21-year-old singer from Charlotte area competing on new season of NBC’s ‘The Voice’
A singer from the Charlotte area is on his way to potentially becoming America’s next big star.
21-year-old Bryson Battle of Harrisburg is among the talented group of performers competing on Season 27 of NBC’s “The Voice.”
As part of the search by coaches Adam Levine, Michael Bublé, Kelsea Ballerini and John Legend for the “best undiscovered voice in America,” it didn’t take long for him to make an impression during his first moment on stage.
Following another North Carolina native, Tatum Scott from High Point, he performed Donny Hathaway’s “A Song For You” during his blind audition — when the coaches take their picks of contestants to build their teams without getting to see them.
During a make-or-break moment when contestants need at least one chair turn to move forward in the competition, Battle blew away all four coaches who were eager to work with him.
A ‘four chair turn’ performance
“There are certain times when the chairs turn around where my ear will just go OK, like ‘I’m listening to pitch or I’m listening to technicalities.’ I didn’t think about that. I literally just thought about how moved I was because you were just singing from your soul,” Ballerini told him.
As Battle put it, there hasn’t been a time in his life where he wasn’t singing, and singing has always been his first love.
This isn’t his first time his talents have brought him in the national spotlight.
Four years ago, as a senior at Hickory Ridge High School, he won the 2021 Jimmy Award for Best Performance by an Actor, The Charlotte Observer previously reported. The national competition has often led some winners to Broadway. Earlier, he had won Best Actor at the Blumeys, the Blumenthal Arts competition that honors the best high school musical theater performers in the Charlotte region.
During the Feb. 10 episode, he shared that he always knew he wanted to be on stage and on camera — but opened up about how it’s been a “very long journey to feel comfortable in his own body.”
“When I was 16, I got diagnosed with vitiligo, and that’s where your skin cells don’t produce pigment. My first instinct was to cover it up, but it’s not hideable,” he explained.
“For me to be here proudly wearing my vitiligo spots, I hope to make little Bryson proud,” he said during the episode.
It’s fair to say he did just that, considering all the praise he got from the stars who all wanted to work with him.
Bublé told him he might have the greatest voice he’s ever heard. Likewise Levine said, “Only an idiot would not be able to see and listen to what he does and not be blown away by it.”
But Legend, who was the first one to turn his coaching chair around, ended up being the one to convince Battle to join his team after he “aced it and left it in the dust.”
“I’ve coached people that have sung that song before, and I truly have never heard anybody sing it like you sang it today,” he told him. “You made it feel fresh and new and exciting, and you found new musical places to go in it. We’re truly blessed to have you on the show. This is why ‘The Voice’ exists.”
Soon, after all the teams are all set, Battle will go on with the rest of the contestants to advance to the next rounds of competition.
How to watch ‘The Voice’
You can tune in and watch new episodes of ‘The Voice’ on NBC every Monday at 8 p.m. and the next day on Peacock.
This story was originally published March 4, 2025 at 5:15 AM with the headline "21-year-old singer from Charlotte area competing on new season of NBC’s ‘The Voice’."
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