Tri­ni-born mu­si­cian Trini­boi Joocie (Rodell Sorzano) stole the show with his orig­i­nal song “Bot­tle Over Head’ in week five of The Voice UK 2022 Blind Au­di­tions over the week­end.

Sorzano took a leap of faith to open the show on Sat­ur­day by per­form­ing the orig­i­nal song, which was re­leased in T&T in 2020 and has since gar­nered 2.7 mil­lion views on YouTube.

“I per­formed, mash up the place as they say...with a blend of nerves and ex­cite­ment,” Sorzano told Guardian Me­dia in an in­ter­view on Sun­day.

“I’m still, I guess, just re­cov­er­ing from it man. It’s been a lot. The jour­ney has been a lot.”

He ad­mit­ted that he de­clined the op­por­tu­ni­ty to be a part of the show twice pri­or be­cause he did not be­lieve they un­der­stood “au­then­tic artistes.” How­ev­er, he said the Voice UK team re­as­sured him it would be a col­lab­o­ra­tive ef­fort to raise aware­ness of the so­ca genre. He said they were sup­port­ive when he chose his own song and com­mend­ed the band’s abil­i­ty to learn and per­form the mu­sic.

“It was the first time, I guess, even the mu­si­cians played so­ca mu­sic,” he said.

Sorzano said he told the coach­es that his par­tic­i­pa­tion was big­ger than him­self.

“This is my cul­ture, this is a peo­ple, this is a mu­sic that is un­der-rep­re­sent­ed and I am glad and I am proud to be bring­ing it in its rawest form with a rag, (say­ing) aye put your hand in the air you know? Just re­al­ly au­then­tic as you can be,” he said.

On Sat­ur­day, Sorzano treat­ed the UK au­di­ence and judges to a true Tri­ni per­for­mance - full of vibes and en­er­gy. He im­me­di­ate­ly turned the show in­to a fete, with au­di­ence mem­bers on their feet, danc­ing and cheer­ing him on. With­in the first 30 sec­onds of his per­for­mance, coach and singer, Anne-Marie hit her but­ton, turn­ing around while danc­ing along to his per­for­mance.

How­ev­er, she was not alone. Through­out his ren­di­tion, all the coach­es could be seen smil­ing and danc­ing but on­ly Ol­ly Murs would al­so hit his but­ton at the last sec­ond of the per­for­mance for a chance to coach Sorzano. The mu­si­cian would even­tu­al­ly se­lect Anne-Marie as his coach.

Al­though he didn’t turn around, coach and Amer­i­can rap­per Will.I.Am com­mend­ed the chance Sorzano took.

“You wrote that?” he said sur­prised.

“It’s very rare that a singer comes on, sings an orig­i­nal song that the crowd re­acts to as if they heard it a thou­sand times. That is freak­ing amaz­ing.”

Sir Tom Jones al­so com­mend­ed Sorzano’s per­for­mance.

Sorzano lives in the UK where he works as a sec­ondary school teacher. He has been pro­mot­ing so­ca and T&T cul­ture for the last 12 years.