'The Voice' Season 18 Finale: Todd Tilghman crowned winner, fans say Toneisha Harris was 'robbed' of title
'The Voice' Season 18 comes to an end tonight as the show finally crowned its winner. Despite the ongoing pandemic threatening to derail the whole season, it managed to keep going with a brand new at-home format that yielded, for the first time, a final Top 5 with at least one contestant from each team getting to a place in the finals. And after an agonizing few minutes during which the finalists got to share what this experience was like for them and in addition to thanking their coaches one last time, host Carson Daly began to read out the results, beginning with the contestants who received the lowest votes after last night's performances.
In fifth place was Team Kelly Clarkson's Micah Iverson, while Team John Legend's CammWess took the fourth position, which left Team Nick Jonas' Thunderstorm Artis and Team Blake Shelton's Todd Tilghman and Toneisha Harris still in the running to win. Micah debuted his original song 'Butterflies' and performed Snow Patrol's 'Chasing Cars' while CammWess performed Prince's 'Purple Rain' and debuted his song 'Save It for Tomorrow'. Both 'Chasing Cars' and 'Purple Rain' had never been cleared for use on 'The Voice' till tonight, and both performances received mixed reviews last night.
Many fans predicted Toneisha would be the winner tonight, tweeting, "Calling it now Toneisha is gonna win it all! #TheVoiceFinale #TheVoice." However, when it finally came time for the winner to be announced, the results were a little different from what viewers were predicting. The winner of 'The Voice' Season 18 was revealed to be country rocker and pastor Todd Tilghman of Team Blake.
"@todd_tilghman CONGRATULATIONS!!! New Voice champion! Well deserved! #TheVoice," tweeted one fan, while another said, "Way to go @blakeshelton and @todd_tilghman I knew you had it in the bag too much talent #Godsdeciples." Not all viewers were happy, naturally. "@toneishaharris was robbed!!! Best artist on the voice. Lots of love of Atlanta!," tweeted one viewer, while another said, "You mean to tell me I just watched 3 hours of #TheVoice just to see that Toneisha didn’t win / I feel some type of way rn #TheVoiceFinale."
Some were happy for Todd, despite being taken aback by the results, stating, "Holy Crap Todd Tillman won now thats a frickin shocker dont get me wrong I am happy he was really good #TheVoice." Another viewer said, "Congrats @blakeshelton and @todd_tilghman but @toneishaharris is the winner in my book! God has blessed you both and I look forward to hearing your music in the future #TheVoice." Many viewers expressed their disappointment with the results. One tweeted, "I don't like this #TheVoice," another said, "That was terrible. Cam Wess and Thunderstorm Artis were the best two artists. #TheVoice," and one viewer shared, " Not wasting my time to watch this show ever again, disappointed."
Others blamed the show's at-home format, stating, "No way Todd wins if we had in-person finals. Y'all just voted for him because you saw his fifteen kids," while some accused the show of fixing the results, tweeting, "Once again The Voice is rigged...Thunderstorm should’ve won period #TheVoice." And others accused the show of displaying a racial bias, tweeting, "Can The Voice be any more predictable? Country white dude," and stating, "Im not calling #thevoice or its viewers racist but when a twangy white guy once again beats p.o.c who are a lot better singers, I get frustrated and am glad I don't spend all season watching over the past 4 or 5 years #TheVoiceFinale."