"The Voice" Recap: Home Towns And Cow Dung

It was The Voice semi-final last night, and you can bet contestants and judges alike pulled out all the stops. But while the contestants we’re putting on their best professional faces, the judges took the whole affair a bit less seriously. Usher, setting aside his judging duties for a moment, performed his new song, Good Kisser. The tune earned him a standing ovation from his fellow judges.

Usher used the opportunity to debut his new song.

But by far the best moment of the show came from Adam Levine. Eager to get back at Blake Shelton for tweeting out his phone number, Levine got creative. The Maroon 5 vocalist ordered two truckloads of cow dung to be unloaded in Shelton’s red pickup truck mid-show. Props to Levine – as on-air pranks go, that one should go down in the history books.

As for the contestants, in a theme, similar to the current round of American Idol, each of the five hopefuls hit the stage twice – once to perform a song dedicated to his or her hometown. Kristen Merlin’s renditions of Gunpowder and Lead (Miranda Lambert) and Foolish Games (Jewel) wowed the judges and apparently gave her mentor, Shakira, chills.

Josh Kaufman did John Legend’s All of Me and One Republic’s Love Runs Out, in an effort to prove that he could be “current” He got a standing ovation from Usher and apparently made Levine regret the decision to let him go.

Adam Levine had a good time getting back at Blake Shelton.

Kat Perkins, having gone through a physical and creative makeover, came out on stage with platinum blonde hair and took on the “Mount Everest of vocal challenges” with Levine’s choice of Sia’s current hit Chandelier. Naturally, her belting skills earned her a proud standing ovation from her coach. For her second performance, Perkins chose to sing one of the biggest and Oscar-winning songs of the year, Let It Go from Frozen. Lo and behold – another hit.

Jake Worthington got back to his roots with a full-blown cowboy-hat-and-acoustic-guitar country rendition of of Waylon Jenning’s Good Ol’ Boys to his best friends back home that got Levine to declare him a “real deal” country star that needs a “Made in America stamp.” Then he went for a big change in pace with Bryan Adams’ ‘80s pop classic Heaven.

Finally, it was time for Christina Grimmie to exhibit her own vocal chops. Coach Adam Levine’s decision to give her Imogen Heap’s Hide and Seek, in an effort to make her “fearless” backfired and Grimmie got only a lukewarm response. For her second performance, the young singer chose to take on Fun.’s “Some Nights.” The big performance ended with incredible high notes and a shower of balloons that had Shelton joking that the singer already won the competition.

Blake Shelton's team had a great night on Monday.