Jermaine Paul jumped to the center of world attention when he was crowned the Season 2 winner of the NBC singing competition show,The Voice.
In many ways, it was the culmination of a dream that the New York-born artist had harbored since he was young.
"I was like five years old when the Jacksons did the Motown 25 reunion," Paul said in an interview soon after his victory, emphasizing that his focus was not so much on winning as it was on the mark that he left with his performances. "This was the beginning of my love for music. Michael had the glove and the socks and the brothers came out and they did ‘I Want You Back.’ I wanted to recapture that moment. So, even if I don’t win, I wanted to leave it like that."
Encouraged To Pursue His Love Of Music
Born Jeremiah Jermaine Paul in July 1979, he grew up in a home environment that encouraged him to pursue his love of music.The fifth of ten children, Paul came from a significantlyhuge family.Nevertheless, his father reportedly spurredhim and his siblingson by turning their living room into a performancearea wheretheycould express theirtalent.
Paul first got into organized writing and performance when he formed a music group with his elder brother Charles and a number of their friends from church. They would perform in church, in school events and eventually restaurants and coffee houses.
Eventually,Paul, Charles and a third guy came together to form a group called 1Accord and startedperforming in Albany (where Charles was in university) and in New York (where Paul was attending high school). The group wouldgo on to land a deal at Shaquille O'Neal's 'The World Is Mine (T.W.is.M) Records.'
The groupdid not last very long, althoughone of their main achievements wasthe singleDon't Stop, Don't Quit,which featured as one of the soundtracks to Jamie Foxx's 1997 comedy film,Booty Call.
After leaving 1Accord andjoining yet another band that faced multiple rejections from various labels, Paul's luck finally began to change. One night as he was performing in a club, he spotted superstar Alicia Keys among the crowd and invited her to stage. Keys turned the offer down, so Paul came down and went to where she was seated, to sing with her in what he described as a "magical moment."
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Beginning Of A Fruitful Professional Relationship
This became the beginning of a fruitful professional relationship, as Paulsoonjoined Keys' team, helping her write andbacking her up on her stage performances. After a few years, Paul chose to take the biggest risk of his career by leaving a steady job with Keys to chart his own solo path.
"I said I am gonna risk it all—that was the beginning of it all," Paul recounted. "What caused that was I realized I wasn’t really happy, even though I was making money. I always felt like something was missing."
He had already auditioned forAmerican Idolin 2002, but he neither got on the show nor heard back from the producers.
In 2012, having witnessed the success of Season 1 ofThe Voice, Paul decided to audition for the second season of the show. In the blind auditions, he performed Avril Lavigne'sComplicated, a rendition that earned him two turned chairs, from coaches CeeLo Green and Blake Shelton.
Paul decided to go into Shelton's team. This turned out to be an inspired decision as the modern country music icon led him to overall victory, ahead of the more fancied Juliet Simms from CeeLo's team. Paul's win would be the first on the show for coach Blake, who's gone on to rack up another six wins in the subsequent seasons.
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After 'The Voice'
Paul's career looked to be on an unstoppable trajectory following his iconic triumph on The Voice, buthe never really quitemanaged to make it as big as was anticipated. His performance of the since-disgraced R. Kelly'sI Believe I Can Fly in the finals captured globalaudiences'imagination.
His subsequent cover of the same song hit no. 83 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Sadly for Paul, thatremains one of his major successes sincehe leftThe Voice. Another cover of the 1967 Isaac Hayes and David Porter song Soul Man -that he did alongside Shelton- didn't even make the top 100, only reaching a flimsy no. 108.
Being an R&B artist limited the scope of collaborative work that Paul could do with his coach. In fact, itis his Season 2 opponent RaeLynn - a country musician herself - who has gone on to work more closely with Shelton.
Paul released another single after his stint on The Voice, titledI Believe In This Life. He was due to drop an album calledMake Love Save The Worldin 2015, but those plans have never really materialized. His SoundCloud page features more than a dozen singles, but for now, Paul appears at the very least unwilling topresent the songs in more outreaching platforms.
In recent years, Paul seems to be prioritizing his family. The 41-year old has been married to his wife Melissa, who he met in high school, forslightly over two decades. They have four children together.
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