The era of Blake Shelton and Adam Levine has ended, and Usher is now the reigning champion of The Voice. On Tuesday, May 20, the R&B singer’s contestant Josh Kaufman took home the season 6 win, beating out Levine’s Christina Grimmie and Shelton’s Jake Worthington.
This marks the first time the country crooner and the Maroon 5 frontman have been bested on the NBC reality show, and Usher was more than happy to help break their streak.
“You want the real thing? Man, it feels good to have a new coach win,” the “Climax” singer told Us Weekly. “I couldn’t take another season of that. If Blake won again, I would have walked off the stage.”
Though he will be vacating his seat this fall for season 7—Pharrell Williams and Gwen Stefani will be newbie mentors—Usher did hint that his win might inspire him to return for a future season of the series.
“This obviously gives great reason and logic to come back and defend the title, but also to change the idea of what type of winner wins and what it takes to win,” Usher continued. “Winning was every bit of what I would have hoped for, losing was not an option. I couldn’t imagine walking away this season, after seeing season after season of Blake and Adam winning. I think that Josh really put up an incredible performance and fight in this competition.”
Soul singer Kaufman admitted he’s most excited to spend time with his family after the nail-biting finale.
“For me it had been such a stressful night and morning, and I don’t know what was going through my mind,” Kaufman told Us. “It was a lot of nerves and heart racing and waiting and it felt like forever and it was great to be up there with the two of them. Both of them are amazing performers as well, so it was mostly anticipation and wondering what was going to happen next.”