Adam Levine may have quickly leapt to defend his Voice contestant Tony Lucca Monday after Christina Aguilera trashed his “99 Problems” performance, but the Maroon 5 front man hasn’t totally written Aguilera off.
“I just want to say, I love you Christina,” Levine told Aguilera after she dissed Lucca Monday, slamming his final performance of Jay-Z‘s hip-hop hit as “derogatory towards women.”
PHOTOS: Nasty celeb feuds
To further extend an olive branch, Levine, 33, proudly pulled off his button-up shirt to display a black tee featuring with the phrase “Team Xtina” in pink lettering.
Prior to mending fences on live TV, though, Levine and Aguilera, 31, had it out over Lucca, who will battle Juliet Simms, Chris Mann and Jermaine Paul for the title Tuesday.
“Just to clarify, just so you all know, the intent behind the song…we talked about this for hours. The ‘… ain’t one’ [lyric] is life getting at you, things bringing you down,” Levine reasoned, justifying his and Lucca’s decision to go ahead with the controversial track, which originally included the lyrics ‘bitch ain’t one.’ “We’re not referring to women, we’re referring to everything.”
VIDEO: Tony Lucca tells Us he wants to duet with Christina Aguilera
When Aguilera protested that the song was indeed demeaning to women, Levine challenged her. “It’s called a metaphor,” Levine sniped back, without missing a beat.
“How convenient that she waits the whole season to talk about all things classy,” Lucca told Us Weekly after the show of Aguilera. “It’s just so transparent at this point and pathetic.”
As Lucca fights for season 2’s title Tuesday, watch more of Levine and Aguilera’s Voice battle in the clip above!