Idol Chatter & Voice Views

A former contestant on The X Factor, Brandon Showell made The Voice Season 13 as a solo artist.

But this time around will be a whole lot different than the first for the 26-year-old newlywed from Virginia Beach.

Back in 2011, Brandon was part of a four-man vocal ensemble called 4Shore that had developed a following on YouTube and around their hometown.

They landed a spot on Season 1 of Simon Cowell’s The X Factor and headed off to the judges’ house round where they were coached by Paula Abdul and Pharrell Williams.

They were eliminated before the finals; the next year, Brandon left the group to finish college and try his hand as a solo artist.

Now he’s trying his hand as a pop/R&B singer on The Voice. So far, so good.

He turned three chairs with his blind audition performance of “There’s Nothing Holding Me Back” by Shawn Mendes and opted to join Team Adam.

“I never would have imagined turning three chairs,” Brandon said after the performance. “I think Adam’s the coach that can help me the most with my stage presence and confidence by sharing his experience.”

As a solo artist, Brandon honed his skills by spending nearly a year performing on the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line in a 1970s and 1980s cover show.

During a conference call interview with the media, Brandon said he loved the opportunity to travel and is grateful to the cruise line because he knows he improved as a performer during that time.

But he decided to leave the job because he missed his family — including his financee and now wife Perla. Oh, and there was a second factor in that decision.

“I can’t swim,” Brandon said, jokingly. “So every day was a Fear Factor for me because I sometimes would even sleep with my life jacket in my little bunk because I did not want to have a Titanic part two.”

He was also looking for a more stable career. So the George Mason University grad became an English and voice teacher with Arlington Public Schools in Virginia.

His students know he studied music in college, Brandon told The Voice. They don’t know — or didn’t until the blind audition aired — that he’s an aspiring performer who sings in a corporate and wedding band on weekends.

Oh, and 2017 is turning out to be quite the year for Brandon. The Voice blind auditions were filmed in June. The next month, he married Perla.

“When it’s time to dive, it’s time to dive all the way in,” he said. “That’s what I was doing with my personal life as well as my career.

“I felt like this was the year to do it,” Brandon added, referring to The Voice. “I trained a lot for the past year and a half vocally, and this was the year that I felt like I was ready to do it.”

Here are Brandon’s social media links, followed by a couple of samples of his music.

Instagram
Twitter: @brandon_showell
Website
Facebook
YouTube