19-Year-Old Sounded Exactly Like Ed Sheeran During Blind Audition — Where Is Jake Shakeshaft? [VIDEO]
BBC One Reading Time: 3 minutes
Jake Shakeshaft performed Ed Sheeran’s hit “Thinking Out Loud” during his 2015 Blind Audition for The Voice UK. He was just 19-years-old at the time of the audition but had a budding career as a full-time musician. Check out his audition below that made Rita Ora swoon and brand him as the next Ed Sheeran.
Jake Shakeshaft Was Compared To Ed Sheeran On ‘The Voice UK’
Jake’s Blind Audition on The Voice UK really emphasized his smooth tone and soft rocker feel. From the very beginning, Rita kept looking around at her fellow coaches and was clearly falling in love with Jake’s voice. The coaches were all smiles and the audience was really getting into the performance too, swaying back and forth. Finally will.i.am., Rita Ora and Tom Jones all turned their chairs.
After the performance will.i.am complimented Jake’s tone but Rita was making one huge comparison. “I do find a similarity to your voice with Ed Sheeran and it’s not that it’s a bad thing because he is amazing and a good friend of mine,” she said. “And that performance you should be really proud of but I just really want to work with you to see what you would sound like if you did something that was out of your comfort zone.”
SEE ALSO: OUTRAGED FANS FORCE ‘THE VOICE UK’ COACHES TO APOLOGIZE FOR DOING THIS
“Well I know Ed Sheeran, I just did a couple of shows with him and he’s a great songwriter but I heard something different in what you did” Tom said. “You have a distinctive sound to your voice. You’re not only a unique sound, you put a feeling in there that I felt and that’s very important but you have to sing a certain way to please me. You just have to sing great and you did.” Jake ended up choosing to be on Team will.i.am.
“It was very surreal to me to hear something like that from Rita Ora first off but to be compared to Ed Sheeran was incredible for me” Jake told Talent Recap exclusively. “He really inspired me to pursue music when I saw what one man and a guitar could do to an industry.”
Jake performed “Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall” against Stephen Cornwell in The Battle Rounds. He was declared the winner of The Battle. He was eliminated from the competition after his performance of “As Long as You Love Me” in The Knockouts. If you were swooning over Jake’s Blind Audition, definitely check out the compilation below. It features the 10 hottest male singers on talent competition shows ever.
Where Is Jake Now?
After competing on The Voice UK, Jake formed a singing duo with fellow contestant Joe Woolford. He had been on Team Rita and made it to the live shows during the fourth season. They struck up a great friendship and decided to pursue a singing career together. Joe and Jake went on to represent the UK at Eurovision in 2016 with their song “You’re Not Alone.” They signed a deal with Sony Music UK that same year.
“Representing the UK was a very crazy experience which taught me so much about the industry and it’s nature” Jake told us. “That feeling that you are representing your nation is a daunting feeling, especially at 20 years old, but we were very happy to have the public’s backing and support and we like to think that we did a good job and made ourselves and our country proud!”
SEE ALSO: WATCH SINGER PERFORM RE-MASTERED VERSION OF COACH’S SONG ON ‘THE VOICE UK’
What did you think of Jake’s audition for The Voice UK?
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