Billy Gilman

William Wendell Gilman III (born May 24, 1988), known professionally as Billy Gilman, is an American country music singer.

William Wendell Gilman was born on May 24, 1988, in Westerly, Rhode Island.

He was raised in Hope Valley, Rhode Island, in the town of Richmond.

He is the son of Frances "Fran" (Woodmansee) and William Wendell "Bill" Gilman, Jr., who works in maintenance.

Gilman began singing before he was in school, and gave his first public performance at the age of seven.

At the age of nine, Gilman was discovered by Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel, who helped him record demos.

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.

Gilman was then signed to Epic Records Nashville in 2000.

Gilman's debut single "One Voice", became a top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 peaking at number 38.

It also became a top 20 hit on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in 2000.

11 years old at the time, he became the youngest artist to ever have a top 40 single on the country chart.

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.

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.

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

Gilman released a Christmas album in 2000 titled Classic Christmas which went gold, followed on May 8, 2001, by his second album Dare to Dream, 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 numbers 50 and 56 respectively.

After Dare to Dream, Gilman's voice began to noticeably change because of the onset of puberty, forcing him temporarily to withdraw from singing.

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, 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.

A self-titled album Billy Gilman followed in 2006.

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."

In 2016, Gilman auditioned for season 11 of the US edition of The Voice and competed as part of Team Adam Levine, finishing as runner-up for the season.

In 2016, Gilman auditioned for season 11 of the US edition of The Voice.

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".

Gilman chose to continue the competition as part of Team Adam Levine.

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 where he confronted teammate Ponciano Seoane singing "Fight Song".

Levine opted to pick him for the live rounds.

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 the other being his teammate Josh Gallagher.

Based on this vote, he moved to the top 12 live stage of the competition.

In the first live show, he sang Queen's "The Show Must Go On".

followed in week two of live shows by "All I Ask" from Adele and in week three by "Anyway" from Martina McBride all three with a standing ovation from the public and from all four judges.

"Anyway" reached number four on iTunes allowing Gilman the advantage of multiplying the vote (sales) totals he got on the iTunes chart published immediately after the broadcast by five.