Six years have passed since Funsho Adenugba filled his days writing songs in University of Maryland’s Hartford Hall. On Monday, he took the stage to sing in front of a live audience and more than 10 million TV viewers.

Adenugba, who graduated from this university in 2012, performed in front of Adam Levine, Jennifer Hudson, Kelly Clarkson and Blake Shelton on Monday night on NBC’s The Voice.

He secured his spot among the Top 24 contestants in the singing competition with his rendition of The Weeknd’s “Earned It.”

“It feels like a milestone, the major milestone in my music career,” Adenugba said. “My first opportunity to be exposed to all of America and the world. I am just honored to be here.”

During his time at Maryland, the then-psychology major regularly took the stage at Juke Joint, an open mic night the Black Student Union ran at the Nyumburu Cultural Center. He also opened with his band, Urban Cartel, for Nelly, Big Sean and Dom Kenney at Art Attack in 2011.

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He said his time at Maryland — balancing school, performing and grabbing gigs — prepared him for both his career in music and participating on The Voice.

“I feel like I am just conditioned from my experience of being able to balance school life and work life and still put my time into music,” he said.Earlier this month, judges Levine, Clarkson and Hudson slammed their buttons during Adenugba’s blind audition performance of “Finesse,” by Bruno Mars to try and claim him for their teams.

He would pick Team Adam — before he was snagged by Team Blake after losing during the Battle Rounds of the show. During those rounds, two contestants sing the same song together and their coach chooses one to advance. Another coach can then pick up the losing contestant.

“When I found out that I didn’t win the battle, in my head I was just reflecting on the whole experience and being thankful for the moment itself and the opportunity to have even gotten to create that moment on stage,” Adenugba said.

One of the experiences that Adenugba believes paved the way for his appearance on The Voice was participating in his college band. Adenugba knew some of his college band members from before they headed to school, but he says that the band “materialized at the University of Maryland in the courtyards,” where they would practice.

After receiving positive feedback from the campus events, Adenugba said he was inspired to release “Love Acoustically,” his solo debut album that he wrote largely in his university dorm.

“Almost everyone loved his voice and they would always go crazy over it,” said Ike Obioha, who also attended Maryland and collaborated musically with Adenugba.

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Kevin Alexander, also a graduate of this university, first met Adenugba when he worked at WMUC as a recording and mixing engineer in 2009. He said Adenugba came to get help recording and mixing his first album.

“Funsho came to me with his first project,” Alexander said. “’Love Acoustically’ was really just a singer-solo acoustic album he was putting together. He had pretty much recorded everything already and just came to me to mix.”

Since then, Alexander and Adenugba have worked on a number of projects together, including his most recent album: “S.H.E. (Sounds Have Emotions),” which was released in 2015.

Adenugba said he is inspired by the music he was exposed to as a child — artists like Michael Jackson, Luther Vandross and Bob Marley, he said. He was born in Lagos, Nigeria, and lived there with his parents until they moved to Maryland when he was seven.

“These were people that I listened to growing up, and that inspired me to want to create music and be an artist just based on what they were able to do and how they were able to influence the world,” he said.

He describes his writing as down-to-earth, and said he tries to be “as real as possible” in what he writes.

His friends said his personality on The Voice reflects what he’s like in person and in his music.

“I think he’s starting to reach the point where not only is his craft well-tuned, but it’s also starting to reach a bigger audience,” Alexander said.