Is Joshua Vacanti the Underdog of ‘The Voice’ Season 21?
Tyler Golden/NBC Reading Time: 3 minutes
This singer took to The Voice stage and impressed the coaches and audience with his rendition of “Into the Unknown” from the Disney film, Frozen II. Since this singer is clearly inspired by Broadway musicals, John Legend blocked Ariana Grande from turning her chair for the singer. Since Joshua’s blind audition, he has remained on Team Legend.
This Broadway-inspired singer was born and raised in Lockport, NY. Before the show, he was a part of the worship group at The Chapel at Crosspoint in Getzville, NY. He is currently employed as a drug prevention educator. In this role, he teaches kids about drug prevention and encourages them to set goals as well as give them the steps to accomplish their goals.
One of Joshua’s goals was to make it on to a singing show, so in the Top 11 he is showing his students that you can do anything you set your mind to.
In Joshua’s youth, he was faced with adversity. At eight years-old he developed severe and chronic asthma. This asthma is so bad that he had been hospitalized for it. Eventually, doctors were able to help ease Joshua’s asthma with prescribed steroids.
After being prescribed the steroids, the singer rapidly gained weight and was 300 pounds at his heaviest. It’s evident that the singer has also overcome his weight struggles, but has not talked about losing the weight on The Voice or social media. Joshua says he was bullied for his weight, but found “his people” in choir.
Family is His Lifeline in This Competition
Joshua went on to study music at college. Now, he primarily shares his love of music with his wife, Sam Olewnik. Joshua and Sam will be celebrating their second year of marriage on November 29. From the videos of them singing together, it’s quite obvious that they’re a great pair. Family is important to Joshua, so he’s often on Facetime and Zoom with his family when he’s not rehearsing.
“They’ve [His family] just always been supporting me even outside of the show and this journey,” said Joshua. “My family has always been super super supportive of me… they always have believed in me. My wife is my biggest support system I don’t think I would’ve been able to get to where i am in this journey if I didn’t have her alongside me kind of rooting me on along the way.”
Outside of his family, Joshua shared that the backstage atmosphere at The Voice is extremely positive.
“It’s something really special to be surrounded by people who have similar dreams and similar goals as you. You would think it would be a really competitive environment, but that’s not the case at all,” said Joshua.
He also acknowledged that his closest friend went up against him in the battle rounds. The singer noted that it was sad to see 15 year-old Keilah Grace go after their battle round.
From The Voice Joshua is taking away Legend’s mentality behind life’s process. Legend and Joshua have both heard ‘no’ more times than they’ve heard ‘yes’ in life. The Voice singer admitted that hearing ‘no’ is discouraging, but he will always remember his coach’s advice of ‘you need to hear no before you can hear yes.’
I truly think that Joshua has been the underdog in this season of The Voice. Every week he has given great performances, and hasn’t landed into the Instant Save category once.
