Each season on The Voice, there’s a singer I truly enjoy and end up buying the songs from iTunes. In season one it was Beverly McClellan, in season two it was Jamar Rogers, and this season it’s Cody Belew. What’s different though about Cody, is that he’s a true underdog that the viewing audience seems to adore.
With good reason. Simply, he is us. Cody comes from kind of a grass roots kind of life growing up in Arkansas. He loves soul and country music (though I bet pop/rock too), and has an infectious sense of humour (he believes he was an old black woman in a previous life). He didn’t have a lot of Facebook or Twitter followers when the show started, unlike several other singers who are no longer on the show. But what made many people start rooting for Cody was his one-of-a-kind blind audition on The Voice.
With a solid rendition of the Otis Redding-penned “Hard To Handle” (done a la Black Crowes), I was staring at the TV egging on the judges to turn their chair for this guy. As Cody starts to wrap up his song, he turns his back to the audience, and then Cee-Lo Green turns his chair with seconds to spare. Cody turns around, and by then we’re all smiling for this guy, as he goes into this stage-shock, and rushes over to his new coach, exclaiming loving profanities, and thereby creating one of the most memorable TV appearances of the year.
Cody is no one-trick pony, his subsequent performances show that he has the goods to continue on successfully in the music business. He channeled his best Beyoncé for a duet that highlighted his soulfulness on “Telephone”. His taut performance of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” (which starts at 1:25 in the above clip) was story-telling dazzle. But more than ever it was his smooth and smart interpretation of George Michael’s “One More Try” that sealed it for me. And with only one judge behind him at the beginning, he has enough going for him to be in the Top 12. That’s amazing.
Not to put a damper on this story, but I think this year’s season is the sensational 18 year old Trevin Hunte’s to lose. There are several powerhouse vocalists in the Top 12, but also three or four that beat out some better performances in the previous rounds. While the competition might make it unlikely, and I’m not a betting man, just don’t be surprised if we see Cody Belew in the Top 4 at the end. Even if that doesn’t happen, he’s got a flock of new fans that will be more than happy to gather at his concerts. So ‘Bam Bam’ and rock on.
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