Carter Rubin Takes on Miley Cyrus’ ‘The Climb’ on ‘The Voice’ Finale

Carter Rubin is the youngest contestant in the finale of this season of The Voice at just 15 years old, and he delivered another incredible performance during Monday night’s show with a rendition of Miley Cyrus‘ inspirational anthem “The Climb.” Backed by a string quartet, Rubin let his voice shine as he moved through the song, performing on a set designed to look like he was standing atop a mountain.

“Carter, I gotta say, even though I’m supposed to be your competition over here, I’ve never felt that way,” Blake Shelton told him after the performance. “This has been a tough year for everybody in the world and to be able to end this year and sit in this chair and listen to somebody with your talent, your heart…I’m a fan, man.”

Rubin’s coach, Gwen Stefani, told him, “My heart is still beating out of my chest with nerves…you’re unbelievable, you’re just so calm and it feels like you’re just meant to be doing this.” Stefani is searching for her first The Voice win with Rubin, and she is now in her fifth season as a coach after first joining the show in Season 7.

“The show is the opposite of who I am,” Stefani recently told Zane Lowe on Apple Music. “It’s really about selling yourself and trying to win. I don’t like games. I’m not competitive in that way. So it took me a few seasons to really get the hang of it, but the one thing that show does that I love and that I am good at is I love helping these kids or these people in the moment. Coaching is like … I wish there was more time to coach them. It really is a limited, small thing that we get to do, but watching these artists and their talent and getting to … It’s just so inspiring, being on the show.”

“You’re around tons of music, and you just see people grow right before your eyes and trust you,” she continued. “Then you get to kind of reminisce on all of the stuff that you’ve done and the wake of work behind you. It’s just a very cool place to be. I always seem to get really creative when I’m on that show, and I feel like now I’ve done it, is it five seasons or something, this is actually my most comfortable.”

Because of the pandemic, The Voice was filmed without an audience this season, something its coaches are a fan of. “The more you’re in it, the more comfortable you get, and because it’s COVID, it’s like there’s no audience,” Stefani said. “So it just really feels like it’s just us there.”