Nick Hagelin Won The Best Instant Save Ever

And that's what you call a shut-out. For the first time in my history of watching The Voice, the Instant Save vote was not split evenly. In fact, Team Christina's Nick Hagelin defeated Team Pharrell's Daniel Passino with nearly 75% of the vote. If this was the presidential primary, one candidate would be very happy right now. Though this vote isn't quite as high stakes as the presidential election, it's still an admirable accomplishment of which Hagelin should be very proud. This defeat advances Hagelin into the Top 9 where he'll definitely be expected to bring it, because fans will be expecting him to live up to his big win.

If you've watched The Voice like it's your job (like I have, because it is my job), then you know that the Instant Save is almost always extremely close. It usually seems as if the numbers are fake because they are so close every week — until now. Instead of the normal 51/49 split, Hagelin and Passino's totals were approximately 77/23. Extremely encouraging for Hagelin, pretty depressing for Passino. What makes this defeat even more surprising, though, is that the contestants were pretty well matched. Both Hagelin and Passino have the same style and are good performers, but certainly in need of technical improvements. So what caused the major split?

It all came down to song choice. Hagelin appealed to the ladies with a sweet rendition of Ed Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud," while Passino punched up the energy with Bruno Mars' "Uptown Funk." Though neither was the perfect pick for either contestant, Hagelin's was certainly more suited for his voice and for the occassion. It showed off all the good elements of his talent. Plus, it didn't hurt that it won over all the ladies in the audience. Passino's performance, on the other hand, wasn't suited for him and ended up falling flat. Unfortunately for him, this led him to his demise. One thing's for sure, you're only as good as your last performance — thankfully for Hagelin, his was pretty great.

Image: Tyler Golden/NBC