The Voice: Kelly Clarkson dramatically uses last steal to save Cedrice after stellar Rihanna cover

Kelly Clarkson sent singer Cedrice into a tailspin as she used her last steal to take her from Blake Shelton’s team on Monday’s episode of The Voice.

During the knockout rounds, Cedrice, a 28-year-old musician from San Diego, did a great cover of Rihanna’s Love On The Brain, but lost to another contestant.

Cedrice looked resigned to leaving the show, possibly figuring that was her last chance, as she’d already been stolen once before, by Blake, 43, during the battle rounds.

She thanked the judges for ‘elevating’ her experience on the show, and seemed ready to walk off the stage when Kelly, 37, pressed her buzzer, silently mouthing, ‘Love her!’

Shocked, Cedrice immediately welled up in tears and covered her eyes, telling the coaches, ‘You have to stop doing this to me!’ as she bent down to the stage in gratitude.

‘You’re a Jonas brother away from having all four coaches,’ host Carson Daly, 46, cracked, recognizing that Cedrice had started out with coach John Legend, 41.

‘Can I hug you?’ Cedrice mouthed to Kelly, who said, ‘Yeah!’ and got up to embrace her.

‘I had to steal Cedrice, because there’s no one like her on the show,’ Kelly affirmed, calling her ‘very peaceful, but very passionate, and just a really great singer.’

Backstage, she urged Cedrice to ‘be excited’ about the show’s upcoming live rounds, which will be held remotely several weeks from now due to social distancing measures amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In rehearsals, Blake noted that both Cedrice and her fellow singer Toneisha Harris, 44, had chosen Rihanna songs, and he could only keep one person in that genre.

Before she sang, Cedrice thanked Blake for stealing her during the battles, saying she felt for the first time as though she was getting another chance in life.

Show advisor James Taylor, 72, was touched by her gratitude and her talent.

‘Cedrice’s voice is like Baked Alaska,’ he said as he listened to her sing. ‘It’s warm and very strong and piercing at the same time.’

Cedrice dedicated her song to her partner Mark, a musician she called ‘the love of my life.’ 

Roswell, Georgia native Toneisha sang Diamonds for her late father, who instilled in her his love of music, and whose presence she still felt around her. 

‘Toneisha may have as good a voice as I’ve heard so far in this group of singers,’ James admitted, comparing her to Barbra Streisand, 77, and the late Aretha Franklin.

Before she went on, James helped Toneisha with her nerves, coaching her to ‘count down to 50’ then sing, a trick he often used that he promised would return her to her ‘base state.’

After she performed, Nick Jonas, 27, told Toneisha it made him ‘mad’ to watch her sing, as he knew he couldn’t do anything close to what she did.

That made Blake break out into a snippet of Nick’s hit song, Jealous, which the coaches did often on the show, having performed the tune together onstage. 

Blake ultimately picked Toneisha, calling her ‘a frontrunner since day one’ who had been consistent in her performances, and Kelly then stole Cedrice.

In another memorable moment from Monday’s show, Team Nick’s Allegra Miles, 17, earned a standing ovation for her moody, affecting version of Sia’s Chandelier.

The teen from St. John, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, was competing against Jacob Miller, 29, from Eden, Wisconsin, who did a slowed-down cover of Post Malone’s Better Now. 

Blake thought Allegra could help Nick win The Voice this season, and her coach agreed, calling her voice ‘magical’ and keeping her on his team. 

In his other knockout round, Nick pitted ‘born performer’ Arei Moon, 28, from Boston, against John Mullins, 32, from Nashville.

Arie sang Alicia Keys’ You Don’t Know My Name as a tribute to her husband, whom she’d met as a smitten college freshman a decade ago.

Mullins dedicated his song, Ed Sheeran’s Thinking Out Loud, to Wendy, his wife of 13 years, who’d lost parts of her memory and speech after a fall.

After watching both of the contestants onstage, the coaches were split, with John noting that he’d sung backup vocals on You Don’t Know My Name, crooning, ‘Oooh-ooh.’

‘Hey John,’ Kelly yelled. ‘I have this song I need some [background vocals] on, and since you’re open to it…. I pay in hugs.’

Nick was ‘in turmoil’ trying to decide who to keep, but he ultimately selected Arei, whom he called ‘a superstar.’

He also took a contestant from Team John Legend, using his last steal of the knockouts.

John had staged a face-off between two of his four chair turns: Thunderstorm Artis, 24, from Haleiwa, Hawaii, and Mandi Castillo, 23, from San Antonio, Texas.

Mandi dedicated her cover of Ben E. King’s Stand By Me to her friend Raphael, who was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2015, and had been given just five years to live.

‘I just want him to remember that if the world falls down and you feel like everything’s stripped away from you, I’ll still be there,’ she said.

Thunderstorm sang and played guitar on a rendition of John’s own song, Preach, which he felt echoed his own approach toward talking about faith.

The young man, who also played drums, bass, piano and ‘any percussion’ wowed onstage, but John went with Mandi, admiring her ‘flawless’ vibrato and the way she ‘danced around notes.’

Nick then stole Thunderstorm for himself, explaining, ‘I’ve had my eye on him from the beginning, and I’m maybe the luckiest man in the world for having pulled this off.’ 

Team Kelly’s first knockout round featured two singers ‘with a big, huge range’: Micah Iverson, 26, from Tokyo, and Tayler Green, 27, from Los Angeles.

Micah sang Halsey’s Graveyard, which allowed him to stretch himself vocally and emotionally, as it called up memories of a relationship in which he ‘wasn’t treated well.’

James praised the fact that Micah was so ‘present,’ and Kelly suggested he give the song ‘a dark, trippy vibe,’ with James playing guitar to illustrate her point.

‘If Halsey hears this, she is going to lose her mind,’ Kelly said.

Tayler turned in a sultry cover of Cyndi Lauper’s Time After Time, which Kelly helped tweak and ended up liking so much that she balled up her notes and threw them away.

‘This is the best Tayler has sounded on this show,’ Kelly noted. ‘She has ache for days.’

In the knockouts, Kelly went with her ‘gut’ and chose Micah, feeling that he’d been ‘imaginative’ with his song choice and praising his ‘incredible’ tone and range.

Another one of Kelly’s contestants, Mandi Thomas, 33, from Memphis, later knocked out Anaya Cheyenne, 16, from Norwalk, Connecticut, with her stellar cover of Maren Morris’ My Church.

Contestants who’d lost in the battle rounds also competed in a four-way knockout.

Team Blake’s Todd Michael Hall, 50, from Saginaw, Michigan, sang OneRepublic’s Somebody To Love, while Team John’s Nelson Cade III, 27, from Anaheim, California, performed Daniel Caesar’s Best Part.

Team Kelly’s Samantha Howell, 19, from Virginia Beach, Virginia, covered Willie Nelson’s Always On My Mind, and Team Nick’s Michael Williams, 18, from Mason, Ohio, turned out Calum Scott’s You Are The Reason.

The winner will be determined by fan votes and revealed on a live episode.

The Voice returns with a special event next Monday on NBC.