Cole Norton this past weekend with the piece of paper that told him he’d been called back for a second audition for The Voice. “Not to be dramatic, but this red card could change my life,” Norton posted on Facebook Sunday. “If I make it past tomorrow’s callback I’ll be on the Voice. If not, what an experience.” Photo via Facebook
By Lindsey Cooke [1]
BELLEVILLE – A singer from Picton made it to the final audition for The Voice [2] this week, although he won’t be appearing on the show.
Cole Norton, 20, tried out for the NBC singing-competition show this past weekend in Houston at the Minute Maid baseball stadium. He travelled from his home in Stillwater, Okla., where he studies marketing at Oklahoma State University. Norton sang Mercy, by Shawn Mendes [3], and a song he’d written himself, and was asked on the spot to return for a second audition.
Norton has been involved in music since the age of six, singing and playing the piano. His mother, Lynn, who still lives in Picton, encouraged him to try out for The Voice, he said.
“I was like, ‘Maybe I will just see when the auditions are, and see what it’s about.’ It just happened to be the last audition was in Houston this (past) Saturday. And I was like, ‘Well, that’s not too far – I might as well try and do it. So I wasn’t really planning on doing it – it just happened last-minute. It went further than I expected.”
When Norton arrived at the stadium, he was seated with a group of other contestants. “We were waiting there for, like, three or four hours, and finally they would come get us and take us upstairs to where the baseball suites were,” he said. Inside the suite was a producer. The contestants lined up, and each sang for 45 seconds. Norton was the sixth of the nine people in his group to sing.
The producer clapped after the others finished. But for Norton, he did something different.
When Norton finished with Mercy, the producer asked him to sing something different, which is when he decided to do a song he’d written himself.
“I sang that for him and sat back down. I was kind of nervous. I wasn’t really sure how I did. But after everyone was done, he said, ‘All right, thanks everyone for coming. I’m just going to need Cole to stay and talk to him.’
“Everybody else just left and I was there and, basically, he kept me back for 10 minutes.” The producer told him he’d move on to the next stage and audition again.
“He was pretty much saying, ‘You have the look, the talent and you just need to pick the right song.’ ”
The experience was a lot like what happens on another hugely popular singing competition show, American Idol [4], he said: “You get escorted out of the (audition) room, and everyone cheers for you when you leave, kind of like American Idol (where) you leave the room with that gold ticket and you’ve made it. So as soon as I walked out of the room, there were tons of people cheering and stuff, even though they didn’t know me. And it was awesome.”
The callback audition was on Monday night, again in Houston. Norton performed Mercy for a second time.
“I just didn’t nail it like how I usually do,” he said. “I’m not really sure why – maybe my voice just wasn’t hitting that day.”
He was told he hadn’t made it to the next round.
“I finished it and they said, ‘Cole, you should be really proud that you made it this far. You’ve got amazing raw talent. You’ve got the look. You just need to put it all together.’ ”
Norton said it was a valuable experience and he’s pleased he made a good impression at his first audition. When he got to the callback, he discovered that the first producer had told the other judges about his talent.
“Even though I didn’t really perform my best (Monday) night, I think they expected something out of me. So it just gave me a lot of confidence moving forward. And I think they know I will stick around and do something.”
Norton is pursuing music while completing his studies and being a member of the track team at Oklahoma State.
He recently started to post videos of himself singing on social media, and they have received thousands of views and shares.
His first big live performance was opening for rap artist Post Malone [5] at Oklahoma State last October.
“That was my first big reveal. Post Malone came to our school and I got to open for him, and it was like my big debut. And I was super nervous.”
Norton’s song Wrote A Song About You is on Spotify and Apple Music.
Wrote a song about you pic.twitter.com/8fYNYoLFRJ [6]
— Cole Norton (@ColeANorton) November 13, 2017 [7]
“It’s kind of a story about an ex saying, ‘Where did you go? You just disappeared,’ kind of telling her to come home and whatnot,” he said.
As for the future of his musical career, he’s focusing on recording more songs and getting an album out.
“Things have been moving really fast, and I’m hoping for big things. I’m hoping I can get it done this semester, like releasing the album and get some traction from that and get attention from a label.”