Taylor John Williams

Taylor John Williams (born June 6, 1991) is an American singer-songwriter best known for his appearance on NBC's reality TV singing competition The Voice Season 7 and finished in the semi-finals taking fifth place.[1]

Taylor John Williams
Born (1991-06-06) June 6, 1991
Eugene, Oregon, U.S.
Genres
Occupation(s)Singer
InstrumentsVocals, guitar
Years active2009 - present
Associated actsGwen Stefani
Websitehttp://taylorjohnwilliams.com/

Early life

Taylor was born in Eugene, Oregon. Taylor is a graduate of the Sheldon High School. After graduating from Sheldon, Williams enrolled at Portland State University before dropping out to pursue his music.[2] He worked at a dog hotel in order to support himself while pursuing music.[3]

Career

Early days

In 2009, he sang the Academy Award-winning song “Falling Slowly” at his Sheldon High School graduation ceremony.[4] That same year, Taylor released an independent EP “Proverbial Elephant" on Grooveshark.[5]

2014: The Voice

In September 2014, it was announced that Williams would compete in Season 7 of NBC's The Voice.[6] In his "Blind Audition," he performed an acoustic cover of Kanye West's's "Heartless," which caused Adam Levine and Gwen Stefani to press their "I Want You" buttons and turn their chairs. Williams chose Gwen Stefani as his coach.[7] In the Battle rounds, he defeated fellow Team Gwen member Amanda Lee Peers, dueting Dolly Parton's "Jolene,"[8] and advanced to the Knockout rounds. During the Knockouts, Williams covered "Mad World" by Tears for Fears, in which he defeated his opponent Troy Ritchie and advanced to The Live Playoffs.[9] During the Playoffs, Taylor sang Stealers Wheel's "Stuck in the Middle with You" and was voted through by America.[10] In the following weeks, he covered "If,"[11] "Come Together" by The Beatles,[12] and "Royals" by Lorde,[13] all of which caused him to be voted through by America. During the Semifinals, he covered both "Falling Slowly" by Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová[14] and "Blank Space" by Taylor Swift.[15] Williams was within the bottom 3 in voting and thus was eliminated. However, like eight other eliminated artists, Taylor was given the opportunity to reenter the competition and participate in the finals as the "Wildcard" finalist. In this new Wildcard round, Williams covered "Wicked Game" by Chris Isaak.[16] Contestant Damien from Adam Levine's team was selected as the Wildcard finalist, ultimately eliminating Williams from the competition.[17]

     – Studio version of performance reached the top 10 on iTunes
Stage Song Original Artist Date Order Result
Blind Audition "Heartless" Kanye West September 22, 2014 1.8 Adam Levine and Gwen Stefani turned
Joined Team Gwen
Battle Rounds "Jolene" (vs. Amanda Lee Peers) Dolly Parton October 13, 2014 7.5 Saved by Coach
Knockout Rounds "Mad World" (vs. Troy Ritchie) Tears for Fears October 28, 2014 12.1 Saved by Coach
Live Playoffs "Stuck in the Middle with You" Stealers Wheel November 11, 2014 16.10 Saved by Public Vote
Live Top 12 "If" Bread November 17, 2014 18.6 Saved by Public Vote
Live Top 10 "Come Together" The Beatles November 24, 2014 20.9 Saved by Public Vote
Live Top 8 "Royals" Lorde December 1, 2014 22.7 Saved by Public Vote
Live Top 5 (Semifinals) "Falling Slowly" Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová December 8, 2014 24.3 Eliminated
"Blank Space" Taylor Swift 24.9
Wildcard performance "Wicked Game" Chris Isaak December 9, 2014 25.5 Eliminated

Artistry

Influences

His diverse style is influenced by artists from a wide range of genres such as Glen Hansard, Amos Lee, Jeff Buckley, Jack White, Jay-Z and Bill Withers.[18]

Discography

Studio albums

2017: El Dorado

2016: Hiraeth (EP)

2015: Song of a Deadman (EP)

Title Album details Peak chart positions Sales
US
Proverbial Elephant (EP)[19] — —
"—" denotes album that did not chart
gollark: You want the best combination of non-typoing and density.
gollark: Depends on the frequency of errors you expect.
gollark: You could do typo resistance with some sort of error correction thing.
gollark: You would probably write a program which decompresses and runs some other data you can write down more densely
gollark: I'm pretty sure it's due to the electrons decelerating at the anode.

References
  1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKzlKEbSYNY YouTube. Retrieved December 20, 2014
  2. http://registerguard.com/rg/news/local/32449748-75/eugene-singer-shows-america-that-he-has-the-voice.html.csp# Registered Guard News. Retrieved December 20, 2014
  3. http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/channel-surfer/voice-season-7-blind-auditions-recap-gwen-stefani-pharrell-williams-prove-ready-battle-blake-shelton-adam-levine-blog-entry-1.1949234 NY Daily News Blog. Retrieved December 20, 2014
  4. "Singing his way to TV stardom". The Register-Guard.
  5. http://grooveshark.com/#!/album/Proverbial+Elephant/3547190 Archived 2014-03-29 at the Wayback Machine Registered Guard News. Retrieved December 20, 2014
  6. "Taylor John Williams's Photos - Taylor John Williams - Facebook".
  7. "The Voice 2014 Blind Audition - Taylor John Williams: "Heartless"". YouTube.
  8. "The Voice 2014 Battle Round - Taylor John Williams vs. Amanda Lee Peers: "Jolene"". YouTube.
  9. "The Voice 2014 Knockouts - Taylor John Williams: "Mad World"". YouTube.
  10. "The Voice 2014 Live Playoffs - Taylor John Williams: "Stuck in the Middle with You"". YouTube.
  11. "The Voice 2014 Top 12 - Taylor John Williams: "If"". YouTube.
  12. "The Voice 2014 Top 10 - Taylor John Williams: "Come Together"". YouTube.
  13. "The Voice 2014 Top 8 - Taylor John Williams: "Royals"". YouTube.
  14. "The Voice 2014 Semifinals - Taylor John Williams: "Falling Slowly"". YouTube.
  15. "The Voice 2014 Semifinals - Taylor John Williams: "Blank Space"". YouTube.
  16. "The Voice 2014 Wildcard - Taylor John Williams: "Wicked Game"". YouTube.
  17. "The Voice 2014 - Damien's Elimination and Wildcard Announcement (Interview)". YouTube.
  18. "Taylor John Williams". Facebook.
  19. "Grooveshark". Grooveshark. Archived from the original on 2014-03-29.
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