Sharon Mathai: The Voice's Kerala-born New York sensation

Eighteen-year-old Sharon Mathai is the Indian-American voice everyone was talking about on NBC's The Voice this spring — and her journey to Team Adam Levine began on a dare.

Mathai was born November 27, 1992, in Queens, New York, to parents from Kerala, India, and grew up singing in church — jazz-trained as a child, with a vocal style evoking Amy Winehouse and Adele, two of her biggest influences. She walked away from a family tradition of medicine to chase music: friends dared her to audition for The Voice, and in the November 2011 blind auditions her smoky rendition of Adele's "Rumor Has It" made three coaches — Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, and CeeLo Green — turn their chairs.

She picked Team Adam, and her laid-back, Winehouse-inflected performances carried her into the Top 10 of the season's live shows.

Born into a family of doctors, the young singer chose a microphone over a stethoscope — and for a few weeks in the spring of 2012, millions of viewers were glad she did.

This item was updated during our 2026 editorial audit. Mathai has since married Binoy Chacko and works as a nurse, per later reports.

Watch on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPcDNgeBhT0&feature=related

A self-proclaimed brainiac and science expert who loves to shop, this adventurous, skydiving 18 year old from Lilburn, Georgia is ready to show her family and the world her musical talent. Although Mathai loves to sing pop songs, she is a big fan of Amy Winehouse's music. Born into a family of doctors, Mathai has decided to break tradition and forge her own path.