Kane County’s champion on NBC’s “The Voice” said his farewell Tuesday night, finishing fourth in the singing competition finals, but the future looks bright for the young man who once “auditioned for every musical” at St. Charles North High School.

Jeffery Austin was the winner of an “instant save” in the previous week’s semi-finals and performed several times Tuesday night, including a final-four rendition of “Lean On” by Major Lazer, “Climb Every Mountain,” a duet with Madi Davis on Amy Winehouse’s heartfelt “Tears Dry on Their Own” and a duet with Tori Kelly on her hit “Hollow,” according to the NBC show summary.

But in the end, the confetti-cannon fire and Season 9 trophy was presented to Jordan Smith, likely the odds-on favorite going into the show.

Coaches Gwen Stefani, Adam Levine, Pharrell Williams and Blake Shelton dressed to the nines and helped celebrate the new champion. The two other contestants in the running were Barrett Baber and Emily Ann Roberts.

Other performers on the Tuesday night reality show included Coldplay, Country heartthrob Sam Hunt, Hip-hop artist The Weeknd and superstar Justin Bieber.

With all appropriate drama, host Carson Daly announced the runners up, finally proclaiming that Jordan Smith is the new Voice champion.

For highlight clips, photos and bios, see the Artists page here.

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  Feature Photo: Jeffery Austin, Season 9, CREDIT: NBC.com/the-voice

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About Jeffery Austin

After Jeffery’s father passed away when he was 9 years old, Jeffery grew up with his mom, grandparents and brother. During that time, Jeffery pursued music in high school and auditioned for all the school musicals. At 16, with the support of his family, Jeffery came out after years of trying to hide his sexuality. Despite wanting to study music in college, his mom preferred that he take a more stable course. Jeffery majored in communications with an emphasis in advertising. He now works at a public relations firm in New York, but is still itching to do music full-time.

SOURCE: The Voice website, artists’ profiles

About ‘The Voice’

“The Voice” is NBC’s vocal competition show, now in its ninth season. Internationally acclaimed artist Gwen Stefani returns to join megastars Pharrell Williams, Adam Levine and Blake Shelton as celebrity musician coaches, while Carson Daly serves as host.

The show’s innovative format features five stages of competition: the first begins with the blind auditions, followed by the battle rounds, the knockouts, the live playoffs and finally, the live performance shows.

“The Voice” is a presentation of United Artists Media Group (an MGM company), Talpa Media USA Inc. and Warner Horizon Television. The series was created by John de Mol, who serves as executive producer along with Mark Burnett, Audrey Morrissey, Lee Metzger and Jay Bienstock.

SOURCE: The Voice website