Jake Hoot - (The Voice/NBC photo)

Kelly Clarkson, with her game face on, was in it to win it for her third coaching title - (The Voice/NBC photo) THE BEST VOICE CHOICES

Video Beat EXTRA - JAKE HOOT WINS THE VOICE TITLE

James Loving - National Radio Text Service

JAKE HOOT being talented with a great country genre voice blended with his consistency paid off for the former college football player. The 6'6" gentle giant won out over formidable competition to give judge Kelly Clarkson her third coaching title ranking her second all-time to Blake Shelton

VOICE FANS GIVE A HOOT

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

From the start Jake Hoot won the 17th edition of The Voice. Hoot was only a one chair turn with Kelly Clarkson being the only judge that respected the former college football player's talent. won out over formidable competition to give judge Kelly Clarkson her third coaching title ranking her second all-time to Blake Shelton.

The surprise was that country singer Shelton failed to turn and gobble up another country singer to his history recruiting country singers to his team.

What more can we say about the 6'6" Hoot that we haven't mentioned before except he's taller than the 6'5" Shelton. Hoot sings songs so well that he is easy to listen too over and over again. His songs will be added to our The Voice all-time will list to play list. The gentle giant had the most streams of the night from that week on Apple Music and received the vote bonus from weeks 2-5 of the live shows.

Throughout the competition the 31-year-old Hoot sang quality material that complimented his voice. He and runner-up Ricky Duran second and runner-up Katy Kaden were the most consistent artists in the competition. All sang songs that complimented their talent and made strong performances.

Duran has been compared to Rick Springfield by Shelton and Clarkson. He was strong from the blinds and never turned in a bad performance. His performance weren't as spectacular as Kaden and Short's was in her latter stages, but…. He never wavered from what he is a musician and strong singer. He also is an impressive guitarist. He capped off his season with the iTunes number one song 'A Woman Like Her' from his The Voice Performance.

Duran's act topped his coach and his coach's girlfriend performance that ranked # 2 Nobody But You (feat. Gwen Stefani) - Blake Shelton. They were followed by:

3. Wintersong (The Voice Performance) - Jake Hoot & Kelly Clarkson

4. All Better (The Voice Performance) - Katie Kadan

5.Better Off Without You (The Voice Performance) - Jake Hoot

6 All I Want For Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey

For those that don't know to listen to the iTunes top ten songs and albums or download the digital music you must have Apple's iTunes player installed on your system. Chart of the iTunes top 10 songs and albums is updated daily and is for the apt downloads in the USA. Duran's musicianship raises a question… how much are the contestants paid. For sure the Musicians Union rate would have to come into play. Also all of the contestants most certainly have to receive a minimum fee for appearing on TV. Doesn't that make sense? Stay tuned…

Unlike last season, all four judges had a contestant in the final four championship show. Shelton, with six coaching title wins is the competitions all-time leader. Clarkson's third coaching win ties her with former judge/coach Adam Levine for second on the all-time coaches winning list.

This season had a strange twist most notably that Shelton passed over a number of country singers including than Hoot. He then when young as he promoted less talented young singers that had less ability than those more mature contestants that he ignored. He repeatedly campaigned for a young singer that had one of the weakest voices ever… in the competition.

What jumps out of this first time strange decision making from the Oklahoman was there were a number of more qualified contestants that he passed over. It's as if Shelton has caught the Adam Levine disease.

The point of the show WAS to find the BEST VOICE but now that seems to have been eradicated. When you consider that a contestant has spent years of effort, work and money to get a break is astonishing that they be eliminated. Young people can spend the time, money and effort to reach the level of being a qualified contestant. Favoritism should not be a factor.

The argument here is why favor a singer whose voice is still developing, due to their youth, while denying an opportunity to more seasoned, ready contestants that have put in the time to work for a break. The reason WHY… is in seasons past, when a young singer is still developing they are given the judges verbal support and asked to return and try again. Usually that contestant is waived through much of the qualifying requirements.

Think about it…. even the infamous Simon Cowell DID THAT!

Simon says... don't forget the lyrics.

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