Kicking off a new week of the hit NBC singing competition television show, The Voice, 15-year-old Montgomery, Alabama-based singer Ryley Tate Wilson performed a rendition of Calum Scott’s hit single “Dancing On My Own.”
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Wilson, who has four siblings and a father who is a professional firefighter, grew up unlike his siblings in that he doesn’t play sports. Instead, he plays music. Wilson is a self-taught musician who plays drums, piano, guitar and ukulele. After working in theater, he bought himself musical and recording equipment.
He said ahead of his performance that he wants to “branch out” from his small town and have a career in music. And as the show started, Wilson said he wanted Kelly Clarkson as his coach. His mom’s name is also Kelly and the two were born in the same year. Clarkson could be his “Voice mama,” he noted. It seemed a perfect fit until everything began.
Sang Wilson, Somebody said you got a new friend / Does she love you better than I can? / And there’s a big black sky over my town / I know where you’re at, I bet she’s around. The melancholy, beautiful song was impressive off the youngster’s tongue. It boasted a knowing quality and that painful twinge one gets in high school seeing their crush with someone else.
When he began to sing, Clarkson turned her chair for Wilson almost immediately. Niall Horan turned second, followed by Blake Shelton and then Chance the Rapper fourth—earning Wilson a coveted four-chair turn. Wilson wowed the judges with his smooth, pop tone. He had his pick of all four to work with now.
“I was pretty nervous,” Wilson admitted after he was done singing. Each judge made their case as to who would be best. Clarkson made a compelling case, but in the end, Wilson surprisingly chose Horan because he’d also started as a young artist and focused on acoustic pop. Though it seemed his dad wanted Shelton!
Check out the compelling performance and the four-chair turn here below.
Photo by: Casey Durkin/NBC
