Meet Damien of Team Adam on The Voice

The Voice

September 28, 2014 By Mark Franklin 0

His audition: Damien, 35, of Monroe, La., auditioned with Boyz II Men’s “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday” and displayed one of the best pure voices we heard during week one of Season 7. That voice prompted Gwen Stefani, Pharrell Williams and Adam Levine to spin their chairs in rapid succession. Later, they were joined by Blake Shelton, giving Damien a choice of any coach on The Voice. “I’ve been told no so many times, it just feels good to see you guys turn around for me,” a tearful Damien said before deciding to join Team Adam.

His background: Damien moved from Louisiana to Los Angeles at age 22 to pursue his dream of becoming a singer. “Making it in music has been very hard, so I had to get a job.” And that job is working as a TSA agent at LAX airport. He was working there on Nov. 1, 2013, when a gunman opened fire, wounding Damien’s partner and killing one of his co-workers. Damien sang at the funeral, a memory that has him on the verge on tears. “After the shooting, it let me know that I need to go after my (music) career even more. Tomorrow is never promised.”

What the show didn’t show: He’s performing as simply Damien on the show, but his name is Damien Lawson and his Facebook bio tells us he started performing in church and at town events back in Louisiana at the age of 3. And this isn’t his first televised singing competition. Back in 2007, he was a runner-up on “Gifted,” a Trinity Broadcast Network Christian singing competition along the lines of American Idol. In fact, you can still download his cover of “Blessed Be Your Name” from that show on iTunes. That’s the only music he has available on that site, but you can check out a number of his covers on YouTube and Soundcloud. He describes his genre as R&B, pop and soul. Why Team Adam? “What Adam said resonated with me,” Damien explains. “He said he really felt the emotion. And I’m the type of singer who’s very selective about what he sings. I want to sing something that means something, something that inspires people, something that means something to me. So when he said that, immediately I connected.”

Update:
Blind audition: All four coaches turned their chairs when he sang Boyz II Men’s “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday.”
Battle round: Defeated Kelli Douglas; they sang Otis Redding’s “Knock on Wood.”
Knockout round: Defeated Toia Jones with his performance of “How Do I Live” by LeAnn Rimes.
Live playoffs: He sang “I’m Not the Only One” by Sam Smith. The song landed at number 40 on the iTunes overall singles chart and number one on the R&B/Soul chart. He was voted into the finals.
Top 12: He sang “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” and the song was one of the top performers on iTunes, hitting number 12 on the overall singles chart and number one on the R&B/Soul chart. He was voted into the Top 10.
Top 10: He sang Stevie Wonder’s “You and I.” He was voted into the Top 8 after the song landed at number 59 on the overall iTunes chart and at number three on the site’s R&B/soul chart.
Top 8: He sang Adele’s “Someone Like You.” Damien earned bonus points when the song hit number seven on iTunes; it was also number one on the site’s R&B/Soul chart. He was voted into the Top 5.
Top 5: He performed Michael Jackson’s “She’s Out of My Life” and Paula Cole’s “I Don’t Want to Wait.” The former gave Damien yet another #1 song on the iTunes R&B/Soul chart, but the songs landed at #26 and #58 on iTunes overall chart, the eighth and 10th best from Top 5 night. He landed in the bottom two on results night, so he had to compete in the wild card round, singing “Grenade.” The next morning, he learned fan voting had made him Season 7’s fourth finalist and the show’s first-ever wild card finalist.
The finals: His new single, “Soldier,” landed at number eight on iTunes’ overall singles chart and number one on the R&B/soul chart. His duet of “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” with Adam Levine landed at number 25, and his cover of “A Song for You” wound up at number 41. He finished fourth in the voting; Craig Wayne Boyd the Season 7 title.