Idol Chatter & Voice Views

His audition: Blessing Offor, 25, of New York, auditioned with Bill Withers’ “Just the Two of Us.” Sitting behind the keys, he delivered a solid vocal, a strong ending and enticed chair turns from all four coaches near the end of his performance. Gwen Stefani called his voice “beautiful” and complimented Blessing on his personality and confidence. Pharrell praised Blessing’s approach to the song and reminded him that he knows something about mixing genres. Blessing joined Team Pharrell.

His background: Born in Nigeria, Blessing is blind. He was born blind in his left eye and with congenital glaucoma in his right eye. At age 9, he was shot in the right eye with a water gun and says the stream of water detached the retina. “I was left with no vision, and had to figure out what God meant with this.” Upon arriving in New York, he says he played “everywhere you can imagine.” That includes some pretty prestigious locations, like the Kennedy Center seven or eight times. “Music has been the North Star, the thing I’ve wanted to do no matter what’s been going on in my life,” he says. His goal: To be able to play and write music the rest of his life.

What the show didn’t show: Blessing is one of The Voice artists with no shortage of original material to check out. He released a 10-track album called “Guilty Pleasure” in 2010, which is now on iTunes, and three singles since — “Loving Each Other,” “June,” and “Roots.” The latter (also embedded below) came out in January. In 2010, Blessing was also the recipient of an International Young Soloists Award presented by VSA, an international organization on arts and disability. According to his Facebook bio, he’s opened for The Temptations, Average White Band, and Tower of Power. He describes his genre as R&B/soul/funk. As for his music, he writes this: “I miss the kind of music that makes you snap your fingers, but still manages to leave you with something to think about. That’s the kind of music I want to make.” This isn’t his first stab at a reality singing competition. In 2011, he placed 11th on the Bravo song-writing competition Platinum Hit. In his Voice video, Blessing says, “I want to do the Lionel Ritchie model, which is great country songs sung with a lot of soul.” That’s one reason he was initially leaning toward Blake as a coach. “That was my thought up until Pharrell started talking. And he’s like, ‘Dude, I want to mix ingredients that have never been mixed before.'”

Update: He lost his battle round match to Katriz Trinidad; they performed “Do I Do” by Stevie Wonder. But he was stolen by Adam Levine. In the knockout round, he performed John Mayer’s “Your Body is a Wonderland,” but lost to Chris Jamison. This time, he wasn’t stolen.

On iTunes: All the aforementioned releases and his audition song. You can check out more of his music on Soundcloud.

Keeping up with Blessing:
Twitter: @BlessingOffor
Facebook
Website

“Roots” (original)

“59th and Lex” (original)

“Leather Jacket” (original from his 2010 album)