Kanye West and John LegendĪlicia started the second round with “Underdog,” a track from her 2020 self-titled album. Much like Kirk Franklin and Fred Hammond’s Healing, Alicia and John joined more as a celebration than a battle, jumping on background vocals for each other’s songs and collaborating on select pieces like their collective welcome for the night’s festivities, a rendition of Bob Marley’s very fitting “Redemption Song.” In fact, one of the few viral moments was between comedian Tony Baker and Teddy Riley in the Verzuz chat at the very beginning of the evening. This Verzuz wasn’t full of the meme-generating moments, technical difficulties, and quotables that have become the secondary appeal of previous matches. Keys, who has also released new music with her self-titled album earlier this year, was a little less focused in her playlist for the night but covered all bases from big hits to newer cuts. He leaned heavily into his deep discography of features and some uncredited assists fans may not have known of. Legend, whose latest studio LP Bigger Love debuted on Friday, used the occasion to remind viewers-many of which were core Legend fans that have drifted since he’s gone more Adult Contemporary with his music-why they loved him in the first place.

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