The Voice’s Jaelen Johnston may have forgotten the lyrics to his song during his performance — but he kept pushing through.
During night one of season 27’s live finals on Monday, May 19, Johnston, 21, who was coach Kelsea Ballerini’s only contestant left in the final five, flubbed the lyrics and started humming for a few seconds while singing “What Was I Thinkin’” by Dierks Bentley.
Despite his error, Ballerini, 31, couldn’t help but compliment Johnston for getting through the performance.
“I know you had a moment early on where you got nervous,” she shared during the episode. “But the thing is, this is the most nerve-racking thing you could do. And the only thing that matters is how you recover.”
Ballerini noted that Johnston “locked back in” after the moment and ended up delivering.
“Everyone loves you,” she added. “That was the most impressive part, you really showed up. I’m so proud of you.”
Johnston, for his part, confessed that one of scariest parts about being on The Voice is forgetting the lyrics on stage.
“It really is the worst side of it, to be honest,” he told Entertainment Weekly after Monday’s live finals, adding that during the moment when he was humming all he kept thinking was, “What’s the next line?”
Johnston, however, went on to say that “making connections and friends” has been the most “amazing” part about being on the singing competition show.
“Everybody out here deserves to be here,” he told the outlet. “They’re phenomenal, phenomenal artists, even better people.”
Aside from Johnston, the other four finalists for season 27 include Jadyn Cree and Adam David from Michael Bublé’s team, Lucia Flores-Wiseman from team Adam Levine and Renzo from team John Legend.
The winner of season 27 will be crowned during The Voice’s finale which airs tonight on NBC. In addition to finding out who wins, former coaches Blake Shelton, Chance the Rapper and Kelly Clarkson are set to perform alongside season 22 winner Bryce Leatherwood.
Ahead of the finale, the contestants opened up about everything they had learned on the show.
“I think the thing that’s going to stick with me forever from Adam is that I’m enough, that I don’t need to be anything more or less, that being Lucia is all I need to do. So just being authentic,” Flores-Wiseman, 22, shared with EW on Monday.
Similar to Flores-Wiseman, Renzo, 33, said there was “nothing better” than when Legend, 46, told him to “make it Renzo.”
“Do that Renzo thing you do and basically trust yourself,” he said. “It all boils down to that: Trust your choices, trust your style, and your genre. Trust your heart and soul. There’s a lot of that kind of coaching from John.”
The Voice’s season 27 two-hour finale airs on NBC Tuesday, May 20 at 8 p.m. ET.
