On Tuesday night (Dec. 13), after a jam-packed show full of incredible performances, Carson Daly announced the Season 11 winner of The Voice. Sundance Head became the 11th victor of the competition, and Blake Shelton became the most winningest coach with five champions from his teams.
Immediately after the win, Shelton and Head went backstage for a press conference and Shelton shocked the world with what happened next.
As most of you know, champions of The Voice are given a recording contract with Universal Music Group, as well as $100,000. It has been brought to the public eye that record companies put The Voice champions on the back burner and until an interview Adam Levine did with Howard Stern, no one really knew why these talented singers weren’t catapulted to stardom.
“When the baton is passed post-‘Voice,’ there’s some problems. People take over after we do this great job of building these people up on the show. There’s some real issues there,” Levine told Stern.
Shelton’s last champion from his team, Season 7’s Craig Wayne Boyd, expressed his frustrations with Universal Music Group after he showed up for a meeting and they had no clue who he was. He eventually parted ways with the record label and is now set to release an independent album.
As the post-finale press conference was wrapping up, Shelton called out the record label and demanded they work harder with Head.
“I want to say one more thing here, because it’s important. I want to personally issue a challenge to Universal Records,” he said, according to Yahoo! Music. “This is Season 11 of The Voice, and I’m sitting here right now next to a guy who has won over America’s hearts. He’s so popular. … He has proven that he sells tons of music. His biggest-selling song, arguably, is going to be the song he wrote by himself.”
Head’s original song “Darlin’ Don’t Go” shot to No. 1 on iTunes this week, which Shelton believes is proof that Head can succeed in the music business. Shelton continued, “I hope that we can all come together — meaning us and Universal Records. This is the guy that I think can break the mold and become a star out of this show. And I give my word that I’ll put my work in, and I know [Sundance] will. This guy deserves to be a star, and there’s no excuses anymore. We need to make the record and put the work behind it that he deserves, to have this success that he deserves. And that has to start with Universal Records getting involved and behind him.”
Only time will tell how Universal Music Group will handle their business with Head, but if history repeats itself, he will be in good hands. A year ago, after Team Adam’s Jordan Smith was announced as Season 9’s champion, Levine called out the record company in the press conference, just like Shelton did. Smith has since released two albums and has his own one-hour Christmas special.
Watch Shelton call out the record label in the video below.