When it comes to auditioning on a singing show, it sometimes takes a lot more than just having a good voice.
Ever since American Idol premiered, the stakes have only gotten higher and higher as more shows have come out with a similar competitive premise.
In each one, having a good voice and a good stage presence may be the biggest element… but in a very competitive pool, you need other aspects to show yourself off as well. One of those big elements is picking the right song.
And this performance definitely had that in spades.
The clip we’re talking about came from the 2018 season of The Voice of France.
For those who don’t know, The Voice works a bit differently than shows like American Idol. Instead of having contestants simply come out, each one has to do a “blind audition” wherein they perform for judges who have their backs turned.
If the judges like what they hear, they can hit their buzzers to turn around and compete to get that person on their team. Each season, there’s a winning contestant and a winning vocal coach.
Needless to say, picking the right song to get the judges’ attention is very important!
As with any other episode, this one began with contestant Xam Hurricane walking out on stage.
After a quick count-in, the recognizable introduction to “Roxanne” by The Police starts playing in the background. Though it may seem obvious, this isn’t the most common song to pick on shows like these.
Typically, contestants pick contemporary pop songs with a wide vocal range to show off their chops. Regardless, Hurricane’s voice is right on the money from the very first notes.
Once the judges hear his voice, they’re immediately whooping and cheering for him!
After just a couple seconds, one of the judges stands up and starts dancing… and then he smashes his buzzer!
Although it’s not particularly easy to imitate, Hurricane still does a great job at capturing Sting’s essence while injecting his own personality into the performance at the same time.
After a few more moments, another of the judges is standing up in his chair… and he hits his buzzer as well. By this point, the two judges are up away from the panel.
Towards the end, they’re out on the stage dancing away!
Although he doesn’t manage to get all four chairs to turn, his rock-inspired performance definitely got a huge reaction from the crowd!
Though it goes without saying, it can be pretty difficult to standout on shows like this. Even if you pick the right song, you need the confidence and the panache to pull it off if it’s particularly idiosyncratic. That’s definitely the case for virtually any song by The Police as well.
Regardless, Hurricane gave it his all and the performance felt a lot more like a small concert than it did a standard audition! Even if it split the judges, it got some of them up and dancing around like we’ve never seen before.
Congratulations to Xam Hurricane on a truly awesome audition! Be sure to watch the entire thing in the link below:
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