Aiden Ross Opens The Voice S28 Premiere with Stunning “Love In The Dark”
The Voice Season 28 is finally here! The premiere was off to a strong start with fan favorite coaches returning. The chairs for this season include Michael Bublé, Niall Horan, Reba McEntire, and Snoop Dogg. Some budding rivalries are already occurring amongst coaches especially between undefeated coaches, Michael and Niall. The opener of the night, Aiden Ross, had all four coaches battling it out for him. (Read our Recap)
Right after the coaches performance, we meet the 20-year-old college student from College Station, Texas. He is a sophomore at his hometown college, Texas A&M University, studying Industrial Engineering. He has a music set-up in his dorm room. In high school, he performed at his family farm where they have strawberry plants, alpacas, and llamas. He hopes a coach can help him find who he is as an artist. Going into his audition, he seems to be open to choosing any of the four coaches.
For his audition, he sings “Love in The Dark” by Adele. After an angelic opening, he gets Snoop and Michael to turn, which is soon followed by Reba and Niall. It’s a deservingly quick four chair turn. Aiden’s voice is incredibly soulful, and his range soars on the chorus. He has great control over his vibrato and lower range. He hits a few runs and riffs, and sticks the landing, finishing it with great emotion. It is a perfect audition.
“What planet are you from?”
Niall jokingly asks, “What planet are you from?”. To which Aiden responds, “Texas.” Niall adds, “It was literally like you had written the thing.” He tells Aiden how impressed he was with the way he took on that Adele song in an audition. Niall pleads for him to be on Team Niall.
Reba was impressed by his stage movements, and called it “mesmerizing”. Michael believes the show is about making a “genuine connection,” and adds that he is good at that. He uses the point as his pitch for why Aiden should choose him. Snoop makes up a rhyme on the spot about Aiden. He states that him turning after “1.3 seconds” was a spirit telling him that Aiden’s voice needed to be on his team. Niall believes he could be in the finals. Michael agrees. Niall and Snoop break out some swag items to try to win Aiden over as a final pitch.
Aiden chooses Niall, beginning a very strong night for Team Niall. Two of my other favorite auditions of the night came from Niall’s team, including country trio Dek of Hearts who wowed with harmonies on “Heads Carolina, Tails California” and Jack Austin who showed off a gorgeous tone and duetted with Niall on “This Town.” The other two auditions that caught my eye were Team Michael’s Jazz McKenzie’s solid vocal on Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” and Team Reba’s Payton Kyle, with his interesting tone, may be a sneaky one chair turn dark horse.
