Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Chris is the guy who seemed to have stumbled onto the wrong show when he started singing “Because We Believe” in Italian.

But regardless of the language, his vocals were impressive enough to prompt Cee Lo and Christina to turn their chairs around.

Chris normally sings in English, of course. He has two EPs on iTunes, one from 2009 and one from October. The former includes a pop/classical take on “Heartless.”

A 29-year-old from Wichita, Kansas, Chris get a degree in opera from Vanderbilt, then left for Europe when he landed a role in an Italian opera.

His website bio tells us he started playing piano and singing at a young age and realized music was in his blood when he found some old recording he thought were Sinatra, only to discover they’d been recorded by his grandfather.

And while his friends were listening to rock and country, Chris writes that he immersed himself in Pavarotti, Robbie Williams and vintage Sinatra. On Facebook, he refers to himself as a pop/classical artist — “Josh Groban meets Robbie Williams.”

If  “Because We Believe” seemed like a strange song to audition with on The Voice, there’s a reason for that, Chris explained.

“This is my voice and it’s been hard for me,” he told the judges.  “I’ve been at it for a while, and I’ve tried to shrink my voice down to fit.  But I decided for this show, I was going to just sing like myself.”

You can hear more of Chris singing like himself on his YouTube channel.  And here are two songs from that 2011 EP.

On Twitter, he is IamChrisMann.

“In Testa Solo Te”

“Falling”

The Voice audition — “Because We Believe”