Liberty alumnus advances to next round on NBC’s “The Voice”

Liberty University alumnus Anthony Evans (’00) performed on NBC’s vocal competition television show, “The Voice,” Monday, Feb. 20.

Evans was successful in the first round of competition, where celebrity judges choose their team members in a blind audition. Evans was chosen by Christina Aguilera and will compete on her team throughout the season.

Evans, 33, began his singing career at Liberty at age 18 as a member of the Sounds of Liberty ministry team. He earned a B.S. in Religion, with a Youth Ministries specialization, in 2000. After he graduated, he toured around the world for four years as a backup singer with Grammy-winning Christian gospel singer Kirk Franklin.

Evans then became a solo gospel artist, releasing six major studio projects in the past decade. During 2008, his album “The Bridge” made the list of the top downloaded Christian albums in the country.

Evans returned to Liberty to perform two songs in the April 15, 2011, convocation when his sister, Priscilla Shirer, a popular women’s Bible teacher and author, delivered the message. Their father, evangelist Dr. Tony Evans, spoke to students in convocation on Jan. 23, 2012.

On “The Voice,” an interview with Anthony Evans and his parents was shown prior to his performance of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On.” Evans talked about his father’s impact as the pastor of an 8,000-member church in Dallas, Texas, and spoke openly about being a Christian artist.

“I just want to convey the message of being yourself – you don’t have to perfect, you can be authentic, you can be who you are,” he said. “ … The struggle that I have as a Christian artist is that people would say, ‘Who is he? He needs to define himself as a gospel act or as a contemporary Christian act.’ I wanted to define myself by being Anthony Evans, which is straight up the middle. ‘The Voice’ asked me to be myself, so that’s the whole reason why I’m here.”

You can read Anthony Evans’ blog on “The Voice” website.