Hunter Plake Found His Groove On 'The Voice'

I know I say this every week, but it really feels like The Voice's Hunter Plake is consistently a frontrunner with every round he successfully goes through. As we entered into a fresh round of competition, Plake sang "All I Want" by Kodaline on Monday night's episode of The Voice. It felt like a familiar song for Plake: a bit alternative, a bit rock, very plaintive and very much in his "sensitive bae" mode that's become his niche this season. That said, Plake not only killed it during his performance, but he was also able to get a full and sincere seal of approval from coach Gwen Stefani.

It may be easy to peg Plake as a risk-averse performer at this point in The Voice. He's stayed comfortably in his alt-rock lane for a majority of this season. He's hit relative softballs out of the park when it comes to the genre of a song or even the staging of a performance. At the point, you can safely bet that he will stand for a majority of the time at the microphone, pour his heart out on stage, and the song he is singing will be either a ballad or...well, a ballad.

But here's the thing: Plake is doing this really, really well. It's now to the point that it doesn't even matter if he is staying in his own lane and doing his thing. Why mess with a good thing, right? Plake knows what works for him and, unlike the other performers on The Voice, he's sticking to his winning formula.

Plake did so well bringing Kodaline's "All I Want" to life on The Voice stage. When he took to the stage, surrounded by glowing pyramids, there was a sense of calm and serenity about him. His voice shifted comfortably into that soft tenor we've become accustomed to over the last few weeks. As he took off into the song, he painted for us a picture of a man yearning to be loved; it was very easy to get into his groove and on his level.

This performance left the judges in awe. Coach Adam Levine complemented Plake for doing the one thing many contestants on The Voice struggle to do — and the one thing that I mentioned above — which is finding his voice and his style right away. Stefani also noticed Plake's comfort with his own style and brand, leading her to give him a ringing endorsement. Her pleas to voters across the nation rang out on television, attempting to use some serious pathos to reel us in. Something tells me her words will have a magical and protective effect on this stellar performer.