The guitarist-singer was the last to make it to next week’s finals in a dramatic finish to Tuesday’s show. It’s the second year in a row a Michigan musician has made it to the finals.
It was dramatic and literally came down to the final seconds, but Laith Al-Saadi matched the 2015 success of another 30-something Michigan representative on “The Voice.”
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The Ann Arbor blues guitarist and singer was the last competitor to make the Final Four on this season’s edition of the NBC singing competition when he was “saved by America” in Twitter voting by fans across the country.
It’s the second year in a row that a veteran Michigan musician has made it to the finals on “The Voice.” In 2015, Traverse City singer-songwriter Joshua Davis finished third in the competition at age 37. Al-Saadi is 38, the oldest contestant among this season’s Top 10.
The engaging, uber-talented musician has enjoyed a remarkably successful run on the show, regularly impressing judges and audience members, and frequently topping other contestants in fan downloads on iTunes for the songs he performed on “The Voice.”
On Tuesday’s show, the top three vote-getters based on ballots cast by fans across the nation — Adam Wakefield, Alisan Porter and Hannah Huston — automatically advanced to next week’s finals, and the bottom two (Paxton Ingram and Shalyah Fearing) were sent home.
The three remaining contestants — Al-Saadi, Mary Sarah and Bryan Bautista — then had to battle it out by performing songs to win the final spot in the finals based on Twitter voting by fans.
To his credit, Al-Saadi chose a song that’s right in his wheelhouse: Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower,” a song popularized by rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix, and on Tuesday night, by Laith Al-Saadi. (Watch the video below.)
As the show came to a close and the credits started to roll, Al-Saadi burst into a wide grin after he finally was crowned the final performer to make it to the Final Four.
On Monday, Al-Saadi gave the Adele hit “One and Only” his distinctive blues treatment during his semi-finals performance — tossing in a couple of tasty guitar runs along the way. (Watch a video of that performance below.)
He also rolled through a fetching, soulful rendition of “Knock on Wood,” a 1966 classic written by Eddie Floyd and Steve Cropper, in his duet with fellow contestant Hannah Huston on Monday.
But with a bevy of strong performance on Monday, Al-Saadi’s version of “One and Only” placed only 10th on the iTunes singles chart as of noon Tuesday, with fellow competitors Adam Wakefield, Alisan Porter, Mary Sarah, Hannah Huston and Bryan Bautista all finishing ahead of him. The iTunes downloads frequently are a good indicator of which contestants are likely to advance.
VIDEO: Laith Al-Saadi, “All Along the Watchtower” (NBC’s “The Voice”)
VIDEO: Laith Al-Saadi, “One and Only” (NBC’s “The Voice”)
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