'The Voice's Oldest Contestant, Bryan Olesen, Believes Age Is Just a Number
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Team John Legend’s Bryan Olesen was 49 when he filmed his Blind Audition for Season 25 of The Voice. Happily, for him, he became the oldest artist to make a team this season and the rocker is now 50 as he is performing in the Live Shows, having made the cut from Top 12 to Top 9.
Bryan, who has served as a worship pastor at Lincoln Berean Church in Lincoln, Neb., isn’t letting the age factor get to him. Rather he’s living in a spirit of gratefulness.
“I do feel in general our culture celebrates youth and beauty, and to be in this season of my life and to be affirmed, I still need it at my age,” he told Parade in a Zoom interview after the Top 12 performances. “Just to get that encouragement from John as a coach and the other performers, yeah, it’s wonderful. It’s wonderful to feel included, and I feel as young as anybody on that stage.”
So, while Bryan is seeing age as just a number, he also has to contend with the fact that his coach selected him to be his Playoff Pass, which is both good news and bad news. The good news was he was able to skip the Knockout Rounds but the bad news was he didn’t have the opportunity to work with Mega Mentor Keith Urban and he there was one less for performance for America to see and bond with him.
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“There’s probably a few different angles to look at that,” he said. “Obviously, it helped because it advanced me to the Playoffs, but I do feel like it hurt because it was a long period of time between singing songs. And that also enters your head a little bit too mentally, you almost feel like you have to bring something at another level and really stand out because you’ve been away.”
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All the contestants were away in the time between filming the Playoffs and returning for the Live Shows. Bryan kept his vocal instrument sharp by performing some shows and by planning on what he wanted to do for his return.
Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC
“When we start this process, it’s like we enter this marathon and then we’ve got this time off to have to wait for Lives,” he said. “I was dreaming about the songs coming up and coming up with ideas for them. I hired a storyboard artist to put everything together. They’re like, ‘I think [The Voice] does that, you don’t have to worry about that,’ but I was really just wanting to stay in this moment and this season. It was hard to be away for a bit.”
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From the Top 12 to the Top 9 was a cut of three artists, but for tonight’s semifinals, the cut is going to be bigger, taking it from nine down to five, which means almost half of the artists will be going home.
Photo by: Casey Durkin/NBC
In line with Bryan living in gratefulness, he says he just wants to reflect and enjoy the time.
“I feel like some of the best things God just drops on you and you can’t really orchestrate them, and that’s what I feel like this season of life has been,” he continued. “I just want to give some time of reflection and thankfulness and just enjoy it. I’ve already had a few slices of pizza, I’m kind of veering off the diet plan just for tonight, and enjoy it with my friends, you know?”
The Voice airs Monday night at 8 p.m. ET/PT for performances, Tuesday night at 8 p.m. ET/PT for results on NBC. Streams next day on Peacock.
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