WATCH: Matt McAndrew Tackles The Beach Boys On The Voice‘s Live Playoffs

McAndrew performing recently at World Café Live | Photo by Susan Rostron

The Voice live playoffs have begun. Up to this point, the eliminations have been decided by the coaches. They’ve whittled down their teams via the battle rounds and the knock-out rounds to pick their ideal lineups for these live playoffs. Its now time for America to vote—by phone, text or (gasp) actually buying music on iTunes—for their favorite performance.

Last night it was Team Adam and Team Blake singing for their lives, which means we would actually see UArts graduate Matt McAndrew do his thing. Last week, during the knock out rounds, the producers breezed over his performance without airing the entire thing. We assume that is because he far out-shined his competition. From the brief clip they showed, Matt was commanding the stage and sounding his best.

I was hoping for something really special from Matt last night, and he didn’t disappoint. Like last year, Adam Levine is pushing his performers to take big risks and show America who they really are. It’s at this point in the competition where song choice is as critical as anything. Matt chose “God Only Knows” by The Beach Boys. It is widely regarded as one of the best written songs of all time, which is tall order for anyone, especially a 23-year-old. This song choice shows an impressive maturity and musical knowledge. Plus, he was singing it to his MOM! How sweet is that?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvk4qKqlZHg

As his performance starts, Matt is seated on a stool comfortably attacking the range of the first verse as the camera fades into a shot of his mom nearly in tears, watching her son have a moment. As his smooth performance rolls on he moves around the stage touching hands and engaging the crowd, which not many people on the show seem to be doing. He wants to put on a better show for the people in the arena—not just one for the cameras—and it makes for a more interesting experience. He rounds out the song with a beautiful leap into his falsetto before coming back down to Earth and ending in his robust lower register.

Amongst so many pop, rock, and soul choices on the show, McAndrew stands out as something truly unique and interesting. Nothing about his presentation is cheesy or fake in any way. It is as genuine and heartfelt as anything we have seen on the show so far.

So now America can vote by logging on to NBC.com. You can vote up to ten times for one artist until noon today. You can also go to iTunes and buy Matt’s version of “God Only Knows,” and that counts as a vote. The artist at the top of the iTunes charts at noon today gets their iTunes votes multiplied by ten, which could be a huge push for any contestant. Now you have something to buy with that iTunes gift card your aunt got you for Christmas last year.