On Season 15 of The Voice, Jennifer Hudson pits two powerhouse singers from her team against each other during the Battle Round: Colton Smith and Patrique Fortson. Together they sing the Blake Shelton song “God Gave Me You,” which will likely stir old memories for Shelton of his ex-wife Miranda Lambert (see other Voice articles for the story). Patrique has the upper-hand at this battle — by the age of 6, he was the youngest gospel recording artist ever.
In 2003, Patrique — then known as Patrick Fortson — auditioned for Season 2 of American Idol. After he sang a Toni Braxton song, Simon Cowell told him, “I would expect someone who looks like you to sing amazingly well, but you didn’t.” Ouch. Patrick didn’t get a unanimous vote (Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson said yes) but that’s all he needed to advance to the semifinals where again, Cowell chewed him out. But that was 15 years ago. Now Patrique is killing it on The Voice and Jennifer Hudson is throwing her shoes at him. Cowell didn’t think much of Hudson of either when she competed on American Idol the very next season! The Voice airs Mondays and Tuesdays at 8 pm on NBC.
