Season 26 winner of The Voice, Sofronio Vasquez, from Utica NY, charmed his hometown audience at the Stanley on Saturday night. Right off the bat his sexy entourage of male dancers, spiced up the stage with his opening song, then disappeared! The house was packed and waiting for more, which Sofronio delivered. The band was tight and in full force as our soon to be legend, sang his soulful renditions of contemporary standards, including ‘Falling in Love with You’ by Elvis Pressley. His back up singers were on point.
As Sofronio is originally from the Philippines, there was a distinct presence of Asian audience members who were clearly proud to see and hear the renditions of American classic pop hits by one of their own. Sofronio is the first Asian to advance past level 5 in the Voice and to go on and win the competition.
The opening act, another Voice standout, Ryan Quinn of Clinton, with his solo guitar made us all wonder, is there something in the water here that produces these outstanding vocalists?
And later in the show, feature guest performer Sydney Sterlace took the stage in a darling blue dress with matching tall, blue cowgirl boots for several heartfelt renderings. Shye, the additional Voice featured artist, joined Sterlace on stage for a duet before the intermission.
