By Deja Lee

Tonight only three acts were premiered on The Voice. Each act brought a different flavor to the stage. Cary and Sam performed "Give me Love" on team Adam. The funky style of Sam's voice could not be matched. I think we all remember Sam from her blind audition when she flawlessly remastered Lorde's song "Royals". Her performance tonight was just an extension of what we know she can do.

However if you ask me, Cary was the one who won the battle tonight. Her voice was equally unique, but the power in her tone gave her an extra edge over Sam. Adam had a tough decision to make. In the end he didn't side with me and Cary. Sam was the lucky winner; I'm happy for her.

Blake took two very different artists and forced one of them out of their comfort zone on a song called "Everything". Kaleigh, the pop-rock artist, had a bit more difficulty finding herself in the song than jazz artist Noah. But that didn't stop the two of them from having a terrific performance. They had considerable chemistry on-stage. Noah came out very confident in his ability to deliver the song. Just as well, Kaleigh sang the song with life and risk, which I think forced Blake to keep her on his team.

For the last two episodes we've been waiting for the performance that would get Usher to push his button for the steal. Surprisingly, that performance came out of team Shakira! Emily and Cierra both possessed soulful voices. They came together to sing the hit "Brave", which Emily could personally relate to after having had survived brain surgery. This song required a lot of power and both women had that. The decision was particularly tough for Shakira to judge because a lot of the mistakes made, by both Cierra and Emily, were the same. Shakira finally decided that she would choose Emily because she liked the fighter in her.

Just when Cierra thought she was packing her bags to go back home to Alaska, Usher pushed his button. He had been waiting for her the whole time. Quote of the night came when Usher told Shakira "You can't make a star. There will be plenty of people with good voices but not everyone has star quality... She has star quality." For Usher to say that you know she's doing something right. I'm eager to see where next week takes us. The bar has been raised.

Photo courtesy of NBC