to her. That’s when Horan, John Legend, and Reba McEntire all hit their buzzers one right after the other. Carter’s voice had all of the coaches mesmerized and lost in his performance as he crooned, I look to you / After all my strength is gone / In you, I can be strong / I look to you / And when melodies are gone / In you, I hear a song. His moving performance earned a standing ovation from the coaches and audience, bringing tears to Carter’s eyes.
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“I love that song. I love the songs when you can take it spiritual or secular,” McEntire told the 20-year-old from South Carolina. “So much emotion,” he said. “So much emotion,” she agreed, getting choked up as she spoke. “And I saw it and I felt it, I heard it when you were singing. I saw you get so emotionally involved, and that’s when you know you’ve got a great song and a great singer…To me as a performer, that is when you really hone into why you’re put on this earth is to touch people’s hearts. And you did.”
“That was spectacular,” praised Horan, adding that he heard a few “pitch issues” that he chalked up to nerves. “You can really feel the emotion. You only get four chairs if it really moves the room…I think you’re special.” “From the moment you opened your mouth, I was like ‘this is my guy,’” Stefani professed. “Your voice is so warm, but you also have so much texture to your voice, little nuances that you were doing at the right exact moments that make it feel emotional.”
Legend noted how it seemed like the emotion of the song was “really real to you,” with Carter revealing that when they all turned around, he saw his mother, who passed away in October 2022. “I Look to You” is the song she requested her son sing at her funeral. “I tried, but I couldn’t make it through it,” he shared. “This was the best second chance, I just made her so proud. This was her dream before it was mine.”
“That’s very moving,” Legend affirmed with tears streaming down his face. “We all felt it too and I know your mother’s proud of you.” Carter’s story also conjured up memories of when McEntire was moving to Nashville to pursue her country music dreams and her mother Jacqueline, who passed away in 2020, told her, “If you do this, I’ll be living my dreams through you.”
Fans will have to tune in when the episode airs to find out who Carter picked as his coach. The Voice airs on Monday and Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.
Photo by: Tyler Golden/NBC
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