Niall Horan made history on ‘The Voice’ finale thanks to the decision of contestant’s six-year-old daughter

It took two nights and four hours, but the final field of five was narrowed to just one person on The Voice Tuesday, sending home one harmonic hopeful with $100,000 and a record contract as the winner of season 24.

The very long night (more on that in a minute) included performances from Keith Urban, AJR, Tyla, season 25 coaches Dan + Shay (more on that in two minutes) and the legendary Earth, Wind & Fire. Plus, all of the season's coaches joined together for a holiday song and the remaining five contestants all sang duets with their respective coaches.

But, more importantly, a winner was crowned. So here’s a look at who sang their way into The Voice history, the cute story behind it and what viewers reacting on social media thought of it all.

And the winner is…

Monday’s two-hour performance night featured two songs apiece from the remaining five singers: Lila Forde from Team John Legend, Mara Justine and Huntley from Team Niall Horan and Ruby Leigh and Jacquie Roar from Team Reba McEntire. The show’s fourth coach, Gwen Stefani, was the only one without a singer in the finals.

After viewers voted and everything was tallied up, host Carson Daly announced Tuesday that Huntley, a soulful and rock-centric vocalist, was the winner. Along with the official title of The Voice, Huntley won $100,000 in prize money and a record deal with Universal Music Group.

Coming in fifth place was Forde, fourth was Roar, Justine was third and Leigh was the runner up. The win for Huntley marked back-to-back titles for coach Horan, who won the previous season — his first — with Gina Miles taking home the crown.

Huntley, who is 33-years-old and from Fredericksburg, Va., sang songs from artists like KALEO, Creed, Bon Jovi and the Black Crowes on his way to winning. And his six-year-old daughter, Stella, helped him choose Horan as his coach for the season.

All thanks to Stella

After Huntley and Horan won the night, viewers reacting on social media were quick to remember that it was all thanks to the gut feeling of Huntley’s six-year-old daughter, Stella, who was brought on stage after Huntley’s four chair-turning audition to help decide what team her dad was going to be on.

She chose Horan, and the rest is now Voice history.

Loser of the night: the episode length

While many viewers were happy to see Huntley win and learn that Earth, Wind & Fire still sound pretty great after all these years, a common thread while the show was trending on social media was that it just didn’t need to take two hours.

And despite the fact that pretty much all of the network reality competition shows have been dragging out season finales since the early days of shows like American Idol and Survivor, that didn’t stop viewers from voicing their thoughts on the matter on social media.

Looking ahead

The next season of the Emmy-award-winning show is just around the corner, slated to arrive in the spring of 2024 with a somewhat different line-up of coaches.

For the first time in the show’s history, season 25 will feature two people occupying the seat of one coach, in the form of country duo Dan + Shay. They'll be joined by McEntire, Legend and Chance the Rapper, the latter of which has also appeared on previous seasons.

In 2021, Dan + Shay (real names Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney) became the first artists to win the Grammy Award for Best Country Duo/Group Performance three consecutive times since the inception of the category.

The Voice airs on NBC and is available for streaming on Peacock.