Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Blessing Offor, from The Voice Season 7, will release a new album Feb. 10.

And it’s just a sample of the new music coming from the Season 7 contestant on The Voice.

Blessing’s new album, “Roots,” will be available Feb. 10. Pre-orders are underway on iTunes.

Now 26, Blessing advanced to the knockout round before being eliminated from The Voice last fall.

He’s the contestant who traveled from Nigeria to the U.S. as a young boy for treatment of congenital glaucoma, a condition that left him with no vision in his left eye and limited vision in his right eye.

And he wound up losing that vision when he was shot in the eye with a water gun at age 9.

Music became his calling. He’s a past winner of the Kennedy Center International Young Soloist Award. He’s performed there four times.

He competed on Bravo’s song-writing competition “Platinum Hit” in 2011. And his cover of Bill Withers’ “Just the Two of Us” prompted all four coaches to turn their chairs when he auditioned for The Voice.

Blessing has released music in the past — an album in 2010 and a series of singles since then.

But he wrote or co-wrote all 11 tracks on the new album and says “this is what I consider my first achievement as an artist that I’m going to stand by for my whole life.”

Here’s my interview with Blessing.

Voice Views: Tell me about your new album and what you’re trying to accomplish with it.

Blessing: This, in my mind, is the first step on a long journey of perfecting the craft. This is a very singer-songwriter oriented, get back to love songs sort of thing. My favorite kinds of records are the records where not only do you experience love and heartache and all these things, but where the writer also tells you what he thinks of the world and life at large. There’s a few songs on there that are more about the world. I’m really proud of it. It’s a very well-rounded kind of record.

Voice Views: You released a single called “Roots” a while back. It that the title track?

Blessing: The single, I released in early 2014. I think I wrote the song six months before that. I really liked it. We did it and released it and thought, ‘This is a great single. We should build the entire record around this concept of roots.’ I really wanted to write a record about just the basics — roots, love, peace, world awareness — the positive things I think maybe we don’t focus enough on nowadays with everything going on.

Blessing: I grew up on James Taylor and all these heavy-hitting — well, not only great singers and songwriters, but great statement makers. Today when I listen to the radio, I wonder why no one is making statements about everything going on — France, Nigeria, even Ferguson, Mo., and New York. There’s so much to say. And I think “This is Life” is, for me, one of those songs that tries to say something. I miss when people try to say something of significance in music as opposed to ‘let’s party all the time.’ Which is fine message (he laughs), but I think the civil rights in the ’70s and ’60s were what they were partly because of the music going on back then as well as what was going on socially. I feel like we’re missing that art imitating life ingredient.”

Voice Views: And what’s the message in “This is Life”?

Blessing: There are a few pivotal moments in life history where things can go one way or another. This is one of those moments where there is so much change and so much possibility that, if we are not careful as humans and artists and people to kind of protect the idea that good and love and all these things have to triumph over the easy inclination to hate each other and blame each other, that we could really end up going down a horrible path. We’re all in this together, and we have to find a way to make it work, one way or another.

Blessing Offor performs during Season 7 on The Voice. (NBC Photo)

Blessing: The exposure to a national audience can never be understated. My producer says to me: ‘Blessing, you’re not any more talented now than you were the night before everybody heard of you, it’s just that now people know you’re here.’ That’s not something I can ever take for granted.

“I think maybe the other biggest difference is just getting to stand next to Pharrell and Adam (Levine) and Alicia Keys and give Taylor Swift a hug. I’ve had people come up to me and say, ‘Can I hug you just so I can vicariously hug Taylor Swift?’ And I’m like, ‘That’s creepy, but of course you can.’ It’s been really great and it’s allowed for a lot of really great opportunities. I think I’m just looking forward to introducing people to my music. The Voice and I will always be good friends.”

Speaking of opportunities, Blessing is also planning a trip back home sometime this year.

He’s hoping to turn the experience into a documentary, “Blessings from Home,” to be released sometime in 2015.

The timing of the trip hasn’t been determined, but Blessing said he’s hoping to for sometime in May or June.

“I was born in Nigeria, and I haven’t been home in about 20 years. I haven’t seen my parents for that long. We’re wanting to go home with a film crew and do something powerful, culminating with playing a show back in Nigeria.

“I want people to know Nigeria is a really wonderful place. That’s where I come from. All the good that is in me came from there.”

While he hasn’t seen his family for 20 years, he talks to them once a week.

“My dad said to me, ‘It’s like my son got sentenced to a 20-year prison sentence and I haven’t seen him.’ The last time they saw me, I was 3 feet tall.”

Blessing is planning an album release party on Wednesday, Feb. 11, at the Rockwood Music Hall in New York.

For more information on that and to keep up with Blessing, check out his Facebook page or website.