Billy Gilman

William Wendell Gilman III (born May 24, 1988), known as Billy Gilman, is an American singer. Starting as a young country artist, he is known for his debut single "One Voice", a top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and a Top 20 hit on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in 2000. He has released five albums, including three for Epic Nashville. In 2016, Gilman auditioned for season 11 of the US edition of The Voice and competes as part of Team Adam Levine.

Early life

Gilman was born on May 24, 1988, in Westerly, Rhode Island. He was raised in Hope Valley, Rhode Island, ^[1] He is the son of Frances "Fran" (Woodmansee) and William Wendell "Bill" Gilman, Jr., who works in maintenance.^[2][3][4] Gilman began singing before he was in school, and gave his first public performance at age 7. At the age of 9, Gilman was discovered by Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel, who helped him record demos.^[1] Gilman was then signed to Epic Records Nashville in 2000.

Career

Billy Gilman performing in Boston (2000)

Gilman's debut single "One Voice", became a Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 peaking at number 38.^[5] It also became a Top 20 hit on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in 2000.^[6] 11 years old at the time, he became the youngest artist to ever have a Top 40 single on the country chart.^[7][8]

His debut album, also called One Voice was released on June 20, 2000 on Epic Records, and was certified double platinum in the United States.^[9] The album included the title track "One Voice" and the follow-up singles "Oklahoma" and "There's a Hero". The single "Oklahoma" was released on October 9, 2000 making it to the Billboard Hot Country Songs Top 40 peaking at number 33. It also cracked the main Hot 100 chart peaking at number 63.^[5]

Gilman was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance for his debut single "One Voice"^[7] and was nominated for Best Country Song for the songwriters, Don Cook and David Malloy.^[10]

Gilman released a Christmas album in 2000 titled Classic Christmas which went gold,^[11] followed on May 8, 2001 by his second album Dare to Dream,^[1] which was certified gold, although its singles "Elisabeth" and "She's My Girl" both fell short of Top 40 on the Billboard country singles charts peaking at positions 50 and 56 respectively.^[6] After Dare to Dream, Gilman's voice began to noticeably change because of the onset of puberty, forcing him temporarily to withdraw from singing.^[9][12]

His final album for Epic was released on April 15, 2003 and was entitled Music Through Heartsongs: Songs Based on the Poems of Mattie J.T. Stepanek. The tracks were based on poems written by the child poet Mattie Stepanek, a poet with muscular dystrophy who died in 2004,^[1] almost one year after the album's release.

Gilman signed to Image Entertainment in 2005 for the release of his fifth album, Everything and More.^[13] A self-titled album Billy Gilman followed in 2006.^[14]

The Voice

In 2016, Gilman auditioned for season 11 of the US edition of The Voice. The emotional introduction piece showed him with his supportive parents clearly introducing him as a child star and the fact that he had come out as gay in 2014. He was shown declaring to The Voice host Carson Daly backstage: "I had to come to grips with being gay... I took a long time to rebuild vocally, but it was coming back, and then coming to grips with who I was personally, I also came to grips with who I was as a singer. You know, I love my country music roots, but deep down, I really always wanted to be a pop singer. It’s actually nerve-racking to stand here and just be 100 percent me. There’s only one shot to reinvent myself."^[15]

In the blind audition broadcast on September 20, 2016, Gilman sang Adele's song "When We Were Young". Gilman impressed all four judges, Adam Levine, Miley Cyrus, Alicia Keys and Blake Shelton with his performance. Adam Levine was the first to turn his chair around soon after Gilman started singing, with Miley Cyrus following shortly thereafter. Blake Shelton and Alicia Keys turned around at the very end of the performance. Once Gilman introduced himself to the coaches, both Shelton and Cyrus said they recognized him from his childhood career with Shelton mentioning Gilman's hit "One Voice". Shelton added: "When I was making my first album, that's when 'One Voice' came out. It's crazy, Billy. But you always wonder whatever happened to somebody, you know? Now you've found your sound and where you belong musically." And when Cyrus recalled Gilman's music video on "One Voice", Gilman mentioned that he had been an opening act to Cyrus' father Billy Ray Cyrus early on. Adam Levine added: "So rarely do I hear everything happening on the stage. That intangible quality that you possess, is exactly what embodies a person that can win this show. You really could be the guy. And I'm not sitting down until you joined my team". Gilman chose to continue the competition as part of Team Adam Levine.^[16]

In the Battle round, Levine matched Gilman with teammate Andrew DeMuro both performing Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror" and opted for Gilman to stay for the Knockouts round^[17] where he confronted teammate Ponciano Seoane singing "Fight Song". Levine opted to pick him for the Live Rounds.^[18] In the inaugural Live Playoffs broadcast, he sang "Crying" from Roy Orbison and was one of two contestants from Team Adam to be saved by the public vote^[19] the other being his teammate Josh Gallagher. Based on this vote, he moved to the Top 12 live stage of the competition.^[20]

In the first live show, he sang Queen's "The Show Must Go On".^[21] followed in week 2 of live shows by "All I Ask" from Adele^[22] and in week 3 by "Anyway" from Martina McBride all three with a standing ovation from the public and from all four judges.^[23]

Performances on The Voice

     – Studio version of performance reached the top 10 on iTunes

Charities and activism

Gilman is a celebrity ambassador for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) and performs on many of their charity drives. The first time he appeared on the Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon was in September 2003, and has made many appearances in their drives and co-hosting or performing in their charity drives ever since.^[25]

In April 2012, Gilman collaborated with other country artists and released a charity single, "The Choice", for Soles4Souls, a shoe charity with proceeds going for purchase of shoes for needy children worldwide.^[26] In addition for Gilman as spokesman for the charity song and lead singer on it, 18 top country singers also took part in support. The track features vocals from Alan Jackson, Reba McEntire, Craig Morgan, Josh Turner, Kenny Rogers, LeAnn Rimes, Steve Holy, Kellie Pickler, Keith Urban, Wynonna Judd, Rodney Atkins, Amy Grant, Montgomery Gentry, Diamond Rio, Vince Gill, Richie McDonald, Ronnie Milsap and Randy Travis.^[27]

Gilman was the host of the 2014 Artists Music Guild's AMG Heritage Awards. His co-host for the event was Mallory Lewis and the puppet Lamb Chop. Gilman also took home the statue for the 2014 AMG Heritage Mainstream Artist of the Year.^[28][29]

In popular culture

In 2000, Gilman appeared on the tribute album Country Goes Raffi, performing the Raffi song "Baby Beluga".^[30] In 2000, he also appeared on the TV special 'Twas the Night Before Christmas singing seasonal songs.^[31]

On September 7 and September 10, 2001, Gilman performed the song "Ben" at Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration in New York which was later televised. It was originally sung by Michael Jackson in 1972.^[32]

Gilman was also on Welsh soprano Charlotte Church's album Dream a Dream singing the title track "Dream a Dream" as a featured vocalist with her. The song is for voice and orchestra based on Fauré's Pavane Op. 50 ("Elysium").^[33]

In 2002, Gilman took part in a reading for the then Broadway-bound musical A Tale of Two Cities, in which he played 'The Young Man', who is Madame DeFarge's brother.^[34]

In 2003, he appeared on Our Country, a short documentary and released a promotional documentary Billy Gilman: The Making of Everything and More in 2005 on Image Entertainment.^[35]

Personal life

Gilman originated from Hope Valley, Rhode Island where he lived with his parents as a young singer.^[36]He was also interviewed on Entertainment Tonight about his coming out on September 21, 2014, just one day after Ty Herndon had appeared on the same program coming out.^[37]

In a video posted on November 20, 2014, Gilman came out as gay.^[38] He released his video titled "My Story by Billy Gilman" on One Voice Productions YouTube page only hours after another country singer Ty Herndon had come out. Gilman said in the video that Herndon's public acknowledgement inspired him to do the same.^[39] He is in a relationship with Christopher Meyer, an IT specialist.^[40][41][42]

Discography

Studio albums

Christmas album

Singles

Other non-album releases

• 2009: "I Know"
• 2009: "She Wanted More"
• 2009: "Honky Tonk Parade"
• 2015: "Christmas Time"
• 2015: "He's Alive"
• 2015: "Wishing You Were Here"
• 2015: "Falling"
• 2015: "Summertime"

Christmas singles

Releases from The Voice

Music videos

References

External links

• Official website