Laith-Al-Saadi.

ANN ARBOR — “The Voice” season 10 has landed an Iraqi-American contestant from Ann Arbor.

Laith-Al-Saadi’s blind audition aired on NBC’s top rated show on Tuesday night.

Al-Saadi performed the song “The Letter”,  a cover of The Box Tops and Joe Cocker.

This season’s coaches are Pop superstar Christina Aguilera, Maroon 5 front man Adam Levine, Country singer Blake Shelton and R&B singer-producer Pharrell Williams. 

“The thing that makes ‘The Voice’ unique is that it is a blind audition and I actually really love that,” said Al-Saadi, in the lead-up to his performance. “I don’t want to be pigeonholed by the way I look and I think they might be surprised when they turn around and see what they do.”

The 38-year-old described himself as a blues guitarist before his grand entrance to perform in front of the coaches, whose spinning chairs were turned away from him.

Al-Saadi’s blind audition caused two of the four coaches to turn their chair during his performance. Both Levine and Shelton dueled over Al-Saadi, trying to convince him to join their team.

After a short deliberation, Al-Saadi decided to work with Levine. 

“It’s just cool to have a musician unlike anyone we’ve ever had,” Levine said. “He’s legitimately a brilliant guitar player and a great singer, so it should be really fun.”

Laith Al-Saadi has been a mainstay on the Ann Arbor scene for two decades now. 

In a 2012 article on AnnArbor.com, arts writer Will Stewart called him “the hardest-working man in (Ann Arbor) show business”, and with regular gigs around town nearly every night of the week, it’s hard to argue that he’s not.

In 2014, he said he was influenced by all kinds of musical traditions, including Arabic music.

“I think everything — it does make its way into my sound,” he told the Metro Times. “Particularly in the improvisational areas, I really like the sound of a lot of Middle Eastern scales. I do try to incorporate elements of that, if it’s just an inflection or, you know … I listen to quite a bit of it. I wouldn’t say I listen to it a ton, but I grew up on [Lebanese singer] Fairuz. I don’t listen to Arabic music more than I listen to Indian music, but I certainly enjoy Middle Eastern music.”

Al-Saadi will have to make it through several rounds at “The Voice” to make it to the live shows.

The eventual winner of each season wins $100,000 and a recording contract with Universal Music Group.

“The Voice” airs Mondays and Tuesdays at 8 p.m. 

In the meantime, Al-Saadi’s performance of “The Letter” can be downloaded on Itunes. He is returning to Ann Arbor this week in between shooting “The Voice”, where he is scheduled to perform at The Arena at 11 p.m. on Monday, March 7.