The Voice Season 26 Premiere: Kendall Eugene Earns First Coach Replay

The highly anticipated The Voice season 26 has officially premiered, featuring celebrity judges Gwen Stefani, Reba McEntire, Michael Bublé, and Snoop Dogg as mentors. The season kicked off with the emotional blind auditions, marking the initial phase of this beloved singing competition.

This season, The Voice retains its classic format but introduces some exciting tweaks. During the premiere episode, a new feature called the Coach Replay button was unveiled, allowing contestants additional opportunities to impress the mentors. In previous seasons, judges often regretted not selecting a contestant after failing to press the red button—this season, they can rectify that decision after listening to the performance.

Each mentor is allowed to use the Coach Replay button once during the blind auditions of The Voice season 26. The very first artist to benefit from this feature was 37-year-old Kendall Eugene, a talented singer hailing from Texas.

The Voice season 26 debuted exclusively on NBC on September 23, 2024, at 8 pm PT/ET. The episode synopsis states:

“The competition is fierce as Snoop Dogg and Michael Bublé each claim their red chairs; alongside returning coaches Reba McEntire and Gwen Stefani, they all vie to discover and coach the next singing phenomenon.”

Kendall Eugene’s Audition in The Voice Season 26 Episode 1

In the premiere episode of The Voice season 26, Kendall shared his journey and how he comes from a musical family, igniting his passion for a career in music. When his mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, he had to set aside his dreams to support his family. Now, he feels it’s time to pursue his passion. He revealed:

“The journey to get here has been extremely long. I’ve gone through many things in my life that just kind of halted my progress as a professional musician, and I feel like now, it’s finally my time. It’s so crazy. Just a few years back, Morgan was right here at The Voice, trying to get his start.”

Kendall delivered a heartfelt rendition of “Don’t Think Jesus,”a song previously covered by former The Voice contestant Morgan Wallen. Despite the audience’s enthusiasm, none of the mentors turned their chairs. Coach Gwen Stefani encouraged Kendall to audition again next season, praising the “tenderness”in his voice. She commented:

“This sucks, because when it came to the choruses, it was believable, it was heartfelt. I didn’t press because in the beginning, even though I loved the tenderness of your voice, there was a lot of tuning issues going on. I just think you should come back.”

Michael Bublé pointed out that he felt the song choice was not the best fit, while Snoop Dogg mentioned he had been anticipating Reba to make her choice. Reba expressed her confusion over not turning, but she appreciated the existence of the coach replay button this season.

New episodes of The Voice season 26 will be broadcast every Monday at 8:00 p.m. ET on NBC and will be available for streaming on Peacock TV the following day.

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