John Legend meets doppelgänger contestant on The Voice

If you happened to switch on The Voice during the middle of one artist's rendition of Sam Smith's "Stay With Me," for a split second you might have wondered to yourself, "Hey, why is John Legend auditioning for The Voice?" Upon closer inspection, you'd realize John Legend is still safely in his big red chair and that the doppelgänger crooning his way to a spot on season 24 is a 34-year-old from Sacramento named Talakai. But yes, they do look an awful lot like one another.

Talakai's intro package covers a lot of ground, including being his painful childhood in the foster system and how a friend's mom saved him by adopting him. But he hasn't let those dark times define him. He has a positive outlook on life and music, and clearly is happy to have a good time chatting about all of those John Legend comparisons. In what feels like kismet, it's John who presses his button for Talakai first — and before Talakai even hits the chorus, no less. Maybe it's tricky editing, but you can see John's face turn into a big ol' smile once he gets a look at the guy on stage.

Before Gwen Stefani and Niall Horan — neither of whom pressed their buttons during this audition — get turned around to let the pitching begin, John warns them: "Wait till you see his face." Talakai might not be John's "long-lost twin," but he definitely looks like he's part of the family, and everyone can see it. Even Reba McEntire, who did wind up pressing her button for Talakai and would love to have him on her team, knows the fight is futile. "I know I don't have a chance against John," she says.

While Talakai admits that people in school used to sing "Ordinary People" whenever he walked down the hallway (John apologizes for "haunting" him), their striking resemblance isn't why John turned his chair — this is The Voice, after all. Instead, John wants Talakai to know that he loves the guy's tone and "the richness in [his] voice." He thinks with a little infusion of storytelling and connection, Talakai would be "undeniable to everybody."

It's no surprise that Talakai ends up on Team Legend — it was meant to be! The look-a-likes seal the partnership with a selfie for John to show off. Now, we get to look forward to seeing John and Talakai in a room together making more doppelgänger jokes, and John gets to look forward to working with "one of the most handsome men [he's] ever seen."

The Voice airs Mondays and Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.

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