The Voice season 19 has come to an end, and Carter Rubin is your new winner! The teen singer, who is just 15 years old, beat out Team Blake’s Jim Ranger for The Voice crown during the Dec. 15 finale. With Carter’s win, Gwen Stefani nabbed her first win as a coach! HollywoodLife has 5 key things to know about the new champion of The Voice.
1. Carter stunned the coaches in the blind auditions. Carter performed the Lewis Capaldi song “Before You Go” for his blind audition. At the time of his audition, Carter was only 14 years old. After hearing his amazing voice, Gwen, 51, and John Legend, 41, were the coaches to turn around in hopes of nabbing Carter.
2. Gwen Stefani pledged to be a “mom figure” for Carter. When making the case for why he should be on her team, Gwen told Carter: “My son, he’s 14 years old, so I could be like a mom figure for you because I am a mom so you could feel very comfortable around me,” she said. “I loved your voice. When you got into your real full, full voice, the tone was so beautiful, it was shocking to me.” He ended up choosing Gwen as his coach!
3. He started his Instagram account when he auditioned for The Voice. Carter, who hails from Shoreham, New York, posted for the first time on his Instagram account in early October. “The secret’s out: I AUDITIONED FOR @nbcthevoice who’s ready for the season premiere on october 19? #TheVoice,” he wrote. Since his Instagram journey began, Carter has amassed over 27,000 followers.
4. His brother has autism. While talking with the coaches after his blind auditions, Carter’s dad, brother, and grandfather got to be a part of this incredible moment virtually. Carter revealed that his brother was diagnosed with autism at the age of 2 and gushed over their amazing “bond.” During the semi-finals, Carter dedicated his performance of “Rainbow Connection” from The Muppets Movie to his brother.
5. Carter is already thinking about his first album. Artists like Harry Styles, Shawn Mendes, Ed Sheeran, and Lewis Capaldi have influenced him in a major way. “They have definitely inspired some of my songwriting,” Carter told HollywoodLife and other reporters. “I want to get in the studio and record that and put it in front of people to hear because I take music very, very seriously, and I go off of those famous people that really have inspired me to find my own genre and style of music. So that is what I want my album to sound like.”