LI's Carter Rubin brings Gwen Stefani to tears on 'The Voice' semifinals
Shoreham's Carter Rubin, seen in a previous episode, made coach Gwen Stefani cry Monday night with his rendition of "Rainbow Connection." Credit: NBC / Trae Patton
On the first night of semifinals on NBC's "The Voice" Monday, Shoreham teen Carter Rubin performed "Rainbow Connection" from "The Muppet Movie" in his bid to have home-viewer voters send him into next week's two-night finale. The voting results show airs Tuesday, Dec. 8.
The last of the night's nine individual singers, Rubin, 15, said in prerecorded comments before his performance at Universal Studios in Los Angeles, "I cannot even believe that I just made it to the semifinals. ... Those of you who've been supporting me throughout my whole journey, I could not be more grateful."
His coach, pop star Gwen Stefani, told him that the mother of her fiance and fellow "Voice" coach, Blake Shelton, "literally keeps texting me, like, 'I hope your boy goes through!' " Rubin replied, "Thank you, Blake's mom!"
The Shoreham-Wading River High School sophomore dedicated his performance to his older brother, Jack, who has autism. Then, with this week's shows designated as Fan Week, he was introduced remotely by Julianna, Jerry and Liz from Ontario, Canada, the last of whom said, "Anytime he performs, he just lights up the room."
When Rubin finished his strikingly heartfelt performance of the movie-musical ballad — for which Stefani had instructed him, "Make it more pop than like a musical" — his coach was moved to tears. "I sing that song to my kids," Stefani told him emotionally. "That was flawless, that was God answering my prayers … You're so gifted, you're so intuitive, your heart is full of music."
Rubin is competing against fellow Stefani team-member Ben Allen, a 43-year-old singer from Estero, Florida; Kelly Clarkson's team of Cami Clune, 20, of Buffalo, New York, and DeSz, 30, of Houston; John Legend's three teammates John Holiday, 35, of Rosenberg, Texas, 31-year-old Tamara Jade of Bowie, Maryland, and Bailey Rae, 18, of Roberta, Oklahoma; and Shelton's Ian Flanigan, 31, from Saugerties, New York, and Jim Ranger, 38, of Bakersfield, California.
Tuesday night, the top vote-getter from each team advances to the finale. The remaining singers will then sing for the wild-card Instant Save, sending five into next week's finals.
