After retiring in the third season of The Voice, up-and-coming musician Mackenzie Bourg joined the 15th season of American Idol and finished in 4th place. Post-American Idol Bourg has released several singles that have landed in the iTunes singer-songwriter charts.
Mackenzie Bourg Biography (Age, and other Background Info)
Mackenzie Bourg was born on September 11, 1992, in Lafayette, Louisiana, the daughter of Rudy Bourg and Michelle Arceneaux. Although he is now pursuing a career in music, the sport was Bourg’s, first love. During his time at Lafayette’s St. Thomas More High, he was an active basketball player, but then something happened that ended his sports career and forced him to think about other things.
Bourg almost died of a viral infection that caused him to have congestive heart failure. In plain language, this means that Bourg’s heart was not able to pump enough blood to maintain the body flow and satisfy the needs of his body. As a result, Bourg was put into a coma. Fortunately, he was able to recover from this nearly fatal experience, but he subsequently kissed basketball and all other forms of athletics goodbye.
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Bourg shifted his thoughts to something else – MUSIC!
“After playing sports all my life, I never thought it could be taken away from me so quickly, but then the music really came into focus,” explained Bourg.
Music happens to be a thing in his family, both his brother and his uncle have a fondness for music. The latter helped Bourg to build a custom-made electric guitar, with which he could start learning music. At that time, however, Bourg had not yet recovered enough to be able to strike the chords of a guitar. He then began to learn the piano and write songs, and since then he has never looked back.
“I’m attracted to nothing else as I am to music,” the singer-songwriter once confessed.
As his health improved, Bourg returned to playing the guitar, and slowly he refined his skills and developed in this craft. And then came 2012, and his story came to the ears of the makers of The Voice, a golden opportunity, Bourg grabbed it with both hands and auditioned for the show.
For his blind auditions, Mack sang “Pumped Up Kicks” by the rock band Foster the People. For the competition, he joined Team CeeLo Green. After about three months on the show, Mack dropped out during the live playoffs where he sang “What Makes You Beautiful” by One Direction. Mack earned a fan base called “MacPack”.
After he left the show, Mac continued to grow and during season 15 of American Idol, he auditioned in Atlanta, Georgia, and sang a medley of judges’ songs. The medley included Keith Urban’s “Stupid Boy” and “Making Memories of Us”, Jennifer Lopez’s “Love Don’t Cost a Thing” and Harry Connick, Jr.’s “Come by Me”. The judges who gave him a ticket to Hollywood were thrilled.
During the second solo round of the show, Bourg presented his song Roses to the world. He sang the song again during the Top 14 wildcard episode. Bourg made it past the top 5 before retiring to 4th place after finishing in the top two.
On April 7, 2016, he released his single “Roses” on Big Machine Records. The song reached the top 2 of the iTunes top song charts. In December 2017 he released another single “Lost & Found”, which reached the top of the iTunes singer-songwriter charts and was also found in the Billboard charts. He also recorded a duet, Carnival with Skyler.
Height: 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 m).
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5 Fast Facts About the Singer-songwriter
Here are five quick facts you may not have known about Mackenzie Bourg.
1. Bourg’s health may have robbed him of a possible professional basketball career, but his love of music has not robbed him of his love of sports, as he continues to play at least three times a week for fun.
2. He is allergic to dairy products and is obsessed with pizza with vegan cheese
3. Bourg has a strange obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) with his handwriting, which makes him write the letters of his words from bottom to back.
4. The first song he ever wrote was called September (his month of birth)
5. He does not have a television in his room, but a projector