All you have to do to understand just how far St. Charles North High School graduate Jeffery Austin has come in the NBC reality show “The Voice” is to look at the image above. The “Team Gwen” (Stefani) performer is the last man standing under Stefani’s tutelage and a finalist in the televisions show that airs at 7 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays on NBC.

The Twitter posts and hashtags tell the story, too.

LADIES AND GENTS, YOUR SEASON 9 FINALISTS ARE: 1. @jordansmithlive 2. @emilyann_music 3. @BarrettBaber 4. @JefferyAustin #VoiceResults

During the elimination round on Tuesday, we learned that the artists receiving the most votes were (in no particular order) Jordan Smith, Barrett Baber and Emily Ann Roberts. Leaving the competition were Braiden Sunshine, Amy Vachal and Shelby Brown. The artists who sang for America’s instant save were Madi Davis, Zach Seabaugh … and Jeffery Austin.

Austin offered his take on Ed Sheeran’s “Make It Rain.” Apparently, it did, at least in terms of Twitter.

For highlight clips, photos and bios, see the Artists page here.

For links to this episode’s songs on iTunes, click here.

Kane County supporters who’d like to vote for Austin may do so by visiting this page and downloading the app.

About Jeffery Austin

After Jeffery’s father passed away when he was 9 years old, Jeffery grew up with his mom, grandparents and brother. During that time, Jeffery pursued music in high school and auditioned for all the school musicals. At 16, with the support of his family, Jeffery came out after years of trying to hide his sexuality. Despite wanting to study music in college, his mom preferred that he take a more stable course. Jeffery majored in communications with an emphasis in advertising. He now works at a public relations firm in New York, but is still itching to do music full-time.

SOURCE: The Voice website, artists’ profiles

About ‘The Voice’

“The Voice” is NBC’s vocal competition show, now in its ninth season. Internationally acclaimed artist Gwen Stefani returns to join megastars Pharrell Williams, Adam Levine and Blake Shelton as celebrity musician coaches, while Carson Daly serves as host.

The show’s innovative format features five stages of competition: the first begins with the blind auditions, followed by the battle rounds, the knockouts, the live playoffs and finally, the live performance shows.

“The Voice” is a presentation of United Artists Media Group (an MGM company), Talpa Media USA Inc. and Warner Horizon Television. The series was created by John de Mol, who serves as executive producer along with Mark Burnett, Audrey Morrissey, Lee Metzger and Jay Bienstock.

SOURCE: The Voice website