Virginia Beach man’s soulful performance on NBC’s ‘The Voice’ lands him spot with Chance The Rapper

Magnus Martin made his mark Tuesday night on NBC’s “The Voice.”

The 25-year-old educator from Virginia Beach delivered a soulful performance of “Sara Smile” by Hall & Oates on the nationally televised reality singing competition. And if that’s not enough, celebrity judge and coach Chance The Rapper picked Martin to be on his team this season.

Chance spun his chair around to face Martin — which is how a judge shows approval — early in the song. At the end of the performance in the blind audition round, he yelled, “I am so excited to win this show with you, Magnus!”

“Man, impeccable song choice. The pacing at which you attacked the song, for a while I was like, man, these runs are going crazy,” Chance said. “And then you just smacked that note at the end? I mean, I already won the whole show, basically.”

The other judges didn’t spin their chairs during the song but had great things to say as well.

“Your voice was incredible,” Irish singer-songwriter Niall Horan said. “The way you ramped the song up was pretty incredible.”

Veteran “Voice” judge Blake Shelton said, “Your performance got better and better as it went along.”

Country star Kelly Clarkson said to Chance, “You turned around and you were so excited about it, I didn’t want to take that away from you.”

In an audition tape posted on his YouTube channel, Martin said this has always been a dream.

“I’ve always wanted to go on ‘The Voice’ the past couple of seasons, but I’ve been in school and teaching,” Martin said. “But I’m taking a leap on faith and I’m actually just going to just go for it.”

Then, he put his took to the keyboard and sang “You and I” by Stevie Wonder.

Martin went to Norfolk State University, according to LinkedIn. A Chesapeake Public Schools spokesperson confirmed he was a chorus director at Crestwood Middle School until 2022.

Season 23 of “The Voice” airs on NBC on Monday and Tuesday nights or is available to stream on Peacock.

Cianna Morales, 757-957-1304, cianna.morales@virginiamedia.com