After his bravura performance on NBC’s reality competition show “The Voice,” Adi Arora ’26 garnered praise from two of the celebrity judges: famed singer-songwriter John Legend and Grammy winner Kelly Clarkson.
“I loved your tone—I loved the way you slid out at the end of it,” Legend told him. “It was just so poetic. It just made me know that you are someone who really thinks really consciously about your tone. And I really felt like with this performance every note counted.”
Broadcast in early March 2026, Arora’s rendition of Bruno Mars’s “It Will Rain” featured well-executed falsettos that often evoked Mars himself—a compliment that Arora has received more than once, thanks to his bright, high-pitched voice.
“Well, you can sing some Bruno Mars,” Clarkson marveled. “That’s a tall order.”
On the show, aspiring singers audition for three judges: Legend, Clarkson, and Adam Levine.
For the first round, a “blind audition,” the judges start by facing away from the stage.
But throughout a song, they can opt to turn around and look at the performers—as both Legend and Clarkson did for Arora—signaling that they want to recruit that singer for their team.
(If none of the judges turn, the contestant is eliminated.)
Their mission: to create a team of singers who, through talent and mentorship, can win a competition against those of the other judges.
Arora ultimately chose Legend as his coach—in part due to the star’s similar background, having also attended an Ivy (Penn) and sung in an a cappella group.
Read the full story on the Cornellians website.
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