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'The Voice' crowns its season 15 winner, and fans are not happy about it

For the second season in a row, Kelly Clarkson has won The Voice with a teen girl contestant. Earlier this year, in her first season as a Voice coach, Kelly triumphed with 15-year-old pop singer Brynn Cartelli, and on Tuesday’s Season 15 finale, she was back in the winner’s circle with 16-year-old country warbler Chevel Shepherd. This may be Kelly’s second Voice victory, but what’s notable is this marks the first time in the series’ history that a country singer not coached by the practically unstoppable Blake Shelton has won the show. In this week’s finale, Team Blake was actually represented by two country contestants, Chris Kroeze and Kirk Jay, but they had to respectively settle for second and third place. Team J.Hud’s own teen contender, Kennedy Holmes, came in fourth. (It's worth noting that Kennedy and Kirk's results elicited gasps from the studio audience -- Kennedy was Monday’s show-stopper, and Kirk was widely predicted to win.) Kelly looked as shocked as Chevel, but she no doubt took great, gloating glee in beating Blake with a country artist. Surely making the moment even sweeter was the fact this accomplishment is something that Blake’s archival, Adam Levine -- who sat out this season and last season’s finales entirely, but had two country artists in the Season 11 finale -- has long dreamed of. It admittedly took Chevel a while to find her cowgirl-booted footing in this competition, with her earlier performances having a spooked, deer-in-headlights quality. But when this young “Country Tinkerbell” dug deep into old-soul material like Loretta Lynn’s “You’re Lookin’ at Country” and Bill Mack’s “Blue,” or Americana fare by Kacey Musgraves and the Dixie Chicks, her confidence grew -- and it started to become clear what sort of artist she could be after The Voice. Of course, we’ll have to wait and see what sort of career Chevel has after The Voice, since the show has a laughable track record when it comes to supporting past contestants. Its last two country winners, Season 7’s Craig Wayne Boyd and Season 11’s Sundance Head, never even released albums on the show’s affiliated record label, Universal/Republic. But Kelly is bringing Brynn Cartelli on tour with her; Brynn is managed by Kelly’s husband, Brandon Blackstock; and Brynn just ditched Universal/Republic in favor of the label to which Kelly is signed, Atlantic Records. So, all this bodes well for the future of Team Kelly's latest champ. Watch this space. Other performance highlights from the finale included Kennedy belting “When Love Takes Over” with Kelly Rowland, theatrical tour de forces by Panic! At the Disco and Halsey that were more exciting than almost any other performances on The Voice this season, Kirk with his idols Rascal Flatts, and actual Idols Jennifer Hudson and Kelly making Tuesday seem more like an American Idol finale with their shoe-toss-worthy “O Holy Night” duet. There was also a fabulous “bringback” soul revue featuring semifinalists Patrique Fortson, Kymberli Joye, MaKenzie Thomas, and the controversially bused DeAndre Nico. DeAndre still didn’t get the Adam apology many fans believe he is owed, but at least he got a little more screentime (and a standing ovation from all four coaches, including Adam) to make up for his previous shoddy treatment. (Snarky side note: Reagan Strange later sang in a lovely group number with Sarah Grace and Abby Cates, and her bathrobe was nowhere to be found. But if DeAndre had worn a bathrobe to Tuesday’s finale, it would have been the ultimate trolling move.) The Voice returns for Season 16, with John Legend replacing Jennifer Hudson, on Feb. 25.