Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Season 5 of The Voice begins Monday night at 8 p.m. on NBC. Check back for live blogs during each show and for bios of contestants who land a spot in the competition.

Meanwhile, it’s time to catch up with some familiar faces from past seasons, with the focus on those who have released music recently. JR Aquino, of Anchorage, Alaska, was 24 when he auditioned for Season 3 of The Voice.

Before The Voice: JR said the music scene in Anchorage isn’t exactly bustling, so he turned to YouTube as a means of getting his music heard. And he became something of an internet sensation, with more than 500,000 subscribers and nearly 42 million views as of today. He also tried American Idol, advancing to the final 44 in Season 4.

On The Voice: JR sang “Just the Way You Are” for his audition, prompting three coaches to turn around. He joined Team Cee Lo. But he lost to Diego Val in the battle round after they sang “Jessie’s Girl,” even though JR turned in the more impressive vocal.

Since The Voice: J.R. has continued posting frequent covers to his YouTube channel. Earlier this week, he added a cover of Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball.” More importantly, he released a debut single in March called “This Time,” followed by a full-length album by the same name in early April. The album’s release followed a successful kickstarter campaign that raised over $16,000. “These songs are a compilation of my life for the last three years, all the songs I’ve been writing,” he says of the album. I’ve posted the video for “This Time” below, and you can check out acoustic versions of other tunes from the album on J.R.’s YouTube channel.

Keeping up with J.R.: Here’s a link to J.R.’s Facebook page. On Twitter, he is simply @JRAquino.

J.R. Aquino, “This Time Around”