A 23-year-old pop rocker from Florida ended the the third season of “The Voice” on a high note Tuesday night.
Cassadee Pope beat out second-place warbler Terry McDermott, a 35-year-old Scottish-born rocker, and soulful Minnesotan Nicholas David, who finished third, to win the NBC singing competition.
“I’m feeling amazing,” a stunned Pope told host Carson Daly before thanking everyone from her coach, country singerBlake Shelton, to the hair and makeup staff.
It’s the second straight season in which one of Shelton’s singers has finished on top – former Alicia Keys backup singer Jermaine Paul won Season Two and is putting the finishing touches on an album.
Five minutes of drama were stretched out for a two-hour episode by padding the show with performances by the likes of Rihanna, The Killers, Kelly Clarkson, Avril Lavigne and Bruno Mars.
The actual highlight, though, may have been a performance by the four teary-eyed celebrity judges — Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera, CeeLo Green (dressed for the occasion in spiked football shoulder pads) and country singer Shelton — who showed the whippersnappers how it’s done on the Green Day ballad, “The Time of Your Life.”
Green and Aguilera will take off next season to concentrate on their music careers and will be replaced by Usher and Shakira.
Don’t feel too bad for David and McDermott, however. The pride of Egan, Minn., got to sing a duet on “Cruisin’,” with one of his idols, Smokey Robinson, and McDermott outshined Peter Frampton in a classic version of the legendary singer’s “Show Me the Way.” All three finalists got to drive off with brand new cars, courtesy of sponsor Kia.
NBC may have been the real winner of the season, as “The Voice” regularly defeated Fox’s rival singing competition “The X-Factor” in the ratings and drew 13.3 million total viewers for Monday’s episode.
