Meet Jordan Smith of The Voice Season 9

The Voice

September 28, 2015 By Mark Franklin 0

His audition: Jordan Smith 21, of Harlan, Ken., auditioned with “Chandelier” by Sia. He enticed a chair turn from Blake Shelton midway through the performance. And as his voice soared on the chorus, Gwen Stefani, Pharrell Williams and Adam Levine turned as well, giving him the season’s second four-chair turn. Gwen rushed the stage and hugged Jordan. Adam complimented him on doing so well with such a difficult song and, because of his message, called him “the most important person that’s ever been on this show.” Jordan opted to join Team Adam.

His background: Jordan says he’s from a really small town. “I haven’t always been the coolest person,” he admits, adding he started singing in church. “That’s where my roots are and that’s what I love,” he says. As a result of his high voice, he said he gets called ma’am on the phone and at drive-thrus all the time. “Through that, I had to learn that being different is what made me special. It’s my gift. This is just an amazing share that it’s okay to be different and it’s okay to be yourself because you were made that way and that’s what God intended you to be.”

What the show didn’t show: We didn’t learn a lot about Jordan the singer because of the way his audition was presented on The Voice, so here’s the scope. He comes from a musical family — his father was a professional pianist and his mother is a singer. He got his start singing in church and says he still enjoys leading worship. But it was in high school that he really decided he’d like to pursue music as a career. He’s now a senior at Lee University, studying music business and performing with the college choir — the Lee Singers — and they’ve performed at President Obama’s second inauguration and at the Vatican in Italy.

In a bradcooney.com podcast interview you can hear here, Jordan says he enjoys a wide range of music — from Whitney Houston to Jessie J. to Sara Bareilles (listen to his remarkable “Stay” cover below). He considers himself a pop singer with R&B and soul influences. Sia’s “Chandelier” isn’t typically a song he’d sing, he admitted. But he added that he appreciates the song’s message. “I knew this audition was a really big deal and I wanted to do something to make me stand out as much as possible in the judges’ mind,” he says in the podcast. “I knew if I could actually pull it off, it would be impressive.” Viewers were as impressed as the coaches. As of Friday night, the video of Jordan’s audition had attracted more than 5 million views. And his song was the best-selling of all the opening night audition songs on iTunes.

As for picking Adam? Well, in a conference call interview with the media, Jordan called him “a phenomenal musician. He has a great ear.” But he also said he felt an emotion connection to the lead singer for Maroon 5. “While I’m not sure if I am the most important person who’s ever been on the show, that’s a pretty bold statement,” Jordan says. “And for him to say that, it meant a lot to me and showed he was emotionally invested.”

For links to more bios of Season 9 artists on The Voice, head here.

On iTunes: Just his performances on The Voice.

Update:
Battle round: Defeated Regina Love singing “Like I Can.” The song hit #117 on the iTunes’s singles chart, the fifth best of the battle round. Regina was stolen by Gwen Stefani.
Knockout round: He sang Adele’s “Set Fire to the Rain” and defeated Viktor Kiraly. The song was the second best performing on iTunes, hitting number 50 on the Top 200.
Live playoffs: He sang “Halo” by Beyonce and scored the week’s biggest hit on iTunes, hitting number three and earning bonus points in the process. He was voted into the finals for Team Adam.
Top 12: Jordan sang “Great is They Faithfulness, and the song soared to number one on the iTunes 200. He was voted into the Top 11.
Top 11: He sang Jessie J’s “Who You Are” and cracked the iTunes Top 10 for the third straight week. The song hit number eight, second best on the show behind Amy Vachal’s “Blank Space.” Jordan was voted into the Top 10.
Top 10: He sang a singing show favorite, “Hallelujah.” Fans clearly approved. The song hit number two on iTunes, best of any from a Voice contestant on Top 10 night. Jordan was voted into the Top 9.
Top 9: Jordan scored his second number one on the iTunes Top 200, topping even Adele’s “Hello” with his performance of Queen’s “Somebody to Love.” He was voted into the Top 4.
Top 4: He was named The Voice winner. On performance night, he sang “Mary Did You Know,” which hit number one on the iTunes 200; “Climb Every Mountain,” which hit number three; and sang “God Only Knows” with Adam Levine, which hit number five.