Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Jonathas was 4 when his family fled the poverty and violence of Brazil for the promise of the United States.

He knew no English at the time, and says he learned to speak the language by listening to as much music as he could.

Now 23 with two children of his own, he’s hoping The Voice can launch his musical career.

“This would be the American dream,” he says of doing well on the show. “And it would mean my mother didn’t bring me here for nothing.”

On MySpace, he’s known as Jonsense and classifies his music as Latin, pop and R&B.

And this isn’t his first attempt at success on a reality TV show. He made it to the Vegas round of Idol in Season 10 as Jonathas Ojeda before being eliminated.

In his video interview with The Voice, he says he’s been singing seriously since age 15, writes some of his own music and now considers R&B his primary genre.

“I kind of feel like I represent the struggle,” says Jonathas, who was unemployed at the time of his audition. “Just the whole passion of singing, when you sing it, how you sing it, how you move, the performance. That’s what I feel will separate me from everybody else.”

You can follow Jonathas on Facebook here. On Twitter, he is @iknowJONATHAS.

Now for some Jonathas — or Jonsense — music.

“Doing It Wrong”

“Beat It Up”

The Voice audition — “U Got It Bad”