‘The Voice’: Kelsea Ballerini Brought to Tears Two Times by One Contestant

Kelsea Ballerini couldn’t help but get emotional over a performance on The Voice that truly hit home.

The country singer, 31, was brought to tears by her contestant Angie Rey during the Monday, March 31 episode of the NBC singing competition as Rey took on Cody Johnson’s “Dirt Cheap.”

Halfway through her rehearsal of the song for the knockout rounds, Rey stopped to hug Ballerini after noticing the “Miss Me More” singer getting teary-eyed. “I love this song, sorry guys,” Ballerini said, explaining that her emotional reaction came as her dog Dibs, who was diagnosed with inoperable cancer in his heart, was “super sick.”

“But that is the thing about country music is it does talk about real life and the things that are hard to talk about,” she explained. Ballerini added of Rey’s chosen song, “This song, there’s going to be a lyric that gets every single person that’s watching this. I mean, obviously it got me for a lot of reasons but I think it will get everyone.”

Rey ultimately competed in the knockout round against Iris Herrera, who sang “Jolene” by Ray LaMontagne, and it didn’t take long before Ballerini admitted she was “going to cry again on TV” listening to Rey sing.

Rey assured her coach, “You’re so graceful in the way that you deal with things and you just cry, we all cry, that doesn’t mean you’re not graceful and you’re a great coach.”

After tearing up once again during Rey’s performance, the “Cowboys Cry Too” singer gushed, “You were just so lovely and I really appreciated you kind of reining back a little bit and showing more of that storytelling side of your voice cause that’s a big part of singing country music. I just think you’re amazing.”

She also praised Herrera as having such a “unique” and “lived-in” kind of “storyteller” voice. But while Ballerini was “inspired by” both of her contestants,” she could only choose one knockout winner, who ended up being Herrera.

“I was very proud of both of them. Iris just feels further along in her vocal journey,” she explained. “Watching her get vulnerable, get emotional is the reason why I picked Iris and I already have some song ideas in my head for the playoffs so you gotta really lean in to that grit.”

It’s not the end of the road for Rey on The Voice, however, as fellow coach Michael Bublé hit his steal button as she began to walk off stage. “I wanted her to be able to hug her coach before she came to win the show with her new coach,” he said. “I stole Angie because she’s a modern country artist. She fills that country void on my team and there’s no ending to where this woman can go.”