William Wendell "Billy" Gilman III (born May 24, 1988) is an American country music artist. In 2000, at the age of 11, he debuted with the single "One Voice," a Top 20 hit on the Billboard country music charts and became the youngest singer to have a Top 40 hit on the country music charts. An album of the same name was released later that year on Epic Records, and was certified double platinum in the United States. Following it was a Christmas album Classic Christmas and Dare to Dream, both of which were certified gold. He exited Epic's roster and signed to Image Entertainment in 2005 releasing Everything and More. In 2006, he released the self-titled Billy Gilman. After a number of non-charting releases from 2006 to 2009, followed by a hiatus till 2013, he returned in 2014 with a new single "Say You Will". Gilman auditioned for season 11 of the US edition of The Voice and competes as part of Team Adam Levine.

Gilman was born on May 24, 1988, in Westerly, Rhode Island, he was raised in the village of Hope Valley, Rhode Island, in the town of Richmond (Most of the village is located in Hopkinton, but Gilman lived on the Richmond side).^[1] He is the son of Frances "Fran" (Woodmansee) and William Wendell "Bill" Gilman, Jr., who works in maintenance.^[2][3][4] Gilman began singing before he was in school, and gave his first public performance at age 7. At the age of 9, Gilman was discovered by Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel, who helped him record demos.^[1] Gilman was then signed to Epic Records Nashville in 2000.

Gilman was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance for his debut single "One Voice" and was nominated for Best Country Song for the songwriters, Don Cook and David Malloy. That same year, he appeared in the tribute album Country Goes Raffi, performing the Raffi song "Baby Beluga."

On September 7 and September 10, 2001, Gilman performed the song "Ben" at Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Special in New York which was later televised. It was originally sung by Michael Jackson in 1972.

Gilman was featured on Welsh soprano Charlotte Church's album Dream A Dream and released a Christmas album in 2000 titled Classic Christmas, which was certified Gold by the RIAA.

On May 8, 2001 Billy released his second album Dare to Dream,^[1] which was also certified gold, although its singles "Elisabeth" and "She's My Girl" both fell short of Top 40 on the Billboard country singles charts. After Dare to Dream, Gilman's voice began to noticeably change because of the onset of puberty, forcing him to temporarily withdraw from singing.

In 2002, Gilman took part in a reading for the then Broadway-bound musical A Tale of Two Cities, in which he played 'The Young Man', who is Madame DeFarge's brother.

His final album for Epic was entitled Music Through Heartsongs: Songs Based on the Poems of Mattie J.T. Stepanek. These songs were based on poems written by Mattie Stepanek, a poet with muscular dystrophy who died in 2004.^[1]

Gilman signed to Image Entertainment in 2005 for the release of his fifth album, Everything and More. A self-titled album followed in 2006.

In April 2012, Gilman collaborated a great number of country artists and released a charity single, "The Choice", for Soles4Souls. This is the last public work Gilman has produced.

Since the summer of 2013, Gilman has claimed via his Twitter account and a radio interview that he turned down multiple major record deals and has decided to start his own label. Gilman announced via Twitter that a 'new single' would be released in late September or early October 2013, but evidence that a self-owned record label even exists is yet to be seen and the promised single has not been released.

In July 2014, Billy Gilman announced via Twitter that he released a new single "Say You Will" which can be downloaded via the iTunes store.

Billy auditioned for season 11 of The Voice, in 2016. He chose Adam Levine as his coach.

Gilman was the host of the 2014 Artists Music Guild's AMG Heritage Awards. His co-host for the event was Mallory Lewis and the puppet Lamb Chop. Gilman also took home the statue for the 2014 AMG Heritage Mainstream Artist of the Year.^[5][6]

Gilman auditioned for season 11 of the US edition of The Voice. In a blind audition broadcast on September 20, 2016, he sang Adele's song "When We Were Young". All four judges, Adam Levine, Miley Cyrus, Alicia Keys and Blake Shelton turned their chairs. He chose to be part of Team Adam.

Gilman's parents live in Hope Valley, Rhode Island. He also has a younger brother, Colin.

Gilman is a celebrity ambassador for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) and performs on many of their charity drives.

In a video posted on November 20, 2014, Gilman came out as gay.^[7]

• Official website

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