{"id":96596,"date":"2018-12-20T18:29:57","date_gmt":"2018-12-21T01:29:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/the-voice-finale-farmington-teenager-emerges-victorious\/"},"modified":"2018-12-20T18:29:57","modified_gmt":"2018-12-21T01:29:57","slug":"the-voice-finale-farmington-teenager-emerges-victorious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/the-voice-finale-farmington-teenager-emerges-victorious\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The Voice\u2019 finale: Farmington teenager emerges victorious"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=81d0aba6-8d6f-4ff5-975f-7ec8c9177e1d&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" srcset=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=81d0aba6-8d6f-4ff5-975f-7ec8c9177e1d&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=800 800w, https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=81d0aba6-8d6f-4ff5-975f-7ec8c9177e1d&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=1200 1200w, https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=81d0aba6-8d6f-4ff5-975f-7ec8c9177e1d&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=1800 1800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 2000px\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" alt=\"Farmington teen Chevel Shepherd won the latest season of \u201cThe Voice\u201d this week.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Farmington teen Chevel Shepherd won the latest season of \u201cThe Voice\u201d this week.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Trae Patton\/NBC via AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>On Tuesday night, 16-year-old country singer Chevel Shepherd of Farmington was crowned the champion of \u201cThe Voice\u201d Season 15; she\u2019s now the proud owner of $100,000 and a recording contract with Universal Music Group. She won over fellow country singers Kirk Jay and Chris Kroeze, along with teen pop\/R&amp;B singer Kennedy Holmes.<\/p>\n<p>While Shepherd\u2019s victory was somewhat surprising, as Jay and Holmes were considered front-runners, it also ties into one of the show\u2019s big storylines: Shepherd was on Kelly Clarkson\u2019s team, which means for the first time in the show\u2019s history, a winning country singer was not on Blake Shelton\u2019s team.<\/p>\n<p>Why is this a big deal? Over the past few seasons, the celebrity coaches have become increasingly angry that country contestants \u2013 who typically do very well on reality singing competition shows \u2013 routinely flock to Shelton\u2019s team.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qkbFqUI5H8s\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The first step was actually persuading Shepherd to choose a different team. Shepherd appeared on the third episode of the blind auditions in October and introduced herself as a high school junior and Carrie Underwood superfan who grew up singing country music. \u201cIf I saw Blake\u2019s chair turn around, I would freak out,\u201d she said excitedly. \u201cJust be like, \u2018Hey! He\u2019s country, I\u2019m country.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As Shepherd performed The Band Perry\u2019s \u201cIf I Die Young,\u201d Shelton spun his chair around \u2013 as did Clarkson and Hudson. \u201cIt\u2019s no secret I\u2019ve been dying to get a female country singer,\u201d Clarkson said, comparing Shepherd to Dolly Parton and Sarah McLachlan.<\/p>\n<p>Clarkson then ran over to Shelton\u2019s chair and tried to physically block him from Shepherd\u2019s view. She boasted that she also had Nashville connections: \u201cI don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve heard my new duet with Dan + Shay. Other people are in country music!\u201d The other coaches settled in for a good fight. \u201cI turned around because your voice is so pure and so beautiful, and I just wanted to watch the battle between Kelly and Blake,\u201d Hudson said.<\/p>\n<p>At first, it seemed like Shelton was the inevitable choice, as Shepherd lit up when he started talking about his experience with 15 seasons on the show. Clarkson looked resigned. \u201cI know I\u2019m going to lose you, but I\u2019m a fan,\u201d she told Shepherd.<\/p>\n<p>In a decision that shocked everyone, Shepherd made her choice: Clarkson! \u201cI had to go with Kelly. I liked what she said,\u201d Shepherd explained.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, host Carson Daly asked Clarkson why she wanted Shepherd for her team so badly. \u201cDid you see a little bit of yourself in her?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think she\u2019s way cooler than me. She is authentic country,\u201d Clarkson said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"naviga-scoreboard\">\n<h4 class=\"scoreboard-title\">If you go<\/h4>\n<p>Farmington will welcome home \u201cThe Voice\u201d winner Chevel Shepherd with a police and fire escort and rally.<br>\n                The city of Farmington, along with Farmington Police Department, Farmington Fire Department, San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Office and San Juan County Fire Department, will lead Shepherd into San Juan County between 12:30 and 1 p.m. Saturday. Family, friends and fans are encouraged to line the streets of Aztec, Flora Vista and Farmington with signs, flags and more. A welcome home rally will take place inside the Scorpion Arena at Farmington High School. The procession will take place as follows: Aztec along Highway 516, Flora Vista along Highway 516 and Farmington along Main Street to Pinon Hills to College Boulevard to 30th Street to Sunset ending at FHS.<br>\n                While Shepherd is expected to arrive around 2 p.m., doors will open at 1 p.m. Seating will be available on a first come, first serve basis. For those who cannot attend, KWYK 94.9 FM radio will be broadcasting the event live. Organizers are asking the community to share photos and videos of Shepherd\u2019s welcome home across social media.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>hold welcome home rally Saturday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[1167,559,337],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-96596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-exclude-homepage-video","tag-music","tag-television"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96596"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=96596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}