Jordan Mackenzie Smith is a Harlan, Kentucky-born singer, songwriter, and musician. Smith began singing in his church choir before attending Lee University. He gained national attention in 2015 after winning the 9th season of The Voice Vocal Competition. During his time on The Voice, he became the season’s first artist to reach No. 1 in pop song sales on the iTunes Store and set new sales records on the Billboard charts.
In 2022, he finished third in the American Song Contest with the song “Sparrow.” Smith rose to national prominence in 2015 after appearing on The Voice’s ninth season. At the audition, his performance of “Chandelier” caused all four coaches to turn in their seats; Smith decided to join the Adam Levine team after Levine told him, “I think you’re the most important person that’s ever been on this show.”
Smith had previously auditioned for the show but had been turned down. Even after being accepted into the show, he had reservations until the reactions began to pour in. “‘Wow, people see something in me that I honestly didn’t think was there,’ I thought. I thought I had fooled everyone! It took a lot of convincing for me to accept myself as a performer and artist.”
Smith stated that his performance of “Halo” during the live playoffs gave him the confidence that he “had something to say as an artist.” [8] Smith was dubbed a “unicorn” during the show, according to Slate, because his voice is “genderless and expansive… as ambiguous as it is precise, rapidly scaling and penetrating through the octaves.”
