The Voice 23: Alex Whalen mysteriously ditches his Battle, leaving Neil Salsich to sing solo.
On the final The Voice season 23 Battle Round on Tuesday, Team Blake Shelton contestant Neil Salsich performed a solo. His duet partner, London born rocker Alex Whalen “could not be with us tonight,” host Carson Daly said. (Read our Recap)
Neil took the stage to perform a soulful rendition of “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” by Marvin Gaye,
“Alex had personal reasons to bow out of the competition,” said Blake during Neil’s montaged performance. “So obviously Neil’s going to move on to the Knockouts.” He added, “It’s never easy to see artists going home, but Neil has a ton of charisma. He did a great job today.”
On Twitter, Neil mentioned that Alex, who lives in Florida with his family, “had to drop out at the very last minute.” The NBC press site posted a photograph of Neil rehearsing with Blake. But it looks like Alex was there too, but cropped out of the photo. See the second microphone and music stand to the left of Neil.
Blake shades his old pal, former coach Adam Levine
The Voice taped the Battles back in January, and since then Alex has played a series of shows at various venues. He last posted on Instagram on March 17 and does not address why he left the competition.
Blake joked after the performance, “I told Neil before he came out her, if you lose your Battle, it will be the worst fail in history!” He added, this would be some Adam Levine-level failure stuff.” Oof!
“The fact that we’ve had Hank Williams and Marvin Gaye come out of you makes me very excited,” fellow coach Niall Horan said.
Neil’s performance was completely comfortable,” added Blake, “The guy really did own the moment. He blew the coaches away, America’s gong to fall in love with this guy.”
Neil turned 4 chairs in his Blind Audition performance of Hank Williams “Honky Tonk Blues,” and Blake BLOCKED Kelly–that’s how much Blake wanted the 34 year old singer on his team. Neil would have PROBABLY won the Battle anyway against Alex, whose performance of “Help Me Make it Through the Night” turned two chairs. He is not only a good singer, but an entertaining performer as well.
