Friday March 29th, 2024 9:24AM

Flowery Branch's Andrew Jannakos shoots towards stardom on The Voice

Flowery Branch native and musician Andrew Jannakos is just like everyone else - he has no idea when his blind audition will be featured on the singing content The Voice.

"I'm going to be watching every single episode just like everybody else - hopefully, everybody tune in and watch - but every episode I'm going to watch and as soon as I see myself I'll probably faint, I probably will leave the room," he said. "I don't even wanna see it, cause I don't even remember what happened. I literally don't remember anything. When you get on that stage and you start singing, you like, black out. I remember crouching down at the doors, right before they opened, and I was crouched down on my knees and I prayed. And that's the last thing that I remember."

In the meantime, he's enjoying the immense support from the community, not only as he starts a very public muiscal journey on the television show, but as his love for music grows, changes and is taken more seriously.

"It's been a lot of work, it's been a lot of singing, it's been... honestly, it's been a lot of tears - happy tears and sad tears - it's just been a huge journey. The support that I have from Flowery Branch, I've lived here my entire life, I grew up on Cash Road. And the support that I've had in Flowery Branch over the past couple of weeks, from me finally getting to say 'hey, I auditioned' is just ridiculous. Like, I went from getting 10, 15 on my Facebook posts to getting well over 150 on every single [one.]"

Influenced by his family, including his mother and gradfather, Jannakos, 25, also credits his fiance, Katie Page, 23, and best friend Keltin Devoe for pushing him towards making his music dreams come true. Jannakos said he was reconnecting with Devoe after Devoe had suffered a brain annueyrsm, and played music for him. Jannakos still felt insecure, but was begining to get more comfortable when he met Page. He recently learned that on the night they met, she had secretly filmed him singing at a party.

"Ever since then, she's helped me do my gigs, she bought me a brand new guitar for Christmas this past year, which was amazing, it was one of my dream guitars," said Jannakos. "She's helped me get gigs, play weddings, she's booked a lot of stuff for me too, and she's been a huge supporter. She has pushed me to be where I am. She actually promoted one of my videos on Instagram and it went viral on a couple of pages."

That viral video helped Jannakos's voice reach producers of The Voice. "They reached out to me and were like 'hey, we'd love to do a private audition with you,' and I went to Atlanta and did my audition, made it through the first audition in Atlanta and I went back for executives in L.A. and everything else is kind of to be determined."

Jannakos had previous attended an open audition for The Voice during season nine, but being only about 19 years old, he made it through the first round but executives felt like his voice hadn't matured enough to be the right fit. "Once I found my voice and started posting on Instagram and relatively frequently, either every day or every couple of days, my videos started getting more and more likes. When [Katie] did that and they saw it, they were just like 'hey, we would love for you to come back and audition, we saw you did it in season nine and you didn't make it through, but we would love for you to come back and do another private audition,' and, yeah, that's how it all started."

Jannakos said his blind audition, filmed back in September, was extra special because it was the first full-sized stage he had ever performed on. 

Jannakos began working on his musical endeavors more seriously with the support and guidances from Devoe and Page.

"I always knew the potential was there. I don't want to say he didn't have confidence in himself, he uses that word, 'confidence' or 'insecurity' in his music, and I really don't think it was an insecurity. I think it was more of he didn't know who he was as an artist," said Page. "So I guess the whole journey over the past year, watching him discover himself, it's a mix of emotions, you're happy for them, but it's nerve-wrecking," Page. "I was scared for his blind auditions, I really was. I was like, this could either discourage him or encourage him and... it's one of those things that you're happy for them, but you're also scared because, what if he doesn't get a chair turn, then what? Is he going to continue to pursue his music? He really does have insane talent. I think it's just a bunch of emotions: happiness, being proud, watching how far he's come since I first met him and nerves. A lot of nerves."

Overall, both Jannakos and Page encouraged anyone interested in auditioning, or those closely supporting a contestant. "Don't ever let anyone ever try and change who you are, as a musician, as an artist, as a singer. Everyone is different, no one is the exact same, everyone is different and everyone is unique, and if you love to sing, you just have to go out there, you have to do it, you have to encourage yourself and you have to have an open heart and and open mind and say, basically, 'this is going to go one or two ways, either really good or really, really bad.' And even if does go bad, or it does go good, you're still an amazing person to get to the point where we are now, to get to the blinds, even to get to the executives is a huge accomplishment," Jannakos said, adding over 40,000 people audition for the show and less than 200 go back for the executive auditions. "If you make it to even that, you just have to tell yourself 'I'm good enough to do it, I'm good enough to know that I have what it takes to do this,' and you just have to believe in yourself and give yourself all the confidence in the world. And breathe. Just breathe and soak it all in."

Page agreed, adding the process can be much smoother without the added stress. "You just kind of get caught up in it all... there's been a lot of times the both of us have been crazy stressed out because of everything going on, cause you have to do this one day and this the next day, and really, I guess, just take in the experience and enjoy it, have fun with it, rather than thinking like, 'this is gonna make or break my career.'"

The Voice premiered Monday and the second episode will air Tuesday at 8 p.m. on NBC.

Jannakos will be performing live at Mocha Moe's in Flowery Branch on Friday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. He will returne to Mocha Moe's on March 23 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., and will also play Tavern 53 at 7 p.m. on March 24. Afterward, Jannakos said his performance schedule is up in the air due to the show.

  • Associated Categories: Local/State News
  • Associated Tags: Flowery Branch, The Voice, Andrew Jannakos
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