Each of the singing talent shows has its own format, but all of them have one round where contestants are pitted directly against one another. In The Voice franchise, these are known as the battle rounds–two singers are on the same stage, singing a duet of a single song, and one of them is chosen as the winner.

What’s amazing about the Voice battle rounds is that sometimes they produce performances that are better than many of the individual performances that got the singers into the next round to begin with. Well here’s a performance that is so memorable you’ll wonder how the judges could have voted either performer off.

This is from The Voice of Germany and it features Karina Klüber and Alexander Eder. Alexander was well known from his initial round for his extremely deep voice when he sang Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire.”

Well in this round the pair takes on another iconic American song, “In the Ghetto,” a song written by Mac Davis and made famous by Elvis Presley. It speaks of the harsh realities of life in a ghetto and the cycle of poverty and crime that exists there. It is a somber reflection on the struggles that the people living in the ghetto face and how their fate is largely determined by their environment. The song has become an anthem for those living in poverty and has been covered by numerous artists over the years.