Kelly Clarkson & Riley Green Have a Double-Steal Showdown After Kayleigh Mathews & Lillie Kolich Smash ‘Girl Crush’ on ‘The Voice’

Kayleigh Mathews and Lillie Kolich proved that there is definitely no such thing as too good a thing during Monday night’s (Oct. 12) latest Battle Round on The Voice. Tucson country singer Mathews — who earned a four-chair turn in her blind audition during the early rounds of season 30 — and Albuquerque native Kolich went head-to-head on the episode with a stirring duet on Little Big Town‘s 2015 Billboard Hot Country Songs chart No. 1 smash “Girl Crush,” and it left the show’s coaches in a bind.

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The Team Queen members gave it their all from the top, with Mathews opening the battle with a clear, confident run through the song’s first few lines, and Kolich picking up the second half of the opening verse, trading her partner’s twang for pop polish that made coach Kelly Clarkson purse her lips and quietly exclaim “whooo!”

They then kept trading lines, teaming up on the song’s “I got a girl crush” refrain, intently singing face-to-face, showcasing their vocal prowess without obviously trying to upstage one another in a tour de force that got coach Queen Latifah on her feet shouting “Come on!” They ended by crooning “I’ve got a heart rush/ It ain’t slowin’ down” in perfect harmony as they sang to each other, and the coaches, with almost no distance between them.

The performance ended with an excited full-force hug and both women jumping up and down excitedly as all four coaches gave them props.

“Well that was fun,” Riley Green said, wondering how they came up with choreography that initially had them “mean-muggin'” each other before “falling in love” as the song went on. Kolich joked “we fought before this actually.” Riley gave props to Mathews for her “awesome” performance and “big voice,” while giving Kolich positive notes on the “unique stuff” she did with the low end of her voice, wishing Latifah luck in picking one over the other.

“It’s not going to be fun, Queen,” he teased. “That’s the problem when you get every four-chair turn on your team, you’ve got really talented people going against each other. So this is on you. If you want everybody during the blinds, you have to deal with this now.”

Clarkson said she’s heard many different versions of the song, dubbing the night’s duet her favorite to date. “Kayleigh, you just have such a huge presence, but your range is incredible. It was like a master-class, man,” Clarkson told them. “And Lillie, from the first time you opened your mouth, it crushed me. You made some choice on the word ‘maybe’ … That ‘maybe’ broke me in the best way ever. It was such a rad choice. It was so breathtakingly beautiful, both of you.”

She said she was slightly leaning toward Mathews, but said both deserve to be in the season finale.

Adam Levine posited that the song leaned toward Mathews’ sensibility, which should have been to her advantage, but he praised Kolich for stepping up and making the song work for her as well. “I think you guys both did an amazing job in your own way, but couldn’t be more different. Music is so unbelievably subjective. So Queen, as far as I’m concerned, you can’t really go wrong here,” he said, leaning toward Kolich over Mathews.

Latifah said she “felt honored” to witness the performance, describing how they seemed so connected to each other in rehearsals, praising Mathews for being “super respectful” of Kolich during the performance, but hoping she would find a way to make it her own.

“Boy, did you rise to the occasion and boy did you make this your own,” she said. “Every time you blended together in your harmonies, it was so spot on. That one note you sang, Lillie, was so special to me. Now y’all both have completely different pockets. You are kind of more on it. She’s [Kolich] more riding behind the beat. And I was like, ‘How are they going to make this work?” Y’all made it work. You managed to still sound so individual, but what a beautiful duet to sing together.”

Latifah went with Kolich, while saying neither should go home, setting up Clarkson to hit the steal buzzer to claim Mathews, followed by Green, who also wanted in on the action. “Look, I know what you’re wanting to do. He’s [Green] wearing a cowboy hat. I own cowboy hats. I just wear them at my ranch right here,” Clarkson jibed fellow coach Green. “But here’s the thing … Remember when you thought you were going home, the feeling you felt when you were like, ‘Oh my God, she picked me.’ And he didn’t push his button. I hit first. I have won a competition. I promise you I can do it. I think you should pick me.”

Green reminded Mathews that he was on board from the beginning, poking Clarkson and Levine for standing in front of his chair and trying to block the view of the country star because “they know we’re going to win.”

Tune in tonight (Oct. 13) to find out who Mathews picks when The Voice airs on NBC at 8 p.m. ET and on Peacock the next day.