And the Winner of 'The Voice' Season 9 Is…

Jordan Smith’s victory this Tuesday on The Voice Season 9 finale just might be the least surprising in the series’ history – but it’s definitely a deserved victory, and one that takes The Voice back to its roots.

From the moment Jordan set foot on the Voice stage at this season’s Blind Auditions, he was a force to be reckoned with and the man to beat. (His future coach, Adam Levine, nicknamed this unique talent “The Unicorn” and said he was “the most important person we’ve ever had on the show.”) Then last week, Adam declared Jordan’s epic, evangelical, mic-drop-worthy performance of “Somebody to Love” by Queen “one of the best things I’ve ever seen in my whole life” – a sentiment shared by apparently much of America, since only a few hours later, Jordan’s “Somebody to Love” knocked the seemingly unimpeachable Adele’s “Hello” out of the #1 spot on iTunes. By the season’s end, Jordan had become the first artist in Voice history to crack the top 10 on iTunes for every single Live Playoffs show.

Yes, pretty much all season long it’d been assumed that Jordan would win The Voice, and NBC producers no doubt figured it was safe to send Season 9’s fist-shaped trophy out for engraving weeks ago. And sure enough, on Tuesday, Jordan beat out Team Blake’s Barrett Baber and Emily Ann Roberts and Team Gwen dark horse Jeffery Austin. (Emily, Barrett, and Jeffery placed second, third, and fourth, respectively.)

(photo: NBC)

So what makes Jordan’s triumph significant, since it came with absolutely no element of surprise? Aside from all his iTunes chart records, it’s the fact that The Voice was always supposed to celebrate singers that don’t fit the commercial pop-star mold, but over the past few seasons, it started to focus a bit too much on typical pretty people and cute, stage-mothered teens. Jordan – a shy glee club kid in spectacles and a Mr. Rogers sweater, a regular Kentucky boy next door, who just happens to possess a phenomenal voice – has brought the show back to its heart and its purpose. “I’ve had to deal with being different, and proving that it’s about more than what’s just on the outside,” Jordan told host Carson Daly this week.

Of course, the fact that Jordan isn’t a cookie-cutter pop singer could be a problem for him post-Voice, since the show’s affiliated record label, Republic, really hasn’t done such a bang-up job promoting anyone it has signed from The Voice. Jordan’s own coach, Adam, has publicly complained about this, and on Monday’s Voice episode Pharrell Williams even worried aloud about Jordan being promoted in the “proper way,” suggesting that he “go to a label that really understands everything you need.” Many industry pundits, myself included, have speculated that Jordan could have a stellar career in gospel/CCM, but that’s not exactly Republic’s focus or forte.

All that being said, Jordan has a massive, singular, Adele-level voice that cannot be silenced. Millions of people voted to hear that voice every week of Season 9, and hopefully we’ll all get to hear it again, very soon – on his properly promoted debut album.

Other highlights of Tuesday’s two-hour finale included Coldplay doing “Adventure of a Lifetime” while four fake gorillas sat in the coaches’ red chairs; Emily Ann Roberts teaming with her idol Ricky Skaggs for a rousing bluegrass jam; Jeffery Austin joining forces with Team Pharrell’s totally robbed Madi Davis for a bring-back duet of Amy Winehouse’s “Tears Dry on Their Own” and later with powerhouse Tori Kelly on “Hollow”; Canadian sensations the Weeknd and Justin Bieber; and, most phenomenally, Missy Elliott and Pharrell Williams, assisted by their adorable doppelganger marionettes, performing their “WTF” single on television for the first time.

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