Chris Blue, a worship leader at Cokesbury United Methodist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, is being called “unstoppable” after making it the semifinals of NBC’s The Voice, but the 27-year-old nearly didn’t try out the show.
According to the Knoxville News Sentinel, Blue was struggling with whether or not to audition for the singing competition until tragedy struck close to home. After watching his fiancé “flatline” during an operation to treat her bone marrow cancer, Blue spent the night praying that she pull through.
“Once she flatlined… I prayed on the living room floor. The entire night I didn’t move. After that, she woke up, and the doctors couldn’t find a trace of cancer, so that was good,” he said. “We still deal with swelling on the brain and she’s at risk of hemorrhaging… [But] the cancer—we thank God—is out of the picture.”
Despite the gravity of the situation, Blue said the experience gave him the “courage” to chase his dream.
“When everything happened with my fiancé and her story, I realized that life was just too short,” he said. “And after God was kind of pushing me to go forth, and I was declining and saying ‘No. This can’t be…’ I asked that He would just confirm, and He did, and when He did, I would say that really did help push me and helped me overcome the fear and just do it.”
One of seven children, Blue grew up singing at local churches in his family’s band, and he tried out for The Voice at the show’s Atlanta auditions. He joined Alicia Keys’ team after performing a stirring cover of Smokey Robinson & The Miracles “The Tracks of My Tears” and has built up a sizable fan base ever since.
On Monday, Blue wowed the judges and voters with his energetic rendition of Bruno Mars’ hit song “24K Magic” leading country music star Blake Shelton to declare he is the one to beat.
Watch the performance below:
“First of all, I think you’re going to be in the finale,” said Shelton. “There was a time in this show [where] if somebody couldn’t recognize how talented you are, they must be deaf, but now I think they must be deaf and blind to not see how talented you are,” he said.
Blue’s coach Keys was equally impressed.
“I’m just like flying through the sky right now. I’m super excited for you because this was Chris’ vision,” she said. “I didn’t even know you had this in you. You just showed me and the rest of America that you are unstoppable.”
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