Live television, there’s nothing like it! Voice contestant Kristen Merlin learned that the hard way on Monday, April 21, when her microphone died halfway through her emotional performance of Rascal Flatts’ “Stay.”
The Team Shakira artist remained professional throughout, not flinching for a second as she continued to sing without the help of the mic. The crowd cheered and the coaches praised her bravery, but the country singer is still up for elimination in Tuesday’s live results show.
“I freaked out,” Merlin admitted to Us following the technical malfunction. “I was nervous going into it because it’s live, and then the malfunction happened with the technical difficulty. I kind of geeked out a little bit but for me, it was like keep going, rock it. You have to keep going.”
America’s verdict is still out, but coaches Blake Shelton and Adam Levine couldn’t stop applauding the devoted hopeful following her performance.
“You kind of get the measure of a person by how they react to something like that,” Shelton told Us. “I mean clearly, her microphone stopped working, and she never stopped singing. She never broke stride. I could hear her in the room even though her microphone wasn’t working, I could hear her singing. That was cool. I still hate that that happened, but I thought it was cool how she handled it.”
The country crooner’s best bro mirrored his sentiment, adding, “To me, that’s the ultimate test. Now, the crazy thing for her is that she gets to go through the rest of this competition, like ‘Nothing can make me nervous, cause I just experienced hell for anyone in my position.’ So, I’m excited for her.”
