- "The Voice" started in 2011, and the 23rd season ended on May 23, 2023.
- In honor of the latest season, we've ranked the last 23 winners from least to most successful.
- We considered chart history, success of other contestants, and social-media followers.
Miles, 19, was crowned on May 23, becoming Niall Horan's first win — in his first season on the show, the two proved to be a force to be reckoned with.
She's already released an EP, "Who Are You," with an original song reaching 136,000 streams, so we can assume that big things are in store for Miles.
She currently has 59,700 followers on Instagram.
Leatherwood, 23, was part of Team Blake, making it Shelton's ninth (and final, for now) win overall.
As he only won five months ago, he hasn't had much time to make his mark — though, he has played at Shelton's bar chain Ole Red in the last few months. He has plenty of shows lined up, according to his website.
He currently has 86,200 followers on Instagram and 7,400 followers on Twitter.
Since winning eight years ago, Kaufman, 47, hasn't had any original music hit the Billboard charts. He's also only released one album, 2019's "Ndoxo, Vol. 1." In 2017, he appeared in a Broadway holiday medley show called "Home for the Holidays," hosted by "Bachelorette" lead Kaitlyn Bristowe and co-headlined by "American Idol" winner Candice Glover. He has 29,000 Instagram followers.
The main thing working against Kaufman though, is the fact that both the late Christina Grimmie and controversial (yet highly successful) country star Morgan Wallen were on his season — they're easily the most talked-about contestants from season six.
Plus, most of his recent songs on Spotify have only been listened to around 1,000 times.
Four years later, and we're still waiting for Jarmon, 30, to release her first album or any single, but her advantage is her Instagram following, which is at 62,100 followers. She also has a presence on TikTok.
Her recording of "Unforgettable," with John Legend, topped the Billboard 200 after she won.
Tilghman, a 45-year-old pastor, won "The Voice" three years ago, and as such, hasn't had time to do anything, although he released a single, "Home Wasn't Built in a Day" in September 2022, and another, "Fall," in October. Most recently, his single "Blood, Sweat & Tears" was released in May 2023.
He has a perfectly respectable 46,200 followers on Instagram.
Rubin, who is just 17, won "The Voice" in 2020. He gets the edge on Tilghman, as he has over 20,000 more followers on Instagram with a cool 65,600. His debut single, "horoscope," was announced on September 20, 2021, and has around 250,00 streams on Spotify.
His most recent single, "Mess me up," was released in April 2023.
Paul, 43, unfortunately was more successful before he went on "The Voice." He had even been nominated for a Grammy! But nine years on, Paul's failed to chart any singles on the Hot 100, had one song peak at No. 27 on the Adult R&B Airplay chart in 2013, and his most successful song on Spotify is from January 2012 — before he was on the show.
He's also not verified on Instagram, but he does have over 16,500 followers on the app.
Paul also has the success of other contestants from his season working against him, like Chris Mann, Juliet Simms, and Raelynn.
Boyd, 44, has only released one album, "Top Shelf," since his win back in 2014. He did have a No. 1 song on the Hot Country chart, but it was one of his songs from "The Voice," and he hasn't had much success since. His Instagram follower count sits at 30,900.
Most recently, he released a five-song EP, "From the Inbetween," in 2019. He released a single in May 2023 called "Golden."
What gives him the slight edge over others on this list is that the only other famous person from his season is Bryana Salaz, who recently starred in the Netflix series "Team Kaylie."
Colon, 45, will forever be known as the first "Voice" winner, but Kelly Clarkson he is not. He has 25,100 followers on Instagram and a thriving TikTok presence.
But, unfortunately, he hasn't had a song chart on the Hot 100 since his season, and he has only released one album, "Gravity," which came out in 2016. His highest-charting album actually came in 2003, years before he ever appeared on TV.
Anthony, 21, was actually already successful before he took home the crown, as he was a YouTube star when he was just a pre-teen back in 2014, and was even profiled by The Source, who called him a "singing child prodigy." Anthony, then 12, also sang the national anthem at the White House and performed on "Ellen."
In 2018, when he was 16, he then won a show at the Apollo on the Fox reality show "Showtime at the Apollo."
However, through all of that, he never officially recorded his own original music, leading him to "The Voice" in 2021. He won and subsequently is recording new music. His most recent single, "Keep It Between Us," dropped in July 2022.
Anthony has over 64,000 subscribers on YouTube and 107,000 followers on Instagram.
The 33-year-old singer found success on the R&B charts with his covers on the show, but post-"Voice," Blue is still waiting for a real breakout. He was consistently releasing music, which is more you can say for other winners — he had the 2019 album "Fresh Start" and 2019's Christmas album "One Light."
According to his Instagram, which has 87,900 followers, he dropped a single, "Moon," in April 2021.
Girl Named Tom, which consists of Caleb Liechty, Joshua Liechty, and Bekah Liechty, had a career before "The Voice," though they had only released music independently. When they won, they became the first-ever trio to win "The Voice."
Although they've only been winners for a year and a half, they're already successful. The band has 157,000 followers on Instagram, released a Christmas album, "One More Christmas," in November 2022, and are currently on tour.
Hoot, 34, recently reunited with his coach Kelly Clarkson for a duet in February 2021, "I Would've Loved You," which peaked at No. 1 on the Country Digital Song chart and has over 3 million streams on Spotify. He also released his second EP, "Fan Made Tapes," in January 2022. His latest single, "Endless," dropped in February 2023.
But he hasn't found much success on his own. He has performed at the Grand Ole Opry many times, and he has a respectable 74,400 followers on Instagram, but we have a feeling he'll hit some higher highs later in his career.
Kohanski, 29, released her first EP in 2019, called "Fantasy," and a single, "Cosmic," in 2020. It's since garnered over 1.5 million streams. She's one of the rare "Voice" contestants whose original music outperforms her covers on Spotify as well, pointing to her popularity. She's also garnered 58,300 followers on Instagram and has topped Billboard's Emerging Artist chart multiple times.
In 2020, she announced she was parting ways with Republic Records (like many "Voice" contestants do), so we'll see what's next for Kohanski. In 2021, she released her first album, "All the Same Ok."
Now, she's known as sweet93 and is re-releasing some of her old music, like her cover of "Strawberry Fields Forever" in February 2023.
While Head has a smaller Instagram following (30,500 followers), the 44-year-old singer has released four albums, and his coronation song, "Darlin' Don't Go," peaked at No. 67 on the Hot 100. That song also peaked at No. 4 on the Hot Country chart. Head also had a cover, "Me and Jesus," top the Hot Christian chart.
His most recent album, "Starting Again," came out in September 2022.
Porter, who used to be best known for playing the titular role in "Curly Sue," is now a singer and an influencer, with over 114,000 followers on Instagram.
Porter, 41, had her coronation song reach No. 100 on the Hot 100, but she hasn't had a single there again. Her pre-"Voice" album, "Who We Are," is still her highest-charting album, which peaked at No. 20 on the Americana/Folk chart.
Where we gave her a leg up, however, is that she's still releasing music. She had an album come out in 2019, "Pink Cloud," and a 2020 single called "Lungs." Porter is also a vocal coach.
Chin has one of the biggest followings of any "Voice" winner, with over 291,000 followers on the app. But the 37-year-old singer's social media success hasn't really translated to the charts. At the time of her win, her first post-show release had the lowest sales of any "Voice" winner at the time.
However, the album did peak at No. 41 on the Billboard 200, which is now something that rarely happens to "Voice" winners. She also was asked to perform at the White House in 2014.
She dropped a single, "Surreal," in January 2023.
This 20-year-old has found success as a country singer. Her coronation song hit No. 1 on the Country Digital Song Sales charts (and had two other top 10s on it, as well), and she reached the top of the Emerging Artist chart. Shepherd also released a country album in 2020, "A Good Ol' Country Christmas." She dropped a seven-track EP, "Everybody's Got a Story," in March 2021.
Her single "Lookin' for Loretta" was released in February 2023.
She also appeared in the film "Wildfire" in 2020, and the film "Vengeance," directed by BJ Novak, in 2022.
Shepherd has 139,000 Instagram followers.
Fredericks, 24, set iTunes records when he appeared on the show as he had "14 songs in the iTunes Top 200 Singles Chart" after his finale, and every week had his cover reach the top 10 of the iTunes singles chart — both show records. Republic Records also said he came close to breaking the one-day download record with his song "Please."
"Please" also peaked at No. 37 on the Hot 100, and he had two albums reach the Billboard 200: 2015's "Sawyer Fredericks" and 2016's "A Good Storm." Fredericks also found success on Country, Rock, and Alternative charts. His most recent album was released in 2020, called "Flowers for You," though he released an EP in 2023 called "The Golden Tree."
His social media drags him down a bit though, with just 89,500 followers on Instagram.
Cartelli, now 20, won when she was 15, and younger than Carter Rubin. She currently has 223,000 followers on Instagram, giving her the slight edge over Shepherd.
Her top song on Spotify is her most recent single, "Secondhand Smoke," which has over 1.4 million streams, though she has other original songs like "Last Night's Mascara" with 11.5 million streams, "If I Could" with 13.3 million streams, and "Love You in My Mind" with 5.5 million streams.
Cartelli also was nominated for a People's Choice Award in 2018.
Smith, 29, made Billboard history in December 2015 when he held the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on the Hot Christian Songs chart. That alone would secure him the third-place spot on this list, but Smith also reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with his debut album, "Something Beautiful," and No. 11 with his 2016 Christmas album, "'Tis the Season."
Overall, he's had three No. 1 songs on the Hot Christian Songs chart and three top 10s. Smith's also got 156,000 followers on Instagram, and he even wrote the "Deadpool 2" song "Ashes," performed by Céline Dion.
In 2022, Smith represented Kentucky in "American Song Contest," the American version of Eurovision. He performed the song "Sparrow." He came in third.
Bradbery, 26, is a legitimately successful country singer. None of her top songs on Spotify are from "The Voice," and she had an original song peak at No. 58 on the Hot 100, as well as two original albums reaching No. 19 and No. 41. Her most-streamed song, "Sway," has an impressive 62 million streams.
She's also had seven songs on the Hot 100, 15 songs on the Hot Country chart, with "Goodbye Summer" with Thomas Rhett peaking at No. 39 in 2018. Her 2020 single "Never Have I Ever" reached No. 58 on US Country Airplay. Additionally, she has 486,000 Instagram followers.
More recently, she was nominated at the 2019 Academy of Country Music Awards for New Female Vocalist of the Year. She also appeared in episodes of "Nashville" and "Hart of Dixie."
In April 2023, she released her latest single, "Monster." It has 260,000 million streams on Spotify.
Pope, 33, already had a following by the time she appeared on "The Voice," but she was competing in a completely new genre. As the lead singer of Hey Monday, Pope was part of the pop punk scene, but on the show, she revealed she wanted to be a country singer.
Her debut album in 2013, "Frame by Frame," peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard 200 and reached No. 1 on the Top Country Albums chart. She also got her own episode of "Lip Sync Battle," and she was even nominated for a Grammy in 2016. Currently, she has 583,000 Instagram followers.
Her new album, "Thrive," was released October 2021. She dropped a single, "People That I Love Leave" in 2023.
Pope's season also had famous faces like Melanie Martinez, Loren Allred, and MacKenzie Bourg, but that can't take away that Pope is easily the most successful "Voice" winner of time.
from All Insider Content https://www.insider.com/the-voice-winners-ranked-by-success-2021-3