A Major Whoopsies On 'The Voice'

My GOODNESS. The top 12 contestants know how to hit some serious notes. Woo-wee. I can't stop fanning myself. Monday night’s live episode of The Voice was a nonstop reminder of just how good the remaining contestants are, and it was a nonstop reminder of just how hard Carson Daly will work to enforce the live show format. Jeez, if I don't love Carson on his live ep A-game. Hurry up with those critiques, coaches. Don’t you dare mess with the two-hour time limit. Not on Carson’s watch (har har har).

Monday night, the ladies and gentlemen of the jury, er, top 12 belted their faces off. Sorry to get all hyperbolic on you, but this could very well be the strongest top 12 to hit The Voice live rounds. We Voice voters have our work cut out for us.

Rather than attack you with a caps lock gibberish fest (the only way I know how to properly express sheer delight and excitement inspired by two hours of majestic singing), I'm going to zero in on a single moment: Mid-performance, Kristen Merlin's microphone went out for, like, 15 seconds. We could no longer hear her beautiful voice. AUGHHHHHH. I half expected Ursula to sneak out from behind the stage, shoving the microphone's batteries in a shell necklace. "Poooor, unfortunate contessstantssss," she'd hiss. And then she'd steal one of the spinning chairs for her underwater lair.

My memory might serve me poorly, but I'm 99 percent certain this was the biggest live episode snafu The Voice has had to date. WOOF. My stomach immediately turned into a pile of knots. I worried for Kristen. I worried for Carson. I worried for my stomach.

But Kristen didn't flinch. She acknowledged what was up, and she held her shit together. She kept on sangin' (that's my Blake Shelton affectation) "Stay" like that mic was on.

Coach Shakira was beyond proud, and she and other coaches gave Kristen a standing O. Carson and the coaches applauded Kristen for not only sounding amazeballs before the mic crapped out (ugh I want to hear the rest of her performance! Her voice is so lovely!), but for being so unfazed. I mean, of course they did. How could they not? Her reaction to the mic taking a nap was all things professional and confident. She couldn't have handled it better. MVP! MVP! MVP!

TUESDAY NIGHT: Gird your loins, it's the first batch of live eliminations!

Image: Trae Patton/NBC