Julia Michaels Was One Of Several People Wowed By This Week's "Unexpected And Exciting" Winner

Television | Celebrity

Julia Michaels Was One Of Several People Wowed By This Week's "Unexpected And Exciting" Winner

If you're someone who regularly watches singing competitions, you probably know better than anybody that doing something different isn't always the key to success. Throughout tons of competitions where a country gets to vote on the winner, you often end up getting two people who are barely any different from each other going head-to-head in a battle of pure popularity.

Well, if there was a ever a week where The Launch proved that it has a refreshingly different take on singing competition shows, this was it.

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This week the judges had to pick two people to perform the new song "Codes," and the talent on display wasn't just amazing, but also diverse. Executive producer and Big Machine Label Group CEO Scott Borchetta, writer producer Ian Kirkpatrick (Selena Gomez, Jason Derulo), and Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Julia Michaels had a tough decision ahead of them. In the end, the win went to Toronto-born R&B singer Jayd Ink.

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With a background in poetry and several years of performing already under her belt, Jayd isn't just unique, but also assertive. She states from the get-go that she can't get behind a song that she can't put a personal stamp on, and even after being selected by the judges to be one of the two to move ahead and record her version of "Codes," she insisted on doing a different rendition than had been already mixed. In short, she's an artist.

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That's not to say that her smooth, funky R&B rendition of the song was without competition though (More from Jayd here). Jayd was up against Zack Lane, a talented pop singer who already has an active touring schedule, and has even gotten to perform alongside legends like Jann Arden and Alabama's Jeff Cook. Zack's more direct and poppy rendition of the song easily could have pulled him through to the end, as he definitely had his fans (especially Julia Michaels, who seemed to be crushing on him a bit).

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In the end though, it was the more dramatic shift in songwriting and performance that won out, as Jayd brought down the house with an R&B and reggae style that seemed effortless. As Kirkpatrick commented to her, "the way you came in with ideas was really unexpected and exciting. You made it your own." We're inclined to agree. Check out more from him here!

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Jayd Ink's debut single, "Codes," is available for purchase everywhere here. You can also follow her on Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube.

For more information on The Launch, feel free to check out the show's official website!