Riley Green Assigns His Own Song for His First-Ever Battle on ‘The Voice’—And the Contestants Crush It

Riley Green took a big swing for his first-ever Battle on The Voice. For his inaugural pairing as a coach, the country star had Kenna Elpers and Joe Henley sing “Don’t Mind If I Do,” one of his Ella Langley duets.

“I gave ‘em ‘Don’t Mind If I Do,’ which is a song of mine,” Green told the cameras. “Knowing that Joe was a fan and Kenna was a fan and had opened for me before, I thought it was fitting that they enjoyed the song.”

While Elpers has lots of experience performing, Henley is newer to the scene, so much so that he was unable to work a mic stand during his rehearsal with Green and team advisor Carly Pearce. Henley’s voice, however, didn’t show any of that inexperience.

While Pearce praised Elpers for the “Dolly-esque airy-ness to her tone,” she compared Henley to “a puppy who has really big paws but he hasn’t grown into them.”

“Kind of clumsy,” Green quipped in response. “Doesn’t know how to work a mic stand.”

The foursome didn’t just joke around in rehearsals. When Henley didn’t understand one direction his coach and advisor handed out, the pros offered to sing the song themselves.

“When Riley and Carly started singing the song, I was just [mind blown],” Elpers gushed after the fact.

The pros also encouraged the pair to flirt on stage, and lean into the characters that the song demands.

“It’s going to be a really tough decision. Kenna’s obviously put in the time. She’s got the experience. Even today, she picked up the slack where Joe was so new to that part of it,” Green said. “Vocals are important, but you’ve got to make the performance something that the audience loves, so to pick one person out of this group is going to be really hard to do.”

Riley Green Chooses His First Battle Champion on The Voice

Both contestants did their coach proud, as Green offered them a standing ovation after time onstage.

The other coaches were likewise impressed. Kelly Clarkson compared Elpers to Alison Krauss and Henley to Randy Travis, Adam Levine praised the “distinctive” quality to Henley’s voice, and Queen Latifah complimented the “powerful” performance.

Ultimately, the decision was up to Green, and he wound up selecting Henley as the winner.

“It was such a hard decision. Nothing that Kenna did wrong. It’s just Joe has got a really unique voice and he’s got a really special talent,” Green explained. “I’m really looking forward to helping him develop throughout The Voice. Going into Cut Week, I think Joe’s got a really good chance.”

Photo by Cory Osborne/NBC

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