Idol Chatter & Voice Views

His audition: Rob Taylor, 22, of Donaldson, La., sang Luke James “I Want You,” displaying spot-on vocals from the word go. Christina Augilera turned around early in the performance. Then Rob’s vocals hit the stratosphere when he started singing falsetto, prompting Adam Levine and Pharrell Williams to turn their chairs as well. Christina rushed the stage to hug Rob. He joined Team Christina.

His background: Rob says he was raised by his mom, but she suffered a stroke when he was in sixth grade. Suddenly his mom, such “a strong woman” in his words, needed help with everything. Musically, Rob said his grandmother taught him his first song and his grandparents made him sing in church. After high school, he applied, was accepted and was offered a partial scholarship to the Berklee College of Music. “It was a dream come true,” he told The Voice. “But I thought it would be best to stay home with my mom.” Later, he adds: “I don’t regret anything. This (being on the show) makes up for everything.”

What the show didn’t show: To this point, Rob says most of his singing has been done in church and “small things around the community.” Though he wasn’t allowed to listen to a lot of secular music when he was young, he now says he’s fallen in love with “music as a whole — country, pop, rock, jazz, electric.” And he says the early advice from coach Christina is not to be afraid to try new things. As for that blind audition, it almost didn’t go nearly as well as it wound up. “The doors flew open and, initially, I forgot the words,” he said. “I put my head down, and I’m thinking, ‘What’s the first word?’ Then the music starts. So I just started singing. Luckily, the words came out.”

On picking Christina: Yep, the hug helped. So did her taking the mic and singing a few words of the song he had just performed, displaying her own vocal prowess. “She really made me feel like she would take me to the end,” Rob says, “so I had to choose Christina.”

On iTunes: Just his audition song.

Update: In the battle round, he was matched against Jeremy Gaynor, who turned four chairs during the blind auditions. They sang “Animals” by Maroon 5. Christina declared Rob the winner; Jeremy was eliminated from the show. In the knockout round, he was pitted against Treeva Gibson. Rob sang “Love and Happiness” by Al Green and was declared the winner, earning him a spot in the live playoffs.

Live playoffs: He performed “Earned It” and received Christina’s coach’s save to make the Season 8 finals. The song landed at number 124 on the iTunes’ singles chart.

Top 12: He performed “I Put a Spell on You.” The song landed at number 41 on the iTunes overall chart, seventh best on the show. It also landed at number one on the site’s R&B/soul singles chart.

Top 10: He landed in the bottom three and was eliminated when the instant save went to Joshua Davis. On performance night, he sang “A Song for You.” The song hit 88 on iTunes, ninth best of 10 songs from the show.

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Speechless (Beyonce cover)

Fallin To Pieces (original)