Idol Chatter & Voice Views

On Making the Finals: “If I could narrow it down to one word, to explain how I feel about the live shows, it’s excitement,” says T.J. Wilkins of Los Angeles. “There’s a little bit of added sense of pressure because you have to be on the money, every time. In order to do that it’s going to take extra work to ensure you have the best performance possible. Everybody in the Top 12 brings something different to the table. It’s anybody’s game right now.”

His audition: T.J. Wilkins, 23 at the time, auditioned with “Bennie and the Jets,” putting some R&B touches into the performance. It worked. All three guys on The Voice coaching panel turned around early in the performance. Usher told T.J. “I do hear an incredible R&B record in you” and complimented him on his creativity. T.J. decided to join Team Usher.

Since then: He defeated Biff Gore in the first battle round; they sang “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg.” Biff was then stolen by Blake Shelton. T.J. then defeated Cierra Mickens in the second battle round; they performed “Get Here.” He made the finals with a Team Usher playoff performance of “Tell Me Something Good.” The song cracked the Top 50 on iTunes’ R&B chart the next day but failed to make the Top 200 overall chart.

His background: T.J. grew up in a rough area in Los Angeles. He credits his mother for steering him away from trouble. She did that, in part, by sending him across town to a performing arts school. “It was always my hope that music would take me far, but it really became about getting out (of his environment) rather than making fast money.” After high school, he attended college as a music major.

What the show didn’t show: On Facebook, T.J. describes his genre as R&B / pop /jazz. His bio there tells us he won a Young Star Competition sponsored by Stevie Wonder in Los Angeles in 2009. As a result, he got to perform with Stevie at the Nokia Theater during a “House Full of Toys” benefit concert. Like James Wolpert from Season 5, T.J. previously competed on the ABC show “High School Musical: Get in the Picture.” And he had a small role as an actor in a 2013 thriller called “Complicity.” On Twitter, he describes himself as a trendsetter and social revolutionary. Oh, and T.J. is short for Trijean.

Quote: “I did not imagine that I would make it this far. I didn’t even know if I would want to do The Voice. I kind of heard about all the competition shows like this and people didn’t always have nice things to say about working on the shows. But The Voice turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.”

On iTunes: Just his four songs from The Voice.

Keeping up with T.J.
Twitter: @iamtjwilkins
Facebook
YouTube

Editor’s Note: For links to profiles of all the Season 6 artists on The Voice, go here.

“Human Nature”

“Tonight”

“Reminiscing”

Website