‘The Voice’ Contestant Stuns Judges After Powerful Worship Performance: ‘I’m Choking on My Tears’
Worship was centerstage during the finale of NBC’s “The Voice” this week.
Contestant Bodie Kuljian, 29, delivered a powerful performance of Christian recording artist Brandon Lake’s song, “Gratitude,” during the first night of the show’s two-part conclusion.
The judges of “The Voice” were clearly impacted by Bodie’s stirring performance.
“I’m choking on my tears over here,” said Gwen Stefani, one of the show’s judges and the wife of fellow judge Blake Shelton. “You have a superpower behind you; it’s a truth. I think it comes from your pure faith that you have. … I can’t even speak right now. That was so beautiful.”
John Legend, another judge, told Bodie, “Whatever you want to do, you have that in you.”
Shelton, who served as Bodie’s coach, called Bodie’s song “one of the most moving performances I’ve seen in a long time on this show.”
In the end, Bodie earned second place. Shelton’s other contestant, Bryce Leatherwood, won the competition.
“It was such an incredible honor to sing this song on such a large platform,” Bodie wrote in a comment on the YouTube video of his performance. “So grateful.”
The judges were not the only ones moved by Bodie’s faith-filled performance. Lake himself was watching the finale of “The Voice” and shared his thoughts on Instagram.
Lake revealed that his wife had at one point signed him up for the singing competition, but said he ultimately declined “because God told me that wasn’t going to be my story.”
“Tonight is a really, really cool way of being a very, very small part of ‘The Voice,’ seeing someone else take a song that I got to be a small part of and releasing it in front of six to eight million people,” he said. “Thank you, Bodie, for leading us in worship tonight. So grateful.”
Bodie, for his part, replied to Lake’s post, writing, “You’re such an incredible inspiration to me and so many others. Such an incredible honor to sing this song on TV. Love [you] brother.”
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