Utah is having an unusually strong showing on The Voice Season 30.
As the competition moves from the Blind Auditions into the increasingly difficult Battle Rounds, four singers with Utah ties remain in the running — and none of them arrived at this point the same way.
There is a four-chair country standout who had every coach fighting for him.
A former competitive diver who earned only Adam Levine’s chair.
A New Zealand-born singer whom Kelly Clarkson considered too valuable to risk losing.
And a returning contestant who came back to The Voice roughly a decade after leaving without a single chair turn.
Together, Cade Mower, Cal Cook, Johnnie Kapua and Keiyana Osmond represent about 8.5% of the 47 contestants who remained after Season 30’s first elimination.
CADE MOWER — THE FOUR-CHAIR STANDOUT
Perhaps the most explosive Utah audition belonged to 35-year-old Cade Mower of Bluffdale.
Cade barely had time to get through the opening of Zach Bryan’s “Something in the Orange” before Adam Levine, Kelly Clarkson, Queen Latifah and Riley Green had all turned around.
In fact, all four chairs turned before Cade had even finished the song’s second line.
Queen Latifah immediately told him she believed he could potentially take the entire competition.
Kelly was surprised for another reason.
Cade revealed that away from music he works in finance, prompting Kelly to jokingly ask how a “finance bro” could have a voice like that.
Cade explained that he has spent years balancing three very different identities: finance professional, musician, and husband and father.
His family played an emotional role in the audition as well.
Cade brought out his wife Lindsey and their children after explaining how much her support meant while he pursued something that required time away from family.
Music, however, isn’t something Cade recently discovered.
He started playing guitar at 12, began singing around age 21 and spent years performing for small crowds at his uncle’s Salt Lake City bar.
He later performed extensively while living in Austin and Nashville and has accumulated thousands of live performances while maintaining a separate career.
When it came time to pick a coach, Cade selected Riley Green.
Riley had been the last coach to turn, but his country background and belief in Cade as a songwriter proved enough to win him over.
Now Cade enters the next stage as one of Utah’s most highly touted Season 30 contestants.
CAL COOK — THE SINGER ADAM LEVINE DIDN’T WANT TO LOSE
Cal Cook, 28, from Salt Lake City, experienced a completely different Blind Audition.
Cal performed Dijon’s “The Dress,” putting enough of his own identity into the song that Queen Latifah said she wanted to buy his version immediately.
Yet only Adam Levine turned his chair.
That meant Cal automatically became a member of Team Adam.
Adam seemed surprised that nobody else had turned.
He praised Cal’s unusual singing style and predicted that he could become someone who surprised people as the competition progressed.
Cal’s background is also unusual for a Voice contestant.
Before music became his primary goal, diving was his first major passion.
He competed until he was 18 and has spent close to a decade coaching a diving team.
But his long-term ambition now points somewhere else.
Cal has said he wants to pursue music full time and hopes his experience encourages other people to take risks on the things they care about.
“This is my time,” he said while discussing why he chose to pursue The Voice.
One chair may not have looked as dramatic as Cade’s four-chair turn.
But Adam believes Cal could turn that quieter beginning into something much bigger.
JOHNNIE KAPUA — KELLY USED HER BIGGEST WEAPON
Johnnie Kapua, 32, originally comes from New Zealand but now lives in Herriman, Utah.
His journey to The Voice almost didn’t happen.
Johnnie had performed earlier in his life, but other responsibilities gradually pushed music into the background.
His wife eventually signed him up for the show — setting up one of Kelly Clarkson’s most decisive moves of the Blind Auditions.
Johnnie performed Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die With a Smile.”
Kelly turned and was so convinced by what she heard that she used her First In button.
The new Season 30 advantage allows the first coach who turns to immediately claim an artist before competing coaches can persuade them to join another team.
Kelly wasn’t willing to take that risk with Johnnie.
She used the button and automatically secured him for Team Kelly.
Even Riley Green, who didn’t turn, admitted afterward that he might regret it.
He warned Johnnie that he could become a serious problem for the other teams later in the competition.
For a singer whose music ambitions had been interrupted by everyday life, his wife signing him up may have unexpectedly reopened a door he thought had closed.
KEIYANA OSMOND — TEN YEARS LATER, ONE CHAIR CHANGED EVERYTHING
Of Utah’s four contestants, Keiyana Osmond may have the most emotional history with the show.
The 32-year-old Salt Lake City-area singer had already auditioned for The Voice approximately a decade earlier.
That first attempt ended without a chair turn.
This time was different.
Keiyana returned with Sixpence None the Richer’s “Kiss Me,” but rather than copying the original song’s light pop sound, she reshaped it around her deeper vocal register.
Riley Green turned early.
Adam, Kelly and Queen Latifah never followed.
That meant Keiyana became a one-chair member of Team Riley.
Interestingly, Riley viewed being the only coach to turn as good fortune.
He praised Keiyana for making an unusual stylistic decision and said that willingness to do something different could become exactly what helps an artist advance on The Voice.
Her music story stretches back much further than this second audition.
Keiyana grew up in Providence, Utah, received her first guitar around age 10 and won the Cache County Idol competition at 16 after performing while playing guitar.
That early victory helped convince her that performing was something she wanted to pursue seriously.
Now, roughly a decade after her first unsuccessful Voice attempt, she finally has the chair turn she once missed.
FOUR SINGERS, FOUR COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ROUTES
The contrast between Utah’s four Season 30 contestants is striking.
Cade needed only seconds to turn every chair.
Cal needed only one coach to believe in him.
Johnnie inspired Kelly to use a special button so nobody else could take him.
Keiyana waited years for a second opportunity and finally got the one chair she needed.
And now the Blind Auditions no longer matter.
The Battles have technically already begun — Riley Green made the season’s first elimination when he chose Ferryn & Brinkley Wright over Brandy Neelly on October 6 — and the remaining singers are about to face the part of the competition where coaches must start sending members of their own teams home.
That means Utah’s four singers have already accomplished something significant by making it this far.
But their next challenge is very different.
Chair turns showed which coaches believed in them.
The Battles will reveal who can survive when those same coaches are forced to choose.
