21-year-old NC singer crushes performance in first round of competition of ‘The Voice’
A local singer is still in the running to try to win on the new season of “The Voice.”
After blowing away all four judges during his blind audition, 21-year-old Bryson Battle from Harrisburg went head-to-head in his first battle of the show.
Spoiler alert: He won. If you missed the latest episode, here’s a recap of what happened.
Preparing for Battle’s Battle Round
During the Battle Rounds, contestants are paired to sing the same song — with their coach ultimately deciding who will advance to the next round.
This season, the Charlotte-area singer is working with John Legend as his coach, with the help of actor and singer-songwriter Coco Jones as the Battle Advisor for their team.
For his Battle Round, he and contestant Ari Camille were challenged with singing a duet of Muni Long’s “Made For Me.”
Aside from pushing through the competition, Battle has big plans for pursuing a musical career, which he shared ahead of taking the stage with his teammate.
“After I graduate, I do plan on moving to New York, and the hope is that I will book a show,” the rising senior at Berklee College of Music said.
“I’ve always wanted to make music and make art, but I grew up in a little town in North Carolina, and there wasn’t a ton of diversity. It was very isolating, but my parents did a wonderful job of making sure that I got exposed to the arts. Seeing people that looked like me on a stage made me believe that this was something that I could do.”
“And now, I’m here getting to work with John and Coco. It’s really progressing my art and furthering my training and pushing me in the direction that I want to go in.”
As Legend put it, Battle can do runs like an R&B artist but reminds him of a classically trained artist. That combined with his partner’s vocal skills ultimately is why he thought their song would be a great pick for them both.
As a theater kid, the biggest piece of feedback he received was to lay it back in certain moments to not sound “too musical theater-y” and to ultimately “find the fun.”
In the end, it paid off.
Ari Camille vs. Bryson Battle
Here’s a snippet of some of the judges’ reactions to Battle’s performance:
Adam Levine: “I wanted so desperately to have you on my team …You were as spectacular then as you are now, man. Like, you can’t sing better than that.”
Kelsea Ballerini: “What I really appreciated is you guys both have these big, bold voices that you demand attention, but you didn’t try to out-sing each other. You held space for each other. Part of being a solo artist is, down the road, finding those collaborations and making those musical moments … I’m just impressed with both of you separately and together.”
Michael Bublé: “Bryson, you remind me in so many ways — with the runs that you can do, with your tonal quality, with your range — so much of me…That was a joke … Identical, I wish.”
John Legend: “Bryson, everybody’s jaw is on the floor seeing the things you can do with your voice. The beginning of the performance required such finesse, and you did that with such skill. Then you allowed yourself to grow into the performance and let it build in a way that was really beautifully orchestrated.”
As the winner of the Battle, he will now move on to the Knockout Round for Team Legend, in which contestants duet again with their own songs.
‘Bryson could win “The Voice’’’
“Ari versus Bryson, I loved each of their individual performances, but Bryson is truly one of the best vocalists we have in the competition this season,” Legend said. “Bryson could win ‘The Voice.’ With that raw talent, his charisma, his confidence, he could be unstoppable.”
How to watch ‘The Voice’
You can tune in and watch Battle’s journey continue in new episodes of ‘The Voice’ on NBC every Monday at 8 p.m., and the next day on Peacock.
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