By Deja Lee

The first competition of the season was dynamite! Usher's team was first up. With the help of singer Jill Scott, he was able to show his players what they were lacking. Family man Biff and young TJ were chosen to be the first pair to go head to head in the ring; and the stage was literally designed to look like a boxing arena... intimidating.

The two of them were not "too proud to beg", as they fought for Usher's attention on the hit Temptation song. In the final decision, Usher picked TJ to stay on his team, but Biff didn't have too much time to sulk. In this competition the judges were given two chances to steal players that were eliminated from the other teams. So guess who Blake's first steal was?

The next showdown was between Jake and Lexi, a country male artist and a pop singing teen. Both of them were excited to have one on one time with Blake, but even more excited to see that he brought The Band Perry along with him. During the battle Lexi really turned up the attitude, but Jake's incredible singing ultimately took the gold, sending Lexi back home.

Shakira shook things up by inviting Blake's wife, Miranda Lambert, to help her coach Deshawn and Danni. These double "Ds" were both amazing singers. Here is when the night's decisions became tougher. Danni had a beautiful voice with incredible power behind it. Her one problem was that she would sometimes scream her notes instead of singing them. Personally, I loved her, but Deshawn... Deshawn had a Sisqo funk that is so rare to find. It was unfortunate that Shakira had to choose just one singer. In spite of Blake and Usher telling her to choose Deshawn, Shakira chose Danni. It was a painful decision, but what's even more gut wrenching, is that no one picked Deshawn for the steal! Big mistake on the judges part. Usher's final say on the matter was "He's the one who got away."

As crushing as that was, the competition still had to move on. Adam's co-coach was Aloe Blacc, singer of the hit song "Wake Me Up". Together they mentored Patrick and Kat who gave an awesome performance. Though Adam chose for Kat to stay on his team, Shakira was quick to hit her button, stealing Patrick away. But the competition got even better when Sisuandra and Paula Deanda of team Blake went up to battle.

This was almost unfair. Paula has a beautiful voice, and she was even signed to a label. But putting her against Sisuandra, was like putting a cat up against a Lion. Sisuandra's voice is so big and soulful; I could have sworn they had to turn her mic down at some notes. She was just a power house. Although Paula fought hard, the choice was obvious.

The last battle of the night was team Usher's Stevie and Jake. Stevie was more of a rock singer, and Jake typified R&B Pop, but when the two were brought to sing together, the harmony was so in sync that you would have to physically see them to even guess their differences. Before Usher had his chance to choose which artist to keep, Adam assured them that whoever wasn't picked was getting stolen. I don't even have to say how good their performance was. When it was all said and done, Usher instinctively choose rock artist Stevie. Wise choice Usher!

I'm prediciting that so far, Danni, Sisuandra, and Stevie are going to appose the most threats in this competition. Let's see how the wheel spins. The rest of the battles will be shown Tuesday night. It just gets better and better; bring your popcorn!

Photo courtesy of NBC