Season 22 of The Voice just had it's semifinal results show, which determined which five contestants were going to proceed to the season finale next week.
Fans online had a whole lot to say about how things went down.
There was a pretty clear trend in who was voted for as soon as host Carson Daly started announcing the results of the vote.
Three of the singers who advanced were country singers and part of country singer Blake Shelton's team: Bryce Leatherwood, Bodie and Brayden Lape. The fourth was Morgan Myles, part of Camilla Cabello's team.
All 4 who received the most votes were White.
But all 4 of the people of color participating in the competition, including all 3 members of John Legend's team: Kim Cruse, Parijita Bastola and Omar Jose Cardona and Justin Aaron from Gwen Stefani's team, were in the bottom 4 by a number of votes and were left to compete for the last spot in the final.
Omar Jose Cardona was able to advance to the finals with his Instant Save performance of Lady Gaga's "You and I," though the voting percentages for this segment were not shown on the screen like they have been in the past, so it's unknown what percentage of voters opted to support him.
You can view his performance of "You and I" below:
Omar Jose Cardona's Last Chance Performance of Lady Gaga's "Yoü and I" | NBC's The Voice 2022www.youtube.com
There were almost immediate callouts of the voting audience on social media when the voting results were announced.
Some people pointed out that all 4 non-White contestants being left to compete for the last spot in the finals was not a good look.
"Contestants moving on to the next round consisted of White people while the remaining four, all people of colour, are competing for the last spot." —@BuzzingPop
Others pointed out this isn't the first time the contestants with the lowest votes have all been BIPOC.
Many people also pointed out there has been a pretty strong trend for years of people voting for Blake Shelton's team above others, often skewing the vote strongly toward White, male, country singers—as Shelton tends to choose to coach contestants who sing the same style of music he does.
Shelton is leaving The Voice after the end of this season, so it remains to be seen whether the votes will be so starkly divided in future seasons.
