The Voice 25 Blind Audition: 4-Chair Turn Gene Taylor Shows Off His Range with Journey’s “Lights”
The Voice Season 25 premiere week continued on Tuesday night. The show started a bit slow i, but this episode was a smidge stronger than the premiere night and that is mostly due to the last singer of the night, Gene Taylor who has the range and vocals of a possible contender.
Thirty-three year-old Gene Taylor is from Vernon, New Jersey, but currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. His mom sits alongside him in his video clip package. She shares his adoption story. At six months Gene had been abandoned in the hospital. It took 7 and a ½ years to finalize his adoption. “At 8 years old, he brought the gavel down in the courtroom for his own adoption,” his mom said. Gene calls his mom “selfless” saying she made “the time and effort to make sure her kids had some type of musical enrichment” even though they had little. She was a single mom and raised Gene and his sister. Gene is a working musician doing a variety of gigs in New York, but he wants something bigger.
For his Blind Audition, Gene belted out the classic rock song “Lights” by Journey, and it’s easily the best vocal of the season. He’s got pipes with a very impressive range which prompted a 4 chair turn, starting with John Legend, followed by Dan + Shay and Reba McEntire, and finally Chance the Rapper.
“I always love a tenor who can sing those beautiful big notes”
He did hit a few bum notes as the song is demanding, but still it’s a very impressive vocal. The only thing missing was an artistic interpretation. But sometimes a by the numbers approach is OK for a Blind Audition, as skill is what is truly important. His audition is slightly reminiscent of Season 18 runner-up Toneisha Harris’ audition, as she too was a soulful singer who auditioned with a Journey ballad. Gene very well could follow in her footsteps and turn into a front runner.
The judges fought for Gene. John said, “I always love a tenor who can sing those beautiful big notes, but also you had so much finesse” John argued he turned first and that he’s the only coach who has won the show. Shay called Gene’s voice “unbelievable” and Dan said there was “so much power, so much control” in his voice. Chance said he was the last to turn because he was “arrested by the performance” and called Gene’s tone “different.” Gene shared more of his story after Chance asked, while his mom joined him on stage. Reba said, “the way you were working the crowd was perfect to go with your beautiful voice”. She called John “tired” as he’s been on The Voice for awhile.
Gene picks Team Legend
Gene chose John as his coach–a natural fit for his soulful voice. Dan + Shay would have been a good option as well due to Shay’s impressive range, but either way John should be a good fit.
Gene wasn’t the only 4 chair turn of the night as Team Chance’s Maddi Jane also impressed the judges turning 4 chairs as one of the only The Voice contestants to rap in the history of the show (shoutout to Season 16’s Kim Cherry). Another singer who could see emerge as a frontrunner is Team Dan + Shay’s country singer, Karen Waldrup. America tends to love country singers and she posses a nice skillset.
