HAYDEN GROVE- LIVE AT THE BLUE MACAROON

While you may know him as the Cleveland crooner from Season 27 of The Voice, Hayden Grove spent his childhood in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, rummaging through his parents' CD collection, singing along as his headphones blared music from all centuries, styles and genres. He loved finding new and exciting voices, so much so that he started taking voice lessons himself in the third grade. Still, as he began his vocal journey, he hadn't quite found his niche. One day, he picked up Harry Connick Jr.'s "Blue Light, Red Light."
In that moment, Grove fell completely and wholeheartedly in love with the standards of the Great American Songbook and its many interpreters. It was a challenge at times for a child to fit in with his peers with a taste in music so different from theirs. Still, he strolled the halls of school with his Sony Walkman, humming, learning and living this timeless music.
It was shortly after Grove discovered his love for the standards that Michael Bublé released his self-titled debut album in 2003 and Grove found his musical hero. As much as he loved Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Bobby Darin, Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald, they, unfortunately, were no longer with us. Bublé gave Grove a role model-- a young, cool, talented singer that was bringing new life and popularity to the music he loved so dearly.
Grove performed his first standard on stage during his school's 6th-Grade Talent Show: Mack the Knife, from the Threepenny Opera, later made famous by Darin. As he left the stage, he knew he wanted to sing this music for the rest of his life.
For the next six years, that's exactly what Grove did. He ceaselessly studied, listened and sang, continuing with his vocal training, performing with his school's jazz band and choir and starring in school musicals. After winning the school's award for vocal performance as a senior, Grove was accepted to the Frost School of Music's jazz vocal performance program at the University of Miami in Florida.
He was excited to continue to sing, but life got in the way. Dealing with mental health issues including anxiety, depression and OCD, Grove stepped away from music after just one year in Miami. He transferred to his dream school, The Ohio State University, to pursue another passion of his: sports journalism.
As Grove studied at Ohio State, he poured himself into his other passion, but stopped singing. He loved the music, he listened still, but he didn't have much of a place to do what he loved.
That was until he got to Cleveland.
Cleveland was a very special place for Grove-- it was where he felt most at home as a kid visiting his family. His work in college helped him to land a job in Cleveland as a sports reporter covering the Cleveland Browns, Guardians and Cavaliers for It was a dream job fulfilled but as he felt better personally and professionally, he felt his passion for performance return.