HARLAN, Ky. (AP) — Supporters in Harlan have honored the winner of this season’s “The Voice” competition with a hometown parade and the key to the city.
The ceremony also made Jordan Smith a Kentucky colonel and an honorary Harlan County coal miner, according to The Lexington Herald-Leader (http://bit.ly/1O5j0XT). He won the ninth season of the televised singing contest last week.
The paper reports that the crowd cheered and urged him to sing. Smith reportedly obliged with a rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” which he had performed on the show.
Before the ceremony, Shelley Smith Teague said her nephew offers hope for the community struggling after the coal slump.