'The Voice' Has Seen Some Serious Talent! Get to Know Every Champion of the NBC Competition Series
Take a trip down memory lane with these incredible singers from 21 seasons of 'The Voice'.
Since The Voice premiered in 2011, a panel of superstar coaches have turned their rotating chairs for aspiring singers to add to their team of artists, judging them solely on their voice, not looks. Hosted by Carson Daly, the Emmy Award-winning series features four stages of competition beginning with the Blind Auditions, followed by the Battle Rounds, Knockouts and finally, the Live Performance Shows. Kelly Clarkson, John Legend, Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani are among the various chart-topping performers who have served as coaches on the NBC show, mentoring and advising their teams to help them ultimately be crowned the winner of The Voice.
Here is the complete list of all The Voice winners since it premiered in 2011.
The Voice Winners
The Voice Season 1 Winner (2011)
Winner: Javier Colon
Winning Coach: Adam Levine
Javier Colon was the inaugural champion of the music competition in 2011. Colon took home first place after performing the original song “Stitch by Stitch," defeating Beverly McClellan, Vicci Martinez and Dia Frampton for the trophy.
Related: Gwen Stefani Is Returning to Coach The Voice Season 19 Replacing Nick Jonas
The Voice Season 2 Winner (2012)
Winner: Jermaine Paul
Winning Coach: Blake Shelton
Jermaine Paul was surprised when he beat out Juliet Simms and Tony Lucca in 2012. “I am very shocked,” he told PEOPLE. “I honestly was ready to accept not winning. But I’m so excited.” Paul crooned R. Kelly’s “I Believe I Can Fly" for his final solo performance leaving coach Shelton "speechless."
The Voice Season 3 Winner (2012)
Winner: Cassadee Pope
Winning Coach: Blake Shelton
Cassadee Pope became the first female winner of The Voice in 2012 beating out Terry McDermott and Nicholas David for the title. Following her victory, the champ said (via Us Weekly), "I would love to do the pop-rock thing that I've been wanting to do but I also know that I've gained some amazing country fans and I know how hard it is to get into that world, so I would add a little country element to it." She added, "I used to cover country music a lot when I was a kid so it's a part of me and it's kind of stylistically part of my voice somehow."
The Voice Season 4 Winner (2013)
Winner: Danielle Bradbery
Winning Coach: Blake Shelton
At 16 years old, Danielle Bradbery made history as the youngest winner of the show in 2013. The singer's victory also marked Shelton's third consecutive win. “I think you are one of the most important artists we’ve ever seen walk across this stage on The Voice,” Shelton said of Bradbery after the live final competition.
The Voice Season 5 Winner (2013)
Winner: Tessanne Chin
Winning Coach: Adam Levine
Jamaican-born Tessanne Chin, who performed “Love Can Move Mountains” with Celine Dion during the finale, was named the Season 5 champion. The competition admittedly helped Chin grow. She told Parade.com after her win, "I feel like my confidence has grown, vocally I’m in a far better place than I was when I first started. I feel like a completely revamped, different person who went through a complete transformation on the inside and on the outside and it’s amazing.” The night prior to her victory, Chin performed a rendition of Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing.” "You are just capable of anything and it blows me away,” Levine said after her performance. “I know in my mind and heart you are the winner of this show.”
The Voice Season 6 Winner (2014)
Winner: Josh Kaufman
Winning Coach: Usher
Usher scored his first win in 2014 with Josh Kaufman. When asked by Parade.com what it means to have won The Voice, Kaufman answered, “First of all, it just means that all of what I had to go through, and being away from my family, and the sacrifices that they’ve had to make—my wife’s had a lot more that she’s had to do with me being gone and not having my help—it definitely makes all of that worthwhile, you know? And then it also creates this real possibility of me being able to provide the life for my family that we want to have by doing something that I love so much, and that I’m so passionate about. And you really can’t ask for much more than that.”
The Voice Season 7 Winner (2014)
Winner: Craig Wayne Boyd
Winning Coach: Blake Shelton
Craig Wayne Boyd became the fourth contestant coached by Shelton to win the competition in 2014. On the eve of his win, Boyd performed an original song titled "My Baby’s Got a Smile On Her Face," given to him by Shelton. “There has never been a more deserving person to hold that trophy than Craig Wayne Boyd," Shelton said after the show.
The Voice Season 8 Winner (2015)
Winner: Sawyer Fredericks
Winning Coach: Pharrell Williams
Sawyer Fredericks, then-16 years old, went from a small farm to The Voice stage winning the show with an original song called "Please," written by Ray LaMontagne. “To have America just embrace my music and embrace me has been amazing,” Fredericks said. “I almost don’t know what to say. I can say ‘thank you’ but it’s just not enough.”
The Voice Season 9 Winner (2015)
Winner: Jordan Smith
Winning Coach: Adam Levine
Jordan Smith's rendition of “Climb Every Mountain” from The Sound of Music won him the competition in 2015. “The show has been such a big dream of mine for so long,” the Kentucky native told Parade.com. “I never thought that I would ever have the chance to make it a reality, let alone be standing at the end and be named the winner. So it’s just a real moment, and it’s a moment that I’ve worked really hard to reach. I’m very blessed to be here, and I’m coming out on the other end of the show as a much better artist and a much better person.”
The Voice Season 10 Winner (2016)
Winner: Alisan Porter
Winning Coach: Christina Aguilera
Alisan Porter made Christina Aguilera the first female coach to win The Voice in 2016. “Tonight is a true victory for women” Aguilerasaid post-show. Porter, who played the title character in the film Curly Sue, told reporters, “I have retired Curly Sue,” adding, “She is dead. I am now the girl who won The Voice. I want you all to know that I waited 30 something years for that."
The Voice Season 11 Winner (2016)
Winner: Sundance Head
Winning Coach: Blake Shelton
Shelton racked up his fifth win in Season 11 with country singer Sundance Head. Head, who previously competed on Season 6 of American Idol, didn't even vote for himself, but instead used all ten of his votes for Team Alicia Keys' Wé McDonald. “I didn’t think I was going to win because Wé [McDonald] and Billy [Gilman] had so many more thousands of people on social media on all platforms, and I really misjudged the whole process to be honest with you,” the Texas native told Parade.com. “I thought that the social media criteria, basically, was going to determine the outcome. I was completely wrong.”
The Voice Season 12 Winner (2017)
Winner: Chris Blue
Winning Coach: Alicia Keys
Chris Blue's victory marked Keys' first win on the NBC series. “I would love to win because not even for myself, but because of everybody who has poured in love and support—my family and my coach,” he told reporters leading into the finale. “I want it for them more than I want it for myself. It would be an honor to win this competition for them.” After taking home the $100,000 prize and record deal, Blue revealed to USA Today that he planned on giving his then-fiancée Stephanie "the wedding she desires and the start of a very long life together."
The Voice Season 13 Winner (2017)
Winner: Chloe Kohanski
Winning Coach: Blake Shelton
Shelton chalked up his sixth victory in 2017 with 23-year-old Chloe Kohanski. While the Nashville native won, there was never a point where she thought, “I’ve got this.” “Throughout the competition, I was watching, not obsessively, but going back and watching performances and thinking like, ‘Something is happening,'” she admitted. “Every time I was almost evolving a little bit more and more as an artist, so it just instilled a lot of confidence in me. Not like, ‘I have it in the bag,’ but confidence in general. Coming on the show, I didn’t really have any if I am being honest. No matter what, I am walking away with a sense of who I am.”
The Voice Season 14 Winner (2018)
Winner: Brynn Cartelli
Winning Coach: Kelly Clarkson
In 2018, Brynn Cartelli dethroned Danielle Bradbery as the youngest contestant to ever win The Voice. The 15-year-old defeated Britton Buchanan, Kyla Jade and Spensha Baker for the title. “I honestly never thought that I would win. Until my name was called, I didn’t believe it," she told Parade.com. “It’s been a crazy, crazy journey, but I want to get started on [music] as soon as I can.”
The Voice Season 15 Winner (2018)
Winner: Chevel Shepherd
Winning Coach: Kelly Clarkson
Clarkson earned her second back-to-back with Chevel Shepherd. “Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect, but I'm super happy that I won,” Chevel, then 16 years old, told Parade.com. “It’s just an awesome experience because not many teenagers get the opportunity to be on The Voice at all." Clarkson was proud of her winning artist. The former American Idol champ said, “It is so hard to get country people on your team if you are not Blake Shelton. No one has ever beat him with a country artist. I don’t even know what to say right now.”
The Voice Season 16 Winner (2019)
Winner: Maelyn Jarmon
Winning Coach: John Legend
Being deaf in her right ear and with only 80 percent hearing in the left ear didn't stop Maelyn Jarmon from walking away with the trophy on Season 16. In fact, Jarmon, Legend's first winning artist, viewed her deafness as her "superpower." "I’ve considered it a superpower since I was young,” she said ahead of the finale. “It was never discussed as a disability through my house. It was never really talked about much at all.”
The Voice Season 17 Winner (2019)
Winner: Jake Hoot
Winning Coach: Kelly Clarkson
Jake Hoot, who only got Clarkson to turn for him, came out on top in 2019. The country singer hoped the opportunity would allow him to better provide for his daughter Macy. "I’ve always dreamed to make music full time. One of the main reasons that I agreed to do The Voice and took a step out there was because I wanted to better provide for her," he shared with Parade.com. "If that opportunity arises and I’m able to do that, it’ll mean the world to me that I can better provide for her, also while keeping the family mindset—that family comes first."
The Voice Season 18 Winner (2020)
Winner: Todd Tilghman
Winning Coach: Blake Shelton
The Mississippi pastor clenched the trophy in 2020 during the finale episode that aired remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At 42, Todd Tilghman is the competition's oldest winner to date. “I never really considered a career in music,” he told Parade.com after his win. “I’ve always loved to sing, but I don’t know that I ever thought that people would want to hear it, or that I had what it took to really get out there and make something of it. I don’t have any complaints about the life I made for myself, but as far as music goes, I didn’t feel like I had the goods, and so I didn’t really go for it.”
The Voice Season 19 Winner (2020)
Winner: Carter Rubin
Winning Coach: Gwen Stefani
Carter began his journey on The Voice singing “Before You Go” by Lewis Capaldi for his Blind Audition. He continued his successful run on the singing competition with “Like I’m Gonna Lose You” in the Battle Rounds; “You Say” in the Knockout Rounds; “Hero” in the Live Playoffs; and “Rainbow Connection,” which Gwen selected for him, for the semifinals. That semifinals performance helped him land his spot in the finale, where he sang “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus and the original “Up From Here.”
The Voice Season 20 Winner (2021)
Winner: Cam Anthony
Winning Coach: Blake Shelton
The 19-year-old from Philadelphia, Pa., will agree that his pairing with Blake Shelton wasn’t normally what you would expect, but somehow it worked. Blake helped Cam quite a bit when it came to selecting songs that helped Cam on his road to winning the $100,000 prize and a recording contract.
“I've gained this new understanding of who I am as an artist, what I would like it to look like, and how I would like to be portrayed,” Cam said. “It took me some stumbling and some bumping into walls and figuring things out on my own to be able to stand on my own two feet today and display who I am. And so, I think all of this was necessary and it was divine for me to make it to this position.”
The Voice Season 21 Winner (2021)
Winner: Girl Named Tom
Winning Coach: Kelly Clarkson
When Girl Named Tom won The Voice season 21, they made history by becoming the first-ever group to do so. But the trio—Caleb, Joshua and Bekah Liechty—also made history—by immediately leaving Los Angeles to return home to be with their father, who was in the hospital fighting for his life.
“From the beginning, to hear the coaches tell us that what we have is special, was very shocking,” Bekah said. “And then every round that we progressed, we were surprised. We treated each week like it was our last. We were very grateful to have made it to the finale and then to win the whole thing just blew us away. So, hopefully, more groups will go on The Voice.”