Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Chris Kroeze and Merrcedes perform during a Team Blake Shelton battle round match on The Voice. (NBC Photo)

Chris Kroeze’s battle round match-up seemed like an odd fit.

The 27-year-old country, blues and southern rock artist from Barron, Wisc., was matched up with Mercedes Ferreira-Dias, a 17-year-old whose parents immigrated to the U.S. from Venezuela.

Turns out the pairing proved less of a challenge than the song they were asked to perform, according to Chris.

In the end, it worked out just fine for him.

Blake Shelton declared Chris the winner after he and Mercedes performed Steve Winwood’s “Back in the High Life Again.”

That means Chris advances to the knockout round, which begins Oct. 29 on The Voice. Since no one stole her, Mercedes was eliminated from the competition.

Chris told Voice Views his pairing with Mercedes was a “shock” at first.

“But once we started singing together, it made sense,” he added. “Our voices blended really well. We had some cool harmony parts and yes, it seemed like a fit once we did it.”

As for the song, Chris said it’s one he’d never heard before, let alone performed.

“I didn’t like it right away,” he admitted. “It grew on me. I mean, it worked out as a duet song. I don’t know if I’d ever sing it alone just because it’s such a strong harmony song.

“But yes I wasn’t thrilled about it right away, but I kind of figured out that James Taylor did the harmony parts on it originally. I’m a James Taylor fan, so that was cool.”

And his performance wound up drawing praise from the coaching panel. Blake said a voice like his “is the reason the show exists. Adam Levine called him “amazing” and apologized for “being asleep at the wheel” and not turning during Chris’ blind audition.

The lesson?

“What I took away from that would be, no matter what comes at me, I just got to take it and do what I can with it and put everything I can into it,” Chris said.

“It was completely out of my wheelhouse, but I worked on it and we got it worked out.”

The Season 15 battles continue Monday and Tuesday night on The Voice.

See also …
Videos from Night 1 of the battles
Videos from Night 2 of the battles
Katrina Cain talks about the side of her music she hopes to display on The Voice
Nastasia Greycloud, Mike Parker talk about their dual battle round success
Kymberli Joye says her background of being in the background helped during the battles
Steve Memmolo, Anthony Arya talk about surviving the battle round on The Voice
Sandy Redd talks about being stolen and landing on Team JHUD
Michael Lee talks about battling a friend in the battles
Patrique Fortson, Colton Smith talk about taking on a Blake Shelton song

Mercedes and Chris Kroeze rehearse for their Team Blake Shelton battle round match on The Voice. (NBC Photo)