‘The Voice’ 11: Blake Shelton Coaches His Fifth Winner, Challenges Universal Records To Make Sundance Head Successful

The Voice coach Blake Shelton saw a member of his team win for the fifth time in 11 seasons on the popular singing show Tuesday night. Sundance Head took home the trophy after weeks of competing in a contest that began with Head and 47 other talented contestants being culled from the qualifying blind auditions. Shelton’s win stretched his lead of season wins to two over fellow coach Adam Levine, who has three wins during the show’s arc. But Shelton wasn’t satisfied with simply winning and resting on his laurels until Season 12, taking the opportunity during the post-show press conference to personally challenge Universal Records to “[get] involved and behind [Sundance Head]” to have the “success that he deserves.”

Yahoo Music reported this week that Blake Shelton, apparently thinking that Universal Records, the music organization that awards contracts to winners of The Voice, has been a bit lax in their support and promotion of artists that have won in the past, used the post-show press conference to challenge the music label to “put the work behind it that [Sundance Head] deserves.”

“I want to say one more thing here, because it’s important. I want to personally issue a challenge to Universal Records. This is Season 11 of The Voice, and I’m sitting here right now next to a guy who has won over America’s hearts. He’s so popular. … He has proven that he sells tons of music. His biggest-selling song, arguably, is going to be the song he wrote by himself,” Shelton said. He was referring to Head’s hit “Darlin’ Don’t Go,” an original song he performed during the show’s finale and subsequently jumped to No. 1 on the iTunes Top 100 Songs listing.

“I hope that we can all come together — meaning us and Universal Records,” Shelton went on. “This is the guy that I think can break the mold and become a star out of this show. And I give my word that I’ll put my work in, and I know [Sundance] will. This guy deserves to be a star, and there’s no excuses anymore. We need to make the record and put the work behind it that he deserves, to have this success that he deserves. And that has to start with Universal Records getting involved and behind him.”

And Shelton might have reason to issue the challenge, although, to be fair, it is not clear what Universal has or has not done to support and promote the other artists. But what is known is that there are less than a handful of former winners of The Voice that have enjoyed only marginal success. Of those, two were also former Blake Shelton team members, Cassadee Pope (Season 3) and Danielle Bradbery (Season 4), both of whom have charted on the country charts. Team Adam Levine’s Jordan Smith (Season 9) seemed to have some success, but that might have come about because Levine called on Universal/Republic to “do right by Jordan Smith” (per Yahoo Music). His subsequent album release, Something Beautiful, debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, the highest of any winner of the The Voice to date.

Still, Sundance Head seems to know what kind of music he’ll be making when he records his first album with Universal Records. Earlier in the press conference, he admitted he wanted to put the genre of Texas Soul Country on the map. His song, “Darlin’ Don’t Go,” originally appeared on the 2015 album Soul Country.

As for Blake Shelton, Head’s win provided the Oklahoma country singer his fifth coach’s trophy on The Voice, adding to wins chalked up in Seasons 2, 3, 4, and 7. He has won two more than his nearest competitor, fellow coach and Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine, who has won three seasons (1, 5, and 9).

Shelton will be shooting for his sixth coach’s trophy in the spring when he returns for Season 12 of The Voice. He’ll be joined in the revolving chairs by pop star Gwen Stefani, who returns for a third coach’s turn — and looking for her first win — after a two-year hiatus. Season 11 rookie and R&B superstar Alicia Keys will come back for a second season, hoping to get her first win. And Adam Levine will anchor the other end of chair row for his twelfth season, trying for his fourth trophy.

[Featured Image by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP]