Season 26 of NBC’s The Voice premiered last month and so far, at least two contestants have D-FW ties.
Fort Worth native Kendall Eugene, 37, and Dallas resident Danny Joseph, 37, were picked by country legend Reba McEntire for her team after their blind auditions. The other coaches this season are Snoop Dogg, Gwen Stefani and Michael Bublé.
Contestants compete for a $100,000 cash prize and a record deal with Universal Music Group. New episodes air on Mondays and Tuesday nights.
Kendall Eugene
Growing up in Fort Worth, Eugene hated country music.
“I couldn’t stand it because it was everywhere,” he says. But after moving to Pennsylvania as an adult, he developed a newfound appreciation for the genre. “I missed the twang. I missed the soul and I had to get back into it,” he says.
For his audition, he sang Morgan Wallen’s “Don’t Think Jesus.” After none of the coaches turned their chairs — a move that signals their interest — McEntire used her “Coach Replay” button to save him from going home.
“She just gave me a hug and told me that she was proud of me and believed in me,” Eugene says of the moment.
McEntire’s words struck a chord with Eugene because of his tumultuous past year. He “made some choices,” he says, that led to his marriage ending in divorce.
Music has been his emotional outlet, he says, a way for him to release the pain he has felt. “I’m not going to be perfect, but I don’t want to live in the shame of myself or shame from other people.”
He calls The Voice a new chapter in his life.
“I have no clue what this is going to turn into,” he says. “It’s still being written.”
Danny Joseph
All of The Voice judges jockeyed to recruit Joseph onto their teams after his rendition of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “I Put A Spell On You.”
“You go into it, hoping to get one. … You don’t think four chairs are going to turn,” says Joseph, who ultimately chose McEntire.
Originally from London, Joseph got his start busking on the Underground in between university classes. In 2015, he moved to Dallas to be closer to his now-wife, whom he had met at a church conference in Grapevine.
He later began to pursue music full-time, performing sets in the D-FW area. While he gravitates to soul and blues, the local country scene has rubbed off on him. “I have quite a few country songs in my set that I play live, being here now for nearly a decade,” Joseph says.
READ MORE: Reba shocks everyone on The Voice by pressing the first replay button, leaving viewers in tears
His journey to The Voice has been an uphill battle. For years, he has been living with Crohn’s disease, a chronic bowel disorder, and he recently had surgery to remove his colon.
“The day or day after I got home from the hospital, I got a call to say I made it on The Voice,” he says. “At this point, I’m very bedridden. I can’t really walk.”
“I didn’t think I was going to make it on the show,” he continues. “My dream was to feel better again.”
During recovery, he would make music at home. “I realized I don’t feel sick when I do this,” he says.
“It’s distracting me from this disease … It’s healing in a sense.”
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