"I didn't handle it well": Guy Sebastian admits he slipped up

Guy Sebastian has admitted that he “didn't handle it well” last night after a tense episode of The Voice.

Fellow coaches Kelly Rowland and Delta Goodrem ripped into Sebastian for treating a contestant “unfairly”.

The episode featured “The Battles” stage of the competition, where coaches put two of their team members against each other to sing the same song in front of the studio audience.

After the song, the coach picks their favourite and another judge has an opportunity to “save” the singer that would be eliminated. The coach can only use one of two saves per Battles stage.

Guy chose Bukhu Ganburged to take on fellow teammate Johnny Manuel, who is a fan favourite to win the competition.

Bukhu had a stunning “Blind Audition”, where his Mongolian throat singing allowed him to produce two or more notes at the same time stunned the coaches.

However, fans of the show questioned whether or not how far the throat singing would take Bukhu as he would have to sing other songs that had lyrics.

Guy chose Michael Jackson's Earth Song for the duo to perform, with Johnny singing the bulk of the lyrics and Bukhu providing a backing melody with his throat singing.

After the performance, Delta said Guy picked a song she felt was designed to let Johnny shine instead of both singers.

“How was this a battle because it felt like Bukhu was your backing player,” Delta said to Johnny and Guy. “I didn’t at all feel it was fair. Bukhu was backing you and that was it.”

Kelly agreed with Delta, but Guy said that Bukhu made it to the “Battles” round due t his throat singing skill and not his actual singing voice.

“Just so I’m clear,” he said to his fellow judges, “you guys turned around for Bukhu (in the Blind Auditions) for his vocals?”

“Let’s be real,” he continued. “I turned around because there was something unique about Bukhu, but it’s his throat singing and his playing and his insane musicianship.

“What’s unfair is if I get Bukhu to sing up against Johnny,” Guy said.

Delta stood by her point, saying “Right now, we are in a “battle” and it's about giving a song that is fair to both artists”.

However, Guy said that Bukhu was happy with the arrangement of the song.

“Bukhu doesn’t put his hand up and say to me that he’s a singer as a pop singer,” Guy said. “He’s not trying to out-sing Johnny, so why would I put him in a position where he doesn’t shine in his best light?”

Host Darren McMullen then asked Bukhu what he thought about the arrangement and whether or not Guy's song choice was unfair to him.

The 35-year-old throat singer said, “Honestly, I don't know actually.”

Kelly then stormed off set, saying that she didn't want to continue the argument with Guy.

“I’m not gonna go back and forth with you, Guy, I’m not doing this,” she said as she walked backstage.

“What’s a walk off gonna do?” Guy said to Kelly. “It’s so disrespectful.”

Kelly heard the comment from backstage and yelled back angrily: “No, you’re disrespectful, you’re disrespectful! In that case don’t put them together!”

After the airing of the episode, Guy took to Twitter to explain his side.

“There is a lot that people don’t see on this show including mentoring and follow up phone calls with the artists. I am disappointed that I didn’t just cop it on the chin and bring focus back to the artists.”

He continued: “It was a challenge having someone like Bukhu and I admit that it seemed vocally unbalanced. I wanted them both 2 shine & thought that showcasing Bukhu’s musicianship was the way 2 do it. He is exceptional and I’m sad that this went down the way it did due to my choice.

“It’s something that cuts me & I didn’t handle it well.”

This article originally appeared on Over60.

“I didn't handle it well”: Guy Sebastian admits he slipped up

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