The Voice: Blake Shelton tries to form unlikely ‘Belsea’ alliance with guest coach Kelsea Ballerini

Blake Shelton tried to win guest coach Kelsea Ballerini over to his side on Monday’s battle rounds episode of The Voice.

Kelsea, 27, temporarily took over for Kelly Clarkson, 38, who was feeling unwell but had tested negative for coronavirus.

Being crafty, Blake, 44, tried to form an alliance with his fellow country star in the absence of his usual show frenemy.

‘I know that you’re filling in for Kelly, and she is coming back, but there’s no reason we can’t work together and be like a duo, like Shellarini, or Belsea,’ Blake told Kelsea during a break.

‘The one thing she told me was to try to beat you, so…’ Kelsea replied, shrugging.

John Legend, 44, thought Kelsea had Blake ‘shook,’ and plotted with Nick Jonas, 28, to have her ‘destroy Blake’ that season.

‘It’ll clear the path for me to win, and you’ll get second place,’ the EGOT winner grinned.

Blake maintained that Kelly was on a beach somewhere and not sick at all, adding, ‘She’s not here doing the work that she’s making you do. So just keep that in mind, Kelsea. I tried.’

‘Well, one of us is a liar here, and it ain’t me,’ Kelsea returned.

Blake later tried another tactic to cozy up to the two-time Grammy nominee.

‘I think this is bullcrap,’ he said, pointing to the ”Team Kelly” sign that stretched over the stage in front of them. ‘I think they could at least put ”Team Kelsea” up here for the time being.’

‘Or just ”Kel”,’ Kelsea acknowledged. Team Kel. It goes for both.’

Blake and Kelsea agreed on at least one thing during the show: They both felt that their contestants were just too good to give up on.

Each of them saved both halves of their teams’ duets at least once.

In its first battle, Team Blake gave two soulful singers the tune 10,000 Hours, by Dan + Shay and Justin Bieber.

Philadelphia native Cam Anthony, 19, went gospel in his head-to-head with Emma Caroline, 25, from Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

‘I’m crying a little bit,’ said advisor Shay Mooney after watching them. ‘They’re too good.’

His partner Dan Smyers said the pair made the song sound ‘better than the original.’

During their battle it proved hard for Blake, 44, to choose which contestant to keep.

‘Cam, your singing is unbelievable,’ he told the young man, who acted like a veteran performer. ‘Your presence on stage? You look like you were born to do that.’

Blake called Emma an ‘incredible vocalist’ but lacking in confidence, so he chose Cam.

He then waited until the last possible second and saved Emma from elimination.

‘Why’d you have to do that?’ she tearfully asked her coach.

‘I wanted to scare some stage presence into you,’ Blake cracked.

‘You do have a heart after all,’ Nick told Blake.

‘Does he, though?’ asked John, as Blake accused them of ‘bullying me.’

For his second battle, the longtime coach chose Train’s Calling All Angels for his vocalists, feeling the song lent itself well to those in different genres.

Pop artist Keegan Ferrell, 21, from Fort Wayne, Indiana, played it smooth against the rawer sound of gravel-voiced musician Jordan Matthew Young, 35, from Austin, Texas.

After they sang, Nick told Jordan he was ‘just cool,’ saying ‘you’ve got that grit that I love and could never pull off,’ and insisting to Blake that he could win. 

Blake admired Jordan’s ‘weathered’ voice and chose him and then Nick took Keegan.

‘I did what I call ”The Blake Shelton Misdirect”,’ Nick said. ‘I made clear that I would go for Jordan to get him to commit to that so that I could execute my real plan, which was to steal Keegan.’

For its key battle, Team Kelly paired ‘intense’ rock-and-rollers Corey Ward, 34, from Hartsville, South Carolina, and Savanna Woods, 26, from Stanwood, Washington.

They harmonized beautifully on Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams, leaving Kelsea in a quandary.

She told the singers she’d covered the song with her ‘friend Halsey,’ and they’d struggled to make the iconic song their own, but ‘y’all did it!’

Kelsea praised the artistry Savanna had shown, though after some texting with Kelly she decided to keep Corey, who she felt showed more range.

‘It’s not fun, this part,’ Kelsea complained, admitting, ‘The winner of this battle is Corey.’

Seconds later, she pressed her buzzer to save Savannah, shouting, ‘I had to!’

‘Me and Kelly were texting and I was like, ”Kelly, what do I do?” and she was like, ”Save her!”,’ Kelsea revealed.

The team also brought together two emotional singers on Ed Sheeran’s Thinking Out Loud.

Seattle teacher Halley Greg, 29, brought an operatic ache to the song while Gihanna Zoë, 17, from Redlands, California, used a controlled chest voice.

During their rehearsals, advisor Luis Fonsi mimicked picking his jaw up off the ground.

As Kelsea watched the singers, she said Kelly was ‘blowing up’ her phone with comments, and she advised the ‘technically perfect’ Gihanna not to think about her vocals so much.

She then picked the teen, saying that she and Kelly thought she was one of the season’s best.

For its first battle, Team Jonas picked Rewrite The Stars, the duet sung by Zendaya and Zac Efron in the 2017 film The Greatest Showman.

It was a performative pop tune from a big musical, and team advisor Darren Criss had gone to college with the songwriters, whom he said would be ‘impressed’ with the performance.

Lindsay Joan, 22, a theater performer from San Diego, had seen Darren in Hedwig And The Angry Inch on Broadway, and was familiar with the sound the song required.

To help her combat her nerves, Nick taught her a neat trick: Keep a little piece of paper suspended against a wall by blowing at it 10 times to slow the heart.

Lindsay went head-to-head with Zae Romeo, 21, from McKinney, Texas, but he held his own and was Nick’s choice on battle day. 

For its battle rounds, Team Legend selected the Destiny’s Child song Emotion, a favorite of John’s wife Chrissy Teigen, for its classic ‘Motown energy.’

John urged Detroit resident Zania Alaké, 34, and Durell Anthony, also 34, from Atchison, Kansas, to bring a storytelling vibe to it.

After hearing both of them sing for the panel, he chose Zania, saying ‘I could see her doing really well in future rounds of the show.’

In a second battle, John gave Tate McRae’s You Broke Me First to Ciana Pelekai, 20, from Las Vegas, and Denisha Dalton, 22, from Warwick, New York.

He ultimately chose Ciana, saying ‘she has great sense of rhythm and a really good sense of how a pop song is supposed to be delivered.’

The Voice will return Monday on NBC with more battle round performances.