By ELLEN ENDO, Rafu Shimpo
ATLANTA — Micah Iverson alternates easily from English to Japanese and back to English as he reflects on his years growing up in Chiba, Japan near Tokyo. The 25-year old singer returns May 11 as a finalist on NBC’s top-rated singing competition show, “The Voice.”
“I guess I’m mostly excited. This is more than I could have asked for,” the singer-songwriter told The Rafu Shimpo in a phone interview.
Born in Japan, Micah attended Covenant Community School International (CCSI), where his father is still headmaster. CCSI is private, faith-based school, serving both expatriates and Japanese nationals. It combines home schooling with classroom training.
After graduating from CCSI, Iverson attended the University of Virginia, where he studied English, religions, and business. He later took a job as an investor relations associate with S&P Global Market Intelligence while continuing to sing and write music “mostly for myself.”
“My family has been very encouraging,” he points out. Iverson is the eighth of nine children of Chiba-based missionaries Don and Carol Iverson.
The Iversons lived just outside of Chiba station. “We were lucky. We lived near the city, but there are also rice fields nearby. It’s very beautiful there,” Micah recalls, “and Japanese are my favorite people in the world.”
He currently lives in Atlanta and last visited Japan in 2016.
He will be performing a ballad on Monday night and is relying on votes from the public to carry him to the next round. Watch “The Voice” on NBC on May 11 and 12.
“I’m trying to gambatte (do my best) through this,” he said.