Idol Chatter & Voice Views

And talk about a smart audition. MacKenzie, 23, of Lafayette, La., served up a medley of song from the three judges — “Stupid Boy” and “Memories of Us” by Keith Urban, “Come By Me” by Harry Connick Jr. and “Love Don’t Cost a Thing” by Jennifer Lopez.

And it worked, of course. Harry Connick Jr. called him a “smart son of a gun” and said MacKenzie came off as “sweet and charming.” Jennifer Lopez and Keith Urban both complimented his vocals.

MacKenzie was a contestant on Season 3 of The Voice and made it all the way to the Top 20, even though only Cee Lo Green turned around for his blind audition performance of “Pumped Up Kicks.”

In his pre-audition interview clip, we heard about how MacKenzie spent two months in the hospital as a teen with a a virus that was shutting down all his organs and leading to congestive heart failure. He was placed in an induced coma on a feeding tube at one point, and his parents weren’t sure he’d survive.

On The Voice, MacKenzie said his medical problems spurred him to take the chances that led him to audition for the show.

“Too many people take waking up every morning, breathing every morning, for granted,” he said at the time. “I would have been one of those people. Not anymore.”

Since appearing on The Voice, MacKenzie has released a pair of singles, “Everyone’s Got a Story” in 2013 and the ridiculously catchy “Heartbeat” in 2014. You can listen to both below.

MacKenzie told his hometown newspaper, The Advertiser in Lafayette, that appearing on Idol is “surreal” because he grew up watching the show.

And he thinks his chances are better on Idol than they were on The Voice because of the fact that he’s matured musically.

“Strictly because now I know who I am as an artist,” he says in an interview you can read here. “I’m a singer/songwriter who does pop music. I’m coming into this knowing who I am and I’m going to do the best I can not letting that get away from me.”

You can follow MacKenzie through his Facebook page. On Twitter, he’s @bourgmackenzie.

Now, those promised videos.

“Everyone’s Got a Story”

“Heartbeat”