Seven years after making it all the way to the top 10 on “American Idol,” Renzo has accomplished another major feat: making it to the top five on “The Voice.”
The 33-year-old singer from Philadelphia was one of five singers in the running to win Season 27 of “The Voice,” a victory that lands you $100,000 and a record deal.
“The Voice” revealed the winner Tuesday night, and while Renzo didn’t take home the prize, he did claim third place.
Here’s a look back at Renzo’s run on the show — and a throwback to his time on “Idol.”
Who is Renzo on ‘The Voice’?
Ahead of his “Voice” audition, Renzo opened up about his upbringing in Philadelphia, sharing that he lost his father to gun violence when he was just 4 years old.
“That was really tough on me growing up. There weren’t really many people for me to like look up to and say, ‘Hey, I want to be like this guy,’” he told producers. “I had a lot of love from my mom, ... but sometimes think about, man, who would I have been if I had a dad?”
For Renzo, music was a refuge of sorts. He started singing when he was four — his mom recalled how her son would sing “Mary Had a Little Lamb” with vibrato at that young age.
Eventually, in 2015, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue music. Even though he had a great run on “American Idol” and is now on “The Voice,” he continues to keep a day job teaching science.
Above all else, though, Renzo said his focus is family. He and his wife have two daughters, ages 7 and 1, and he has another older daughter who lives in Chile with her mom.
“Breaking that generational curse for my daughters and being a family person is so important to me,” he told “Voice” producers shortly before he took the stage to perform Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Simple Man.”
“I’m singing a story that is so close to my heart,” he continued. “It talks about going through life and learning what it means to be a man. I’ve seen a lot of highs and lows. When you jump, your parachute will not open right away. But eventually it opens, and it says to me, never give up. So getting a chair turn, it would mean so much to me.”
Renzo auditions for ‘The Voice’
Historically, John Legend is one of the pickier “Voice” coaches and tends to be rather selective.
But during Renzo’s blind audition, Legend was the first coach to turn around for a chance at snagging the singer for his team. He was so set on getting Renzo that he even hit his “block” button to prevent Adam Levine from getting the chance to be his coach.
As Legend predicted, Levine did indeed turn around during Renzo’s performance of “Simple Man,” though the Maroon 5 frontman didn’t realize he was blocked until the song was over.
By the end of his performance, Renzo had gotten everyone but Ballerini to turn around. While the country singer noted that Renzo “deserved a four-chair turn,” she said she didn’t turn because she believed the other coaches would be a better fit for the singer.
Legend praised Renzo’s ability to bring his own style and interpretation to a Southern country-rock song.
“I hear the R&B influence, but you did a song that was unexpected for somebody that has that background,” he said. “I would love to coach you.”
Buble, who won the previous season of “The Voice,” praised Renzo’s artistry and said it didn’t really matter that Renzo’s style wasn’t quite in his wheelhouse.
“I think being a good coach is about listening,” he said. “I can help guide you. I want you to be a global megastar.”
In the end, Renzo selected Legend to be his coach. As he left the stage, Levine — an original “Voice” coach who is back on the show after a five-year hiatus — lamented what could’ve been.
“This was a big mistake coming back!” he joked.
Renzo highlights on ‘The Voice’
During the show’s Battle round, Levine was still sore about not getting Renzo for his team — Ballerini even joked that Legend and Levine hadn’t talked since the moment.
For the Battle round, Renzo performed Bob Marley’s “Is This Love” with fellow Legend team member Jay Ammo. The coaches had high praise for both of the singers, but Legend chose to send Renzo through to the next round of the competition.
“You made some melodic choices that weren’t the normal choices for the song and they worked because you have a great ear as a musician, you have a great creativity and then you have the vocal chops to pull off these great ideas that you have,” Legend said.
Other performances from Renzo this season have included Billie Eilish’s ”Happier Than Ever“; Hozier’s ”Too Sweet“; Aerosmith’s ”Dream On”; Jeff Buckley’s ”Lover You Should’ve Come Over“; and Lenny Kravitz’s ”Fly Away."
Renzo’s run on ‘American Idol’
Seven years before appearing on “The Voice,” Renzo was singing his heart out for “Idol” judges Lionel Richie, Katy Perry and Luke Bryan.
As in his appearance on “The Voice,” Renzo spoke about the loss of his father on “Idol.” But he also shared how his grandparents bought him a guitar when he was 16 — and how the instrument inspired him to change his life for the better.
“That‘s what changed my life — strumming those guitar chords,“ he said on ”Idol.“ ”It was just like, ‘Man, this is what you should be doing.’ I’ve been singing and playing guitar ever since.”
For his audition, Renzo strummed a worn-out guitar with a hole in it and sang Allen Stone‘s “Unaware” (he would later have the opportunity to perform a duet of that song with Stone during the top 24 round).
He got nothing but praise from the judges.
“You made that thing ... have all the soul that it needs,” Richie said of the guitar with a hole in it.
Bryan, meanwhile, said it’s singers like Renzo who are the reason he signed up to be a judge on “Idol.”
“He’s definitely going to bring some competition,” Perry said as Renzo walked away from his audition with a ticket to Hollywood.
He ultimately ended up making it to the show’s top 10 before being eliminated.
Maddie Poppe, a singer from Clarksville, Iowa, would go on to be the Season 16 winner — two years after she auditioned for “The Voice” and was rejected by all four coaches.
“I want people to know that even if you hear a ‘no’ from ‘American Idol,’ it doesn’t mean that you’re not going to make it. It doesn’t mean that you’re not good enough,” she previously told the Deseret News. “It’s important to not give up.”