Long Island's Dan Kiernan knocked off 'The Voice'

Despite a powerful yet nuanced rendition of R&B singer Shontelle’s up-tempo "Impossible," Amityville’s Dan Kiernan lost in the Knockout Round of "The Voice" Monday night and is off the NBC singing competition.

Pitted against Tinika Wyatt, a teammate on coach Kelsea Ballerini’s roster, who performed the Bee Gees’ "Best of Your Love," Kiernan delivered an emotionally raw take on composers Arnthor Birgisson and Ina Wroldsen’s song about regret over caution in a love affair that led it to end. Dressed in a glittering, studded black leather suit, black T-shirt and silver necklace, he delivered a performance of dynamic highs and lows — and a dramatic pause after one lyric to then come punching back hard on the next. He concluded with a sustained vibrato.
Country music star Ballerini said making a decision between the two singers “is very hard for me. I want to honor what happened today.” After a pause, she announced Wyatt as the winner.

“If I was going to go out, that was the way to do it,” Kiernan, 34, told Newsday on Tuesday. “I love a big, emotional power ballad, so it was really on my ‘Voice’ bucket list to get to do a song like that.”

The coaches were impressed. “Dan, it feels like you have a higher purpose when you're performing,” John Legend told him afterward. “And I love the intention that I felt in every note that you sang.” Adam Levine added, “There's something about your voice. It fills this whole room. Obviously your physical presence as well. All of it together is really engaging and it's really special.”

And the ever-excitable Michael Bublé gushed, “Dan, you were like two different people! You went from Bruce Banner, so composed, then you turned into the Incredible Hulk! ... And I was like, ‘Go, Hulk, go!’ ”

“I was really proud of getting through the moment and making sure I delivered it emotionally and making sure vocally it was what I wanted,” Kiernan said of what he felt after the verdict. “The coaches’ feedback the whole time has been so amazing and helpful and constructive that I really was just grateful. To have some of the biggest stars in the world validate things that maybe even only you thought about yourself, that you wouldn't even say out loud, is the greatest gift you could ever get.”

Kiernan in last week’s Battle Round had bested Jessica Manalo on Chappell Roan’s 2024 power-pop ballad “Good Luck, Babe!” On the “Voice” season 27 premiere on Feb. 3, his rendition of “High Hopes” by the emo-punk group Panic! At the Disco earned him a place on Ballerini’s team.

Kiernan said he will be releasing new music soon, and is scheduled to go on tour this month with R&B singer Remember Jones’ “Back to Black” concert of singers and a 12-piece orchestra performing Amy Winehouse’s album of that name. He will also be playing pride festivals and has been invited to work with Wheatley Heights’ Usdan Summer Camp for the Arts.