LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess) – Team Blake Shelton contestant Bryce Leatherwood has been crowned the winner of season 22 of NBC’s The Voice on Tuesday night (December 13).
The Georgia-born singer beat out two other Team Blake contestants, Bodie and Brayden Lape, John Legend’s Omar Jose Cardona and Camila Cabello’s Morgan Myles. Leatherwood’s win puts another notch in Coach Blake’s victory belt, who announced season 23 will be his last.
The 22-year-old auditioned with Conway Twitty’s song, “Goodbye Time.” He later sang Morgan Wallen’s “Sand in My Boots,” Billy Currington’s “Let Me Down Easy,” and Justin Moore’s “If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away” throughout the season.
It wasn’t his first rodeo as Leatherwood appeared on Season 6 of the TV show, landing on Team Usher before being stolen by Adam Levine. He was eliminated during the Playoffs – but not now – as he’s come out Champion.
The two-hour finale featured performances by Legend and his pupil Cardona singing Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours),” and Cabello sang her hit, “Never Be The Same,” with her team member Myles.
Leatherwood and Shelton collaborated on the hit “Hillbilly Bone.” Shelton, who performed four times throughout the finale, also performed Alan Jackson’s “Chasin’ That Neon Rainbow” with Lape and his 2019 No. 1 hit “God’s Country” with Bodie.
During the show’s second half, Shelton took to the mic again, performing with Kane Brown on Brown’s hit, “Different Man.”
Maluma performed his hit, “Junio,” while OneRepublic performed “I Ain’t Worried.”
Adam Lambert dedicated his piano rendition of Duran Duran’s “Ordinary World” to the victims of the LGBTQ+ Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs. Rainbow lights completed the hauntingly beautiful performance – set against a stark-white set but showing in black and white on TV.
Season 21 winner Girl Named Tom also returned for a performance of their holiday song “One More Christmas,” off the trio’s debut album, and Breland sang his current single “For What It’s Worth.”
Former coach Kelly Clarkson, who will be returning for season 23, ended the show with a solo version of her Ariana Grande Christmas duet “Santa, Can’t You Hear Me,” off her When Christmas Comes Around release.
Season 23 of The Voice returns on March 6, 2023, with Shelton and Clarkson, new coaches Chance the Rapper, former One Direction member Niall Horan, and host Carson Daly.
