16-year-old singer Adam Ludewig made a show-stealing performance on The Voice Australia with his powerful take of “Leave a Light On” by Tom Walker, impressing 6 million viewers while he was at it.
The Australian high schooler appeared on the blind auditions for The Voice in 2020, and he got the nod from all four judges once they heard him tear into the chorus of the song, which you can hear below.
Adam Ludewig’s family was in the studio for the performance, and you can see their emotion as the teenage talent turned up the heat for the judges.
The young singer initially won over judges Kelly Rowland and Boy George and when he fired up the big guns for the hook in the chorus, he also turned Guy Sebastian and Delta Goodrem. Later in the series he turned his talents to Lewis Capaldi’s “Someone You Loved”, which you can hear below.
Ludewig reached the grand finale week of season nine of The Voice that year, but the teen was eliminated following his performance of “Someone You Loved” in a tough field of contenders. Veteran R&B performer Chris Sebastian later won the season. Ludewig hails from a small country town in rural South Australia, which you can probably guess from his mullet haircut. He grew up as a bit of a misfit kid, but inspired by his dad playing music around the house, young Adam tried learning guitar and singing.
His parents fully supported his interest in music, and the young man took his passion all the way to the national stage with his performances on The Voice. Ludewig was not deterred by his elimination on The Voice, and he’s been busy releasing music on his YouTube channel since, which has now reached 1.1 million views.
The teenager updates his fans with a regular series of covers showing off his guitar playing and vocals, and even included a studio recording of his version of “Leave a Light On”. The studio cut is a fresh take on the song, as the young star stripped it back and made it a guitar ballad.
“Leave a Light On” was the breakout hit for Scottish singer-songwriter Tom Walker, which took him to the top 10 on the UK Singles Chart and made him an international sensation.
Walker’s original version of the song kicks off as a slow piano ballad before building to a big chorus with a touch of EDM, shown in the big drum beat and keyboard melody. Walker wrote “Leave a Light On” with British producer Steve Mac, who also produced the song with Cliff Masterson. Walker told Idolator that the song is about a friend who is dealing with addiction, and that he wrote the song for his “family and friends to let them know that [they] can talk about it.”
“Leave a Light On” was the third single from Walker’s debut album What a Time to Be Alive, and buoyed by the success of the song, the album went to #1 in the UK, as well as hitting the top 20 in seven other countries. If you would like to see more from Adam Ludewig, you can subscribe to his YouTube channel or follow them on Facebook.