Hawaii singer Joseph Soul advances on NBC’s ‘The Voice’

Joseph Soul’s dream journey toward winning season 19 of the NBC reality singing contest, “The Voice,” moved another big step forward last night when 34-year-old, Maui-born Makakilo resident defeated his Team Gwen teammate, Van Andrew, during the second night of Knockout Round competition.

In the Knockout rounds contestants choose their songs; the coaches decide the pairings and chose the winners.

Soul put his emotional treatment of “Lovely,” the 2018 Billie Eilish/Khalid hit, up against Andrew’s take on the Killers’ anthem from 2008, “Human.”

“The tone of your voice is one of my favorite voices I’ve ever heard, it just melts me,” Coach Gwen Stefani told Soul in naming him the winner, explaining that she thought he was “more ready” to move on the next round of competition.

“Wow!! Tonight’s performances were amazing!! So proud of #TeamGwen,” she tweeted afterward.

However, fans were not happy that the knockout ran as a 41-second “montage” that showed only part of Soul’s performance; the only camera time Andrew got was a shot of him looking on as Soul was singing. They responded with a barrage of tweets complaining about the abbreviated clip: “STOP MONTAGING,” “Would’ve been nice to SEE THE WHOLE BATTLE,” “Stop montaging team gwen” and “STOP MONTAGING, so unfair to the contestants, to the fans and TO GWEN” were representative.

Fans watching on YouTube expressed their feelings in similar terms.

“Shameful. You montaged Joseph and didn’t show Van at all. Absolutely shameful,” wrote one. “They really did Van dirty… But Joseph was so good I must say,” wrote another.

But, for Joseph Soul — who said via Facebook Messenger that he was “glad to have moved on” — and for Hawaii, the important thing is that his way to clear to the next level of competition.

The live competition rounds begin at 7 p.m. Nov. 30 on NBC.