On Monday night’s episode of “The Voice” on NBC, Derby country singer Jaelen Johnston made a big impression on the singing competition’s celebrity judges — and especially on Kelsea Ballerini, who chose him to compete on her team.
But Johnston — who will next appear on the show during its “battle rounds” sometime in March — is not the only local who will compete on the show this season.
In the course of patching Johnston through for a phone interview on Tuesday, a publicist for “The Voice” said that a second Wichita-area contestant also will be introduced in about two weeks. She promised to help facilitate an interview with that singer, too.
In the meantime, locals can cheer on Johnston, who said during Tuesday’s interview that he got his courage up to sing in public only about five years ago.
Before that, “I was a shower singer, a car belter,” said Johnston, whose musical influences include Chris Stapleton, Zach Bryan, Treaty Oak Revival and “hands down, the king himself, George Strait.”
Now, Johnston is singing on national television, and on Monday night’s show, three of music’s biggest stars gushed about his singing voice — a deep baritone that lent itself perfectly to the cover of Luke Combs’ 2023 song “Where the Wild Things Are” that he performed.
After confirming that Johnston was a songwriter as well as a singer, Ballerini told him that she desperately wanted to work with him.
“Your voice is unreal,” she said. “And range? You’re not just a singer. You’re an artist. I really think that leaning into the songwriter of you is going to be fun, and I want to see where that takes us.”
“The Voice,” for the uninitiated, invites singers from across the country to virtually audition for the show. A select group is chosen to travel to Hollywood and audition in front of a panel of four celebrity judges. Season 27 of “The Voice,” which began airing on Feb. 3, features Ballerini as a judge along with Adam Levine, Michael Buble and John Legend.
The celebrity judges assemble teams of 12 singers each and serve as coaches for their team members. As of this week, the show is in the middle of airing its “blind rounds,” during which contestants start off their performances with all four judges facing away from them. As they begin to perform, if a judge likes what she or he hears, he hits a button and the chair spins around. The celebrity judges who turned their chairs then make a pitch to the singer, who’s able to choose whose team to join. Sometimes, none of the judges turn for a singer. Sometimes, all four do.
Jaelen Johnston was a hit with the celebrity judges on Monday night’s episode of “The Voice” on NBC. The Derby resident will next appear on the show sometime in March. Christine Bartolucci NBC
When Johnston began singing and the judges heard the first few notes of his song, Levine turned around first, followed quickly by Buble and then by Ballerini. He chose Ballerini.
Most of this season has already been recorded, the publicist confirmed on Tuesday afternoon. Live rounds don’t start until late in the season, and the show will crown its winner — who gets $100,000 and a record deal — on May 6.
Johnston, who has worked for the past three years as a general maintenance and repair technician at McConnell Air Force Base, is a 2021 Derby High School graduate who says his love of music started when his grandparents gave him a guitar at age 16.
He wasn’t into it at first, he said, but then his grandfather taught him a few chords.
“I started trying to throw singing into the mix, and I definitely struggled to learn how to play and sing at the same time,” he said. “It was tough.”
The first time he ever performed in public, he said, was during an open mic at The Rusty Nail, a bar and grill at 1155 S. Washington in Wichita. After that, the bar offered him a brunch gig.
Derby’s Jaelen Johnston didn’t start singing until about five years ago. Now, he’s a contestant on NBC’s singing competition “The Voice.” Danny Ventrella NBC
“I played for a room full of four people,” he said. “That was the most scared I’ve ever been. I was up there shaking. But it was definitely something that I had to do to get my feet wet,”
Encouraged by his mother, Tonya Johnston — who raised him as a single mother — and by his aunt, Dawn Johnston, he kept performing. His aunt eventually became his manager of sorts and started getting him gigs at bars and restaurants around the area. These days, he performs most often in Derby at The Sandbox and at Madrocks Sports Bar. He also gets regular jobs at The Humidor, 8558 W. 21st St. in Wichita.
He first tried out for “The Voice” for season 26, but he didn’t make it past the open call. When season 27 auditions came around, Johnston’s mother asked him if he planned to try again, but he was noncommittal.
Not long after, his mother called him at work.
“She said, ‘What are you doing after work?’” Johnston remembers. “’Okay, well, you have an audition.’”
This time, Johnston made it past the open call and participated in several more rounds of virtual auditions. He was eventually invited to travel to Hollywood and perform for the judges. The footage that aired on Monday was recorded all the way back in May, he said.
It’s been hard holding on to his secret for so long, he said. He watched Monday’s episode with close friends and family at a private party, and “I was blushing. My face was the color of a tomato.”
Jaelen Johnston was a hit with the celebrity judges on Monday night’s episode of “The Voice” on NBC. The Derby resident will next appear on the show sometime in March. Christine Bartolucci NBC
But during his time in California, Johnston said, his confidence grew. He learned so much from the judges and from the fellow contestants he met, many of whom he still talks to every day.
“It was a very reassuring experience,” he said.
While hanging around so many like-minded musicians, he said, he was able to write new songs, which he hopes to release sometime this year.
Though Johnston can’t reveal anything about what happened in rounds already filmed, he said he’s confident something good will come out of the exposure he’s getting on the show.
“I think the thing that’s most exciting, honestly, is the possibilities that come from this whole experience,” he said. “This has been a dream come true, and I think that no matter what happens going forward at this point in the show, there are definitely going to be some musical avenues that are opened.”
Johnston also hinted that he was acquainted with the other singer from the Wichita area and revealed that he’s talented as well.
As the show continues to air, Johnston will still be performing around town and has a performance scheduled for 9 to 11 p.m. Saturday night at Madrocks, 1821 E. Madison in Derby. The dates of all his gigs — as well as recordings of his music — are on his website, jaelenjmusic.com
We’ll publish updates on both Wichita singers as this season of “The Voice” progresses.
