With talent shows growing in popularity all over the world, the competition is more fierce than ever before. Countless people compete in auditions for a plethora of shows, with some of the biggest being Britain’s Got Talent (and its American counterpart), The X Factor, and the subject of this article, The Voice.
An enormous amount of contestants in these talent shows means that it’s also incredibly difficult to stand out of the crowd and be noticed with so much potential. That is, unless you’re Dylan Carter, who made an immediate impression on The Voice’s judges with his incredible cover of the Whitney Houston classic, “I Look To You.” Watch his touching performance, which could easily be mistaken for a concert performance, in the video below:
With his family watching him behind the scenes, the pressure was on Dylan Carter to put on a blinding performance. Immediately after starting to sing, it was clear that he was an incredibly talented individual, and quickly grabbed the approval of all four of the judges. Each sat in silence and awe as he finished his rendition of “I Look To You”, complete with its soft ballad moments and powerful falsettos.
“I Look To You” is an often-overlooked song from Whitney Houston. Despite it being immensely popular amongst fans, it still stands below the radar when many think of the late great American singer.
The main comment that the judges had about the 20-year-old Carter’s performance was that he was incredibly emotive when he was singing. So much so in fact that the Queen of Country herself Reba McEntire became emotional when providing him with feedback. All four judges wanted to take the young talent on; a rare occasion on shows such as The Voice. Ultimately, Carter went with the modern singer-songwriter virtuoso John Legend.
In another touching moment, Dylan Carter mentions that when the judges turned to face him, he imagined his mother with him. Sadly, Carter’s mother passed away and wanted him to sing “I Look To You” at her funeral; he couldn’t make it through the entire performance, so decided to give it another chance on The Voice. Little did he know that this could have been one of the best decisions he had ever made.
Sadly, Carter did not make it very far in the competition. During the fifth round of Voice Battles, where he performed “‘Til You Can’t” by Cody Johnson with fellow contestant Tom Nitti, Reba McEntire chose Nitti to be the victor out of the two. Despite this, Carter reflected that his place in the competition has allowed him to reconnect with his late mother, whose dream was in the first place for him to enter the competition.
Carter’s performances and heartfelt speeches were emotionally gripping throughout the entire competition, but his farewell speech and reflection on his mother were hard-hitting for Niall Horan, the Irish singer-songwriter of One Direction fame. If you would like to see more from Dylan Carter, you can follow him on Instagram.