Harriman's Jermaine Paul Crowned Winner of The Voice

Harriman: To most of us, the town’s biggest claim to fame is the Woodbury Commons shopping outlets. No longer—earlier this month, singer Jermaine Paul, a Harriman native, was named winner of NBC’s reality singing competition, The Voice, after being coached by country star Blake Shelton.

According to Lohud.com, Paul, a former backup singer, grew up near the Martin Luther King Multi Purpose Center in Spring Valley and was raised at the Fred Hecht housing projects down the block.

Let’s take a look at his series-winning performance of R. Kelly’s “I Believe I Can Fly.”

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Photo © NBCUniversal, Inc.

Yes, those are some chops. The win means Paul receives a grand prize of $100,000 and a record deal with Universal. But will it propel Paul to the stardom he deserves? 

I think we’re getting to the point of reality-show winner saturation, especially when it comes to singing. The Voice has been successful in getting a number of songs onto Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart, including Paul’s taken on “I Believe I Can Fly,” which reached number 32—but those were all covers of better-known songs.

If the career of Javier Colon—the previous winner of The Voice—is any indication, Paul may still have a hard road to follow when it comes to his original music. Colon’s album, 2011’s Come Through for You, didn’t get any singles onto the Billboard charts, and the album itself peaked at 134 on The Billboard 200. (It did better on the R&B chart.)

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And, at the upfront presentations last week, NBC announced it’s debuting the next season of The Voice in the fall, instead of January like in previous seasons. That means that there will soon be another winner that Paul will have to contend with—in addition to winners of American Idol and X Factor

Who can keep up? Are there enough fans of reality singing competitions out there to support all of the winners of all of these shows? Quiz: Can you name the last American Idol and X Factor winners—or, better yet, a song they’ve put out since they’ve been named winner?* Are you planning on buying Jermaine Paul’s album when it comes out? Let me know in the comments.

*In case you were curious: American Idol is finishing up its 11th season, but Scotty McCreery won the 10th season and charted with singles “I Love You This Big,” “The Trouble with Girls,” and “Water Tower Town,” none of which I’ve ever heard on the radio (but I don’t often listen to the country station). The most recent American X Factor winner is Melanie Amaro, whose big claim to fame apart post-show is being in a Super Bowl Pepsi commercial.

 

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