The Voice 26 Kiara Vega vs. Mor Ilderton: Unusual Battle Pairing Results in a Last Second Steal
The Voice Season 26’s Battles, which began on Monday night (Oct 21), are always a fun part of the season, as the teams finally take shape with the singers dueling it out. It’s also always interesting to see the strategy the new coaches take with the pairings, the advice they give, and ultimately the choices they make. The show made viewers wait until the last battle of the night to see Team Michael Bublé’s only battle of the night, between indie folk country singer Mor Ilderton and the soulful pop singer Kiara Vega. (Read our Recap)
Michael paired the two together due to their ages, since Mor is 20 and Kiara is 18. The coach calls both of their auditions favorite moments of his from the Blinds. He blocked Reba McEntire to get Mor and Michael felt super connected to Kiara’s Spanish language audition. Michael picked Iris by The Goo Goo Dolls for the two as he felt the song is unique and the two of them are too. He said, “I really want to instill versatility with my artists.” Kiara related to the song because it’s about “doing anything for the person that you love.” She plans on opening a salon with her twin sister in the future. Mor admitted he has never harmonized before, so the two work on that in rehearsal. He works for his uncle, mowing lawns, so he felt like the competition is similar in that both are hard work. Michael advised Kiara to stick to the melody, and he Mor to try to go up an octave.
“I don’t even know who you sound like, you sound like you”
Mor opens the battle. His voice is a bit shaky in parts, but his gravelly tone stands out from the crowd. Kiara is the stronger vocalist as she doesn’t miss a beat, flawlessly hitting the notes. The two harmonize just fine too. The two connect more and more as the song goes on. It’s a bit of an odd pairing, and it doesn’t work in all parts, but the two put in the work to make it work as much as it was going to. I would lean Kiara as the winner simply due to her technical abilities.
Snoop Dogg loved the way the two connected. He told Kiara, “I love how you stay in pocket, but can raise when you need to,” and said to Mor, “I don’t even know who you sound like, you sound like you.” A trend throughout the episode is Snoop doesn’t tell the other coaches who he would choose. Reba said that Kiara “just own the stage,” and about Mor she added, “You are so different.” She would go with Mor. Gwen Stefani complimented Kiara’s “confidence” and “stage presence.” She told Mor, “I would draw into that uniqueness you have more and more”. Michael called Mor’s tone “cool” and told Kiara that her voice is unique too.
Who did Team Buble chose? Did another coach steal the loser?
Michael picks Kiara and Gwen steals Mor at the last second! He picked Kiara due to her potential. Gwen says she stole him because she knows what to do with. She likes his unique “undone tone”.
It wasn’t the strongest battle premiere, but there were a few other highlights. Young pop singers, Sydney Sterlace and Sloane Simon showed potential on Team Gwen with “Birds of a Feather” which resulted in Sydney winning and Sloane being triple stolen.The two battles that were vocally were the best actually resulted in the loser going home and those were Christina Eagle beating Gail Bliss with “Redneck Woman” on Team Snoop and Kendall Eugene beating Alison Elena on “Bring On The Rain”. The Battles continue on Tuesday night with a special hour and a half episode beginning at 8:30 pm ET/PT.
