Missing his friends and family in Michigan, Brayden Lape immediately connected to Kane Brown’s 2021 hit “Homesick,” which he took on as his first performance in the Top 10 on The Voice.
Videos by American Songwriter
“This is a perfect song because I’m definitely missing my friends and family,” said the Grass Lake, Michigan native in an interview before his performance. “This is the longest I’ve been away from home.”
Praised for being cool, calm, and collected during his performances, the 17-year-old sang through the heartfelt chorus I’m homesick / This feeling that I’m feeling, no, we don’t quit / It’s like half of me is missing, heaven knows it … If home is where the heart is / I’m homesick for you / Homesick for you, while playing guitar.
“Brayden, that was absolutely delightful,” said Camila Cabello after his performance. “You just glided right over that. It’s probably my favorite performance of yours.”
Gwen Stefani concurred, “I have to agree. That chorus fits you like a glove. I can picture you outside of this show doing a song like that and just being number one on the radio. Honestly, every performance that you do, it’s similar, but it’s so engaging. You’re so calm! I’m a huge fan.”
The young singer recently brought Stefani to tears with his rendition of Brett Young’s 2017 hit “Mercy” during the final night of the knockout rounds on The Voice. The following week, Lape also shared another emotional performance of Jordan Davis’ No. 1 hit “Buy Dirt.”
Lape’s coach Blake Shelton closed out the cheers, joking that the singer could probably go on stage and do nothing at this stage and still do well in the competition. “It is literally watching you develop vocally and artistically in front of our eyes,” said Shelton. “As you start to get confident, you’re going to be way too big for us to come back and do an appearance on this show.”
Shelton added, “I’m so happy for you, dude. You combine a great performance like that and the ‘it’ thing that you have, the world is yours, man.”
Photos: Casey Durkin/NBC
