{"id":630681,"date":"2026-10-14T20:02:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T20:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/630681\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T20:02:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T20:02:17","slug":"after-the-voice-johnnie-kapua-wants-to-sing-at-a-byu-game-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/630681\/","title":{"rendered":"After \u2018The Voice,\u2019 Johnnie Kapua wants to sing at a BYU game \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like any contestant who tries out for \u201cThe Voice<\/a>,\u201d Johnnie Kapua<\/a> wondered if he\u2019d be able to get a coach to turn around for him during his blind audition. <\/p>\n

His question got answered just a few seconds into his performance of Bruno Mars\u2019 and Lady Gaga\u2019s \u201cDie With a Smile.\u201d Kelly Clarkson was quick to turn around. Queen Latifah immediately followed.<\/p>\n

The 32-year-old singer, who lives in Herriman, Utah, was surprised \u2014 but not for the reason you might think. <\/p>\n

Johnnie Kapua gets surprised during \u2018Voice\u2019 audition<\/p>\n

Kapua had known it was a possibility someone could turn around, so even though he doesn\u2019t consider himself to be the most confident singer, he wasn\u2019t necessarily surprised by that.<\/p>\n

What did surprise him, though, was the absence of the dramatic whooshing sound that the millions of viewers watching \u201cThe Voice\u201d hear anytime a coach pushes the button to turn around their chair. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re actually performing and you\u2019re there live, there\u2019s no sound!\u201d Kapua recently told the Deseret News. \u201cI was expecting that a big sound would happen, and that would maybe throw me off a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

But for Kapua, it was the lack of sound that was the big distraction. He did his best to move past that surprise and keep on singing. And then, when the song was over, he had a nerve-wracking realization.<\/p>\n

As Clarkson, Latifah, Adam Levine and Riley Green stared at him from their big red swivel chairs, Kapua, who at first was simply relieved to be done with his performance, remembered he now actually had to talk to the celebrity coaches.<\/p>\n

\"\"Johnnie Kapua talks to the celebrity coaches during his audition for “The Voice.” | Griffin Nagel\/NBC <\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018Oh shoot, I really have not thought this through!\u2019\u201d he said with a laugh. \u201cI couldn\u2019t comprehend what I was going to say. I didn\u2019t run that scenario through my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kapua was actually more nervous about talking to the coaches than he was singing \u2014 he says he forgot his name at one point. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe judges kind of had to carry the conversation, and my wife, we had this conversation right afterwards, she\u2019s like, \u2018What were you doing? Why weren\u2019t you talking?\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018I didn\u2019t even know what to say!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In the end, though, he didn\u2019t have to say too much. <\/p>\n

Clarkson hit her \u201cFirst In Button\u201d \u2014 a new feature on the show that allows the coach who turned around first the chance to snag that singer for their team.<\/p>\n

So Kapua automatically joined Team Kelly. <\/p>\n

His time on \u201cThe Voice\u201d ended Tuesday night during the Battle round, although Clarkson had high praise for him. Now, the Utah singer is figuring out how to make music a bigger part of his life.<\/p>\n

An \u2018anomaly\u2019 on \u2018The Voice\u2019 <\/p>\n

Before going on \u201cThe Voice,\u201d Kapua considered himself a casual singer. <\/p>\n

His desire to play the guitar and sing started back in high school as a way to woo girls. Over the years, he would sing at an occasional family or church gathering, but it wasn\u2019t something he\u2019d ever considered as a career. <\/p>\n

Kapua, who studied project management at Ensign College, said he felt like an \u201cimpostor\u201d at the start of his time on \u201cThe Voice.\u201d Surrounded by contestants who had been navigating the music industry for years, or who had played on big stages, he described himself as an \u201canomaly.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"\"Johnnie Kapua performs during the Battle round of “The Voice.” | Cory Osborne\/NBC <\/p>\n

But those feelings of inadequacy waned as he bonded with his fellow contestants. Even in a competitive environment, the contestants lifted each other up and created a sense of family amid filming, he said.<\/p>\n

Winning over Clarkson and Latifah \u2014 his top two picks for a coach \u2014 offered even more validation.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, I was just overwhelmed by the fact that they had really nice things to say about me and my singing,\u201d Kapua said. \u201c\u2018Cause again, I wouldn\u2019t say I\u2019m a singer, so to have professional singers, especially someone like Kelly, who\u2019s just a powerhouse in the singing industry \u2026 use her first-in (button) was pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joining Clarkson\u2019s team was somewhat of a lightning bolt moment for Kapua.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt made a switch in my mind,\u201d he said. \u201cLike, \u2018Oh, dude, you can actually sing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next for Johnnie Kapua after \u2018The Voice\u2019?\"\"Johnnie Kapua performs with Anna McElroy during the Battle round of “The Voice.” | Cory Osborne\/NBC <\/p>\n

During Tuesday night\u2019s Battle round, Clarkson faced a hard decision. <\/p>\n

Kapua and his fellow Team Kelly member, Anna McElroy, had just performed \u201cSome Things I\u2019ll Never Know\u201d by Teddy Swims feat. Maren Morris. Clarkson had high praise for both singers \u2014 \u201cYou have this special tone about you that I just fall in love with every time you open your mouth,\u201d she told Kapua.<\/p>\n

But she had to eliminate someone. <\/p>\n

The \u201cVoice\u201d coach made it clear she wanted to keep in touch with whoever she ended up eliminating and help them move forward in the industry. That person ended up being Kapua.<\/p>\n

Knowing that Clarkson is in his corner means the world to Kapua. <\/p>\n

Now, back in Herriman, the singer is adjusting to life with a baby (his wife, who actually signed him up for \u201cThe Voice,\u201d was 36 weeks pregnant at the time of his audition). <\/p>\n

He\u2019s also got a full-time job in sales, but after his time on \u201cThe Voice,\u201d Kapua wants music to be a bigger part of his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019m still like a kid when it comes to the music side,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I don\u2019t know what it looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kapua does really want to sing the national anthem at a BYU football game<\/a>, which would also mark his first time ever attending a football game \u2014 \u201cI\u2019m a disgrace, I know,\u201d he said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

He also wants to embrace performance opportunities in his homeland of New Zealand, and help to represent his culture on a larger stage. <\/p>\n

But in the meantime, he\u2019s celebrating his run on \u201cThe Voice,\u201d and the fact that his two older kids, ages 7 and 5, got to watch him in the spotlight.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m most proud of, outside of my marriage, is being a dad,\u201d he said. \u201cThe goal is for my kids to be able to see their dad do something that he was very terrified of doing, and, you know, have that transfer into their own mind that they can do hard things, too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Like any contestant who tries out for \u201cThe Voice,\u201d Johnnie Kapua wondered if he\u2019d be able to get…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,16474,139,69,437],"class_list":["post-630681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-news-feed-national","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}