North Carolina Singer Breaks Through To ‘Voice’ Playoffs

From Scotty McCreery to Kellie Pickler to Chris Daughtry to well, you get the idea.  North Carolina has always had its talent rise to the top of television's biggest singing competitions.  And last night Tae Lewis, a native of Goldsboro, made his case to add his name to the list.  NBC's "The Voice" had its "Knockout Rounds" continuing last night and Lewis took the stage with Asher HaVon.

If you're unfamiliar with how this portion of the show goes, the two singers essentially duet on a song chosen by their coach.  Then the coach has to decide who was best.  That person moves on in the competition.  Tae Lewis' (and Asher HaVon's) coach is country music legend, Reba McEntire.  The song she chose?  R&B icon Toni Braxton's "Unbreak My Heart."

"You guys give me chills, make me cry, I felt like a proud mama sitting up here.  You've both got so much soul, it comes from your toenails when you start singing."  That's high and very unique praise from Reba for sure.  In a plot twist (for this story of our North Carolina guy) Reba chose Asher Havon to continue his journey on her team.  However, her rival coaches, Dan & Shay IMMEDIATELY gave Tae Lewis a lifeline on the show and picked him up for their team.

So, Tae Lewis' Voice odyssey continues as well.  WRAL reports his reaction, “I feel great.  I love team Reba, but this is the team I wanted to be on in the first place.  We're about to kill it.”  

In a cool coincidence, Keith Urban served as a special guest coach for all contestants this season on The Voice.  Tae Lewis' blind audition song was Urban's "Somebody Like You."  You just know when he saw Keith walk in the room, Lewis had to be thinking, "Oh crap...I sang his song!"

The Voice playoff round begins in a couple of weeks on April 22.

Do you love reality TV singing competitions? I was once an avid viewer of American Idol back in the early seasons, but eventually gave that up. Partially due to the lack of the majority of contestants ever going on to have a successful music career. It just felt like a waste to watch and get emotionally attached to artists who you'd never hear from again. But many of these shows including American Idol and The Voice are still thriving and attracting both viewers and contestants. And here in North Carolina, we have the second-highest number of reality singing competition winners in the nation. Who would have thought? We actually had several contestants from North Carolina including Kellie Pickler, Chris Daughtry, and Clay Aiken but none of those three went on to win the competition.

But three others did, and all three represent different genres of music. Our friends over at BetCarolina.com – your source for North Carolina sports betting - utilized Wikipedia to gather each winner from each season of NBC’s “The Voice,” FOX & ABC’s “American Idol” as well as the singers who won on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent.” After compiling this data they were able to compile a list of the states that have produced the most singing competition winners. Do you think you remember the three North Carolina singing competition winners? Keep reading to see if you are correct!

Read BetCarolina's full study and analysis here.

Kelly Clarkson (S1 American Idol), David Cook (S7 American Idol), Danielle Bradberry (S4 The Voice), Craig Wayne Boyd (S7 The Voice), and Sundance Head (S11 The Voice) are among Texas' 7 winners of reality singing competitions.

North Carolina has had three stars take the American Idol crown. This includes:

New York winners include Jermaine Paul (S2 The Voice), Just Sam (aka Samantha Diaz, S18 American Idol), and Carter Rubin (S19 of The Voice).

The 9 states with two winners include Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Florida, California, and West Virginia.