Meet Mendeleyev of The Voice Season 17

The Voice

September 7, 2019 By Mark Franklin 0

Mendeleyev of Santa Barbara, Calif., earned a spot on The Voice Season 17. (NBC Photo)

His audition: Mendeleyev, 28, of Santa Barbara, Calif., performed “Girl from the North Country” by Bob Dylan. He opted to sing solo without The Voice band because “that’s the way I thrive.” His nice deep vocals eventually provoked near simultaneous chair turns from Blake Shelton, Kelly Clarkson and John Legend. Gwen Stefani eventually gave in to Mendeleyev’s vocals too, making him the fourth four-chair turn of Season 17. John called him unique and artistic and complimented him on a rich tone. Mendeleyev opted to join Team John.

Here’s more about Mendeleyev.

* On Facebook, he describes himself as a multi-instrumental producer and Los Angeles based singer-songwriter spreading funky soul-folk all over the world.

* He’s also released four singles that are available on iTunes — “Breaking It” from 2017 and “Breaking Free,” “Pure” and “If I Can’t Be Free” from last year.

* In his Facebook bio, Mendeleyev writes that he started playing guitar at age 3 and eventually became proficient on piano, bass guitar and drums as well.

* He went on to attend the Berklee School of Music, graduated and “has barely stopped moving since.”

* The moment that inspired him to become a musician came when he attended a sold-out show at the Arlington Theatre in Santa Barbara. He was invited on-stage to sing Sublime’s “What I Got” with Michael Franti and Jack Johnson. “In that moment, I knew I wanted to perform.”

* He and his bands played venues around Santa Barbara, but Mendeleyev also toured Europe with a band called Travelers that included his brother and Berklee classmates.

* And, in the summer of 2010, he played acoustic guitar and sang for people all over Africa and India, he says.

* In a March interview with VoyageLA, he says his full name is Mendeleyev Galileo Einstein Pythagoras Darwin Euclid Leonardo Allan-Blitz. He says he’s named after his parents’ favorite scientists. He grew up in Santa Barbara with hippie parents. For short, he goes by “Lev.”

* And here’s what he says about his music: “My message IS inspiration. Plain and simple… I get people singing together. No matter where I am. I want to keep inspiring everyone I am around from my students to my fellow musicians. My goal is inspire more people to play more music. In order to do that I strive to be as musically diverse as possible.”