The season's first steal pits John Legend against Gwen Stefani on The Voice

The Battles have commenced on Season 24 of The Voice and this might only be the beginning, but the coaches are already fighting to build the best team possible to move forward in the competition. That's right — the steals are back and already causing a stir. This season, coaches John Legend, Gwen Stefani, Niall Horan, and Reba McEntire will have two steals to grab another team's contestant if their own coach doesn't select them to win their Battle, which means we can expect a lot of team movement throughout this round.

Reigning Voice champ Niall Horan knew he was putting himself in a tough spot by pitting his two "very sweet, folky singer-songwriter" voices together in his first Battle of the season: Lennon Vanderdoes versus Tanner Massey. He gives them Billy Joel's "She's Always A Woman" and tells them it'll really come down to who can tell the story on stage the best, because he's such a fan of both. In Lennon's Blind Audition, in which he sang "The Night We Met" by Lord Huron, Niall told him that he had one of his favorite voices of the season. Tanner impressed, too — after the 19-year-old's rendition of Lewis Capaldi's "Before You Go," the former One Directioner said he saw a younger version of himself in Tanner. So, it's no surprise that Lennon and Tanner deliver a moving performance with some cool, nuanced musical choices and put their coach in an agonizing position of having to pick just one.

All of the coaches are impressed with the Battle. Gwen calls Lennon and Tanner "both mind-blowing in [their] own way," but tells Tanner that the moment he began singing she was "dead in love with [him]." John agrees that the performance was "magical" and went back and forth between the two vocalists, but would give the slight edge to Tanner. Niall is moved by both of his team members, pointing out Lennon's control and Tanner's beautiful riffs and flares, but in the end he can't help but be enticed by the singer with a super unique tone and he chooses Lennon Vanderdoes as his Battle winner. Lennon will be moving on to the Knockouts on Team Niall.

Before host Carson Daly can even hand things over to Tanner to say thanks to his coach, both John and Gwen press their buttons to try and steal the young artist for their own teams. John loves the confidence with which Tanner carried himself on stage and knows that America will love him. Gwen reminds Tanner that she fought for him in the Blinds (against both Niall and Reba), so really this is the second time she's begged for him to join her team. Plus, she points out, she has a son his age who is also a singer, so she's prepped and ready to work with a vocalist like him. Both John and Gwen think they could help Tanner sail through this competition. After a little back and forth, Tanner decides to join Team Gwen. All the coaches know steals can change the game — maybe this one did just that. We'll have to see how the rest of Season 24 shakes out.

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

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