Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Jackie Foster and D.R. King rehearse for their battle round match on The Voice. (NBC Photo)

Every season on The Voice, there’s a battle round match or two where everything clicks.

That’s what happened for D.R. King and Jackie Foster when they covered “Sign of the Times” by Harry Styles in a performance that aired Monday.

The Voice coaches certainly noticed. After Kelly Clarkson advanced D.R., all three of the other coaches tried to steal Jackie, something that seldom happens.

Fans noticed too. The song rocketed up iTunes. By noon Tuesday, it was number 71 on the overall singles chart and still climbing.

To put that in perspective, prior to Monday, only five songs from Season 14 had cracked that chart and only one had climbed higher.

D.R. King and Jackie Foster await the outcome of their battle round match with Carson Daly. (NBC Photo)

“Teamwork makes the dream work,” said D.R. “We didn’t go into it as a battle. We were just trying to create good music, and I feel like that’s what we did.”

Jackie agreed.

“We just wanted to build one another up through the process,” she said during a Tuesday conference call with the media. “We got along so well. We found it fun to figure out what we were going to do and how we were going to make this song so epic. And I think it came off that way.”

D.R. also credited Kelly for “being an amazing coach” and providing pointers that helped make the performance such a success.

Kelly declared D.R. the battle round winner, saying he’s bold and willing to experiment with song choice.

That put Jackie’s Voice future in jeopardy. But only momentarily. Adam Levine pushed his steal button, followed by Blake Shelton and Alicia Keys in rapid succession.

That left Jackie with another decision to make. She chose Team Adam. And not just because he said she has the potential to win Season 14.

“He’s someone who started off as a rock musician,” noted Jackie, lead singer for an alt rock Boston-based band called Self Portraits. “And even though I haven’t been showcased doing rock on the show yet, he understands it with Maroon 5 and their start-up and how they introduced themselves to the music industry. I felt he would such an incredible coach to direct me and bring forward my rock sound.”

As for D.R., he doesn’t plan to disappoint Kelly when it comes to his willingness to experiment on The Voice stage.

“The strategy I’ve been using is, I don’t want to be typical,” he said. “I am a black male and I was brought up on gospel and R&B. I don’t want people to just see me as that.

“I’m classically trained. I sing jazz. I sing everything. I want to always go outside the box with my song choices. I’m going to always go left field. So you might see me do some rock. You might even see me do something classical.”

The battle rounds continue through next week on The Voice. Meanwhile, if you missed the performance by Jackie and D.R., here it is.

Also see
iTunes results from Monday night
Monday night battle recap
Meet all 48 singers from Season 14