It took music superstar Keith Urban less than five seconds to identify Martin’s special brand of believability. The 25-year-old Victorian had barely sung a line during his televised audition for Channel Nine’s ratings juggernaut The Voice, when Urban confidently smacked down on that magic red button and swung his chair around. “As I started the song I closed my eyes for just a second”, says Martin, “by the time I opened them, Keith Urban was looking at me. Three months of build up was over in 2 seconds”.

While Joel Madden and Delta also laid their claim before the audition was done, Martin was always confident he would choose Urban. “What appealed to me about Keith was that I was brought up with his music. He was a singer/songwriter who played acoustic guitar.  He’s really down to earth and a great storyteller.”

Martin planned to be an actor having worked in community theatre since the age of 8 years. Then, at 18, he discovered the Beatles and picked up the guitar ….thus focusing on his music with more serious intent. “I always wrote poems and once I learnt 5 chords on the guitar and realized I could set them to my own music – I never looked back”. Martin began gigging around Melbourne.

His desire to perform was so strong that at his first gig at the Quietman Hotel in Flemington he lied about the number of songs he knew how to play to get the job. He built up a dedicated following around Melbourne’s highly competitive pub scene and had the opportunity to record some of his original material with a number of notable producers such as Mark Opitz, Eric J. and Stuart Crichton.

It was around this time that there was a lot of discussion among Martin’s family and management regarding whether or not the singer/songwriter should audition for “The Voice”. Initially, Martin resisted the idea, for fear of losing his artistic identity. However with his feet planted firmly on the ground, Martin auditioned and it was clear that  he had stepped into the opportunity of a lifetime.

“I could never have dreamed that all this would be happening to me right now. When I was deciding what to do with my life, I asked myself  ‘when I’m 75 and looking back, what will make me happy?’

The answer to that question was so clear and really simple”, says Martin, “playing music every day of my life”.

Adam Martin is certainly well on his way to making that dream come true.