Adam Levine makes surprising confession after ‘The Voice’ singer nailed a Maroon 5 song: ‘I secretly...’
‘The Voice’ contestants Divighn and Kaiya Hamilton had an iconic musical duel in a knockout performance on Saturday, April 5. Divighn, the 33-year-old Californian, performed ‘Harder to Breathe’ by Maroon 5 from the album ‘Songs About Jane.’ While Hamilton followed it up with her rendition of ‘Here’ by Alessia Cara. ‘Harder to Breathe’ is a vocally heavy song performed by Adam Levine in a very different tone compared to his usual style. Levine traded in his falsetto-heavy nasal performance for a raspier and more aggressive tone.
Divighn knew it would be hard to emulate Levine’s performance from almost 23 years ago, especially when because he is singing the song in front of the very virtuoso who originally brought the song to life. However, he was aware of this and added his own personal touch to it to make it stand apart. One standout moment of the performance was when he gasped for air as he sang, “Is there anyone out there ‘cause it’s getting harder and harder to breathe?” The raw emotion in that line was so beautiful that it had John Legend giggling in his chair as he bobbed his head to the tunes. The judges were really impressed by Divighn’s performance, with Levine and Michael Bublé giving him a standing ovation as the performance came to a close.
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Cara, in her original rendition of the song, brings a smoky, raw, and unapologetic tone. Hamilton followed suit with Divighn as she molded the song in her own style, opting for a really high vocal range. As her performance ended, Kelsea Ballerini audibly let out a “Wow!” as all the judges gave a standing ovation. Legend commended Divighn for his “physical performance,” as he praised it to be “really compelling.”
Levine started his series of remarks by jokingly stating, “You’ve got great taste in music, man.” He then went on to be a little more candid as he admitted, “I always secretly dread when people are going to do our songs, because it makes me nervous. I’m so close to it. I love what you did with it. You took it and did something that I actually liked, and that it wasn’t what I normally do. The way that you can get up there and move the way you were moving and still just deliver a rock-solid big vocal, that’s big.”
Levine moved on to Hamilton as he stated how her performance was purely “vocal” in contrast to Divighn, who had more of a physical aspect to his performance. Ballerini then took charge as she praised Hamilton’s performance. She started talking about Maroon 5’s album ‘Songs About Jane,’ calling it “one of her favorite records of all time.” Ballerini then concurred with Levine, stating that “When people sing my own songs, it normally makes me really shut down.” She then gave a flattering remark to Divighn as she said, “That is the only way to do it, what you just did.”
