Cade Mower moved forward on The Voice on Monday night after Riley Green chose the 35-year-old Utah singer over Brayden Howell in the Battle round. The decision kept Mower alive in the competition and extended the run of a contestant whose audition had already made him one of the season’s most-watched names.
The result mattered because Mower was not the sort of singer coaches expect to turn into a viral breakout. He works as a wealth adviser, has a full-time career outside music and is a father of two, yet his voice has kept pulling attention back to him. His audition with Zach Bryan’s Something In the Orange won over all four coaches in a matter of seconds and has drawn more than 3 million views on The Voice’s official YouTube channel.
That background gives Monday’s Battle round extra weight. Mower and Howell, a 19-year-old singer from North Carolina, performed the Red Clay Strays’ Wondering Why, and the coaches sounded divided by how much each artist brought to the stage. Kelly Clarkson said Mower’s vocals were insane after the performance, while Adam Levine said he wished he could have heard more of Mower’s vocals and missed the stripped-down edge of the blind audition. Queen Latifah said Mower had been on her brain since he first walked out, but also said Howell gave him a run for his money.
The surprise is that Mower’s biggest jolt on the show has come from the contrast between his day job and what he can do when the music starts. Clarkson had already teased that point at the audition, asking, “You’re a finance bro with that voice?” Mower has leaned into the strain of doing both worlds at once, saying being away from his family during filming had been “a massive sacrifice,” and adding that if he could win the Battle, it would be one step closer to making that sacrifice worth it. He also said his wife, Lindsey, is not just along for the ride but his biggest fan.
Green made the choice after calling the decision “extremely difficult” and then told Mower that one of his best qualities is knowing exactly what he is, what he does well and what he wants to do. That keeps Mower on Team Riley Green and moves him ahead in the competition, though his next round has not yet been spelled out. For a contestant who came in as a wealth adviser from Bluffdale, Utah, the bigger question now is whether the voice that stunned all four coaches can keep doing it as the field gets tighter.
