Idol Chatter & Voice Views

His audition: Viktor Kiraly, 31, of Budapest, Hungary, auditioned with “What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye. Adam turned around almost immediately. Eventually, all three of the other coaches turned as well. Adam called him “absolutely phenomenal” and said Viktor could win. Blake also predicted Viktor will make it deep into Season 9. Viktor decided to join Team Adam despite expressing a pre-audition preference for Pharrell.

His background: He was born in New York, but his parents both have a background of being musicians in Hungary — his father as a drummer, his mother as a backup singer. They moved to New York and stayed for 20 years until his mother was diagnosed with cancer, as which point she wanted to return to her native Hungary. That happened when Viktor was 16. As for music, Viktor recalls being in garage bands growing up. One day, the singer got sick. “The bass player was like, ‘You’re the singer.'” And so it began. He wound up being on a vocal talent show in Hungary, had a couple of hit songs and now is on the cover of magazines. “Here’s the thing,” Viktor says. “I want to find my way back home. Even though I’ve reached lots of goals in Hungary, America is the land of the dream. If I don’t at least try to make it in America, I’m not going to feel complete.”

What the show didn’t show: Viktor hit pay dirt in Hungary in 2008 when he won a televised American Idol / The Voice style competition. As a result, you’ll find lots of his music on iTunes, including a post-victory album featuring covers of U.S. hits like “When a Man Loves a Woman.” He’s also released a pair of albums featuring original music in English. The latest was called “3rd Dimension” and was released last November. One of the singles from the album features Run DMC.

In the process, Viktor has attracted a social media following that dwarfs that of the other Season 9 contestants on The Voice, including more than 200,000 fans on Facebook. But that might not matter too much on the show “because I have no American audience, like zero,” Viktor said in a conference call with the media. “So for me to go to The Voice, it’s actually a liberating feeling that I’m working really hard, just as everyone else is, to find a spot on the show.”

Viktor said he went into the blind audition thinking he’d select Pharrell as his coach if he had the chance. Then the lobbying began, and Adam changed his mind. “I got an overwhelming amount of positive criticism from Adam and he was just — he was overwhelmed with my performance,” Viktor said. “And he was really, really, really I guess lifting me up in some way and so it was very easy for me to decide.”

And while turning four chairs in the blind audition was a confidence boost for an accomplished singer trying to make it in the U.S., Viktor said it also left him with a question. “It also builds my wanting to give more. So when I got off the stage, all I was thinking about is how am I going to give more. How am I going to prove that I’m even better than this blind audition?”

I’ll be posting profile blogs on every singer who lands a spot on Season 9 of The Voice. For links to the others, head here. Keep checking back. There are many more to come.

On iTunes: You’ll find lots of music from Viktor, including an 11-track album called “Solo” from 2010 and “3rd Dimension” from last November. He also released a pair of singles in 2013 you won’t find on either album — “Over” and “Been a Long Time.”

Update:
Battle round: Defeated Cassandra Robertson singing “Nobody Knows.” The song hit #198 on the iTunes’ singles chart, the ninth best of the battle round.
Knockout round: He sang “If I Ain’t Got You,” lost to Jordan Smith, but was stolen by Gwen Stefani. His version of the song hit #94 on the iTunes Top 200.
Top 24: He sang “All Around the World,” which hit number 77 on the iTunes singles chart and number three on the R&B/soul chart. He was eliminated when Jeffery Austin and Braiden Sunshine were voted into the finals and Korin Bukowski got the Team Gwen save.

Keeping up with Viktor:
Website
Facebook
YouTube
Twitter: @kiralyviktor

Blind audition — “What’s Going On”

Battle Round — “Nobody Knows”

Knockout Round — “If I Ain’t Got You”

Chasing Demons (from “3rd Dimension” album)

Running Out of Time (from “3rd Dimension” album)

“Over”