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Reba McEntire applauded a contestant on The Voice who took the stage with her cover of a country anthem by former coach Blake Shelton, who departed from the show earlier this year.
Jordan Rainer delivered her live rendition of “Ol’ Red,” which Shelton debuted on his 10-track, self-titled debut studio album in 2001. Rainer’s soulful vocals “got us in the country spirit,” during the show on Monday night (December 11). Coach Gwen Stefani, pop megastar who is married to Shelton and lives in Oklahoma, said she “could never imagine a female doing that song, (and) that was crazy. And I want to say that that was probably my favorite performance you’ve done.”
“You made both America and me proud tonight, Jordan!” McEntire gushed as she spotlighted Rainer, a Team Reba contestant.
Like McEntire and Shelton, Rainer also hails from Oklahoma. She “got off to a rocky start with her transition to adulthood,” but eventually moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and secured vocal therapy and coaching to expand her vocal range when she opts to pursue a career in singing (she was born with a condition that affected her vocal cords, leaving her with a one-octave range), per her bio on The Voice. Now with a five-octave range, Rainer has opened for some of country music’s mainstays, including Eli Young Band, Hunter Hayes, Craig Morgan and Luke Combs.
Shelton, who was the reigning winningest coach of the smash-hit NBC competition series, departed from The Voice after 23 seasons earlier this year. He said he’d made “lifelong friends and memories,” over the course of 12 years. The country hitmaker said in October 2022 that he’d “been wrestling” with his decision for a while, and that The Voice had “changed my life in every way for the better and it will always feel like home to me,” including building lasting friendships and introducing him to Stefani.
Watch Rainer’s rendition of Shelton’s “Ol’ Red” here: