The Voice

You may think that the voice is just a TV show that people just walk up on stage and sing. I am here to tell you that it is NOT. The voice is much more.

It all started in early spring/early summer of 2017. (which also happened to be my junior year) I got an email from the voice saying that they would like me to skip the cattle call auditions and come straight to Philadelphia for Call back auditions. So my dad and I drove 8 hours to Philly the last week of my junior year. When we got to the Philly audition we sat in a room for hours in a recording studio that many famous hip hop/ RnB artists made huge hits. I was very struck being there. In the waiting room were a lot of other contestants which that I didn't realize at that I would be spending a month with. 

So I made it past call backs and they flew us out to LA for 4 days for executive auditions. The hotel was fairly average and my dad and I mainly kept to ourselves except for the last day when I met Maude Latour, Britton Buchanan, and Eliza Black who were all minors along with myself. There were 3 groups of executives and we were apart of the first group which meant we weren't going to meet the other contestants unless we made it blinds. Luckily all 4 of us made it to blinds.

So in the first month of my senior year my dad and I flew back out to LA but this time we stayed for a month. The first day that we were there, Maude and I got super attached to each other and it stayed like that until the day we left. The first week was fairly boring and then we finally moved into the fun activities. There were a lot of meetings, singing work shops, voice lessons, wardrobe, staging and more. Myself and the rest of the minors had to go to a conference room on weekdays to attend school and there I met some awesome people (Brynn Cartelli, Alexa Cappelli, Sophia Dion, Mercedes Ferreria-Dias, Callie Young, Jaclyn Lovey, Teana Bostons, and Britton and Eliza were there too, ) we all became good friends and definitely created a clique full on minors. 

We weren't allowed to leave the hotel so we would all go to jam rooms, swim, work out, watch movies together, or go across the street to eat along with occasional target run when we were allowed. But as the days in the hotel dragged on we stopped going to jam rooms, the pool became boring, the sun became to hot, and the work out room got really smelly. Everyday became very routine and I was close to going insane by the time we got home.

So blinds rolled around and continued for a week. Every night we were all called to a meeting in a big conference room and names would be called of the people who were going to be performing the next day. This process was the worst part because the anticipation was killing me and I'm sure everyone else. (they even took away our phones until we finished the audition.) But Luckily I was called the second day along with Maude  and don't have much to complain about. But because the teams filled up so quick more then half of the contestants that were there didn't even get to do a blind audition. (They pretty much stayed at that hotel for a month for no reason)

The process of doing the Blind literally took all day, I mean we were there from 9 am until 11. (We were also able to be re united with my mom and sister who we haven't seen for a month,) It took so long because we had to do all the B roll shots for the show and interviews and we had to wait for the people before us to finish what they were doing. It was a really cheesy process and my family was really bad at it. 

The actual audition itself wasn't as bad or nerve wrecking as I thought. In fact I almost felt as if I was in virtual reality because everything looked so fake. I got on stage and sang my song not even worry about the coaches because I was so invested in the piece. So I got no chair turns and when I finished my song the judges all turned toward me. To sum it all up they told me that they thought I was an older woman and if they would've known I was 17 they would've turned. They also told me I sounded like Janis Joplin and Kelly said I should start a band......hmm never thought of that lol. So I gave them all hugs and walked back to my family to see my sister crying telling me she was mad at my for not getting a chair turn and my mom and dad giving me a hug saying I did great. I was then sent to a psychologist in the back of the studio in some very strange office which was super weird and she asked if I was ok and I was like yeah girl Im good..... We were then put in a van and sent to another hotel with the rest of our belongings and the day after we flew home. 

I will never regret my time at The Voice but I must say it was not for me. I am a musician that values music for what it is and I don't believe that it should ever be a competition. It sucked being away from home for a month because I missed out on so much. I don't have a senior photo in the year book, I don't have real classes except for choir because I had to take all online, I missed playing field hockey like I did for the past 3 years, and most of all I missed my band mates and boyfriend. I will never forget the friends I made and the things I experienced and if you are looking to do the voice I fully encourage it.

My audition was not aired, I'm not sure why, I will never see it, but I wouldnt trade this experience for anything.


If you want to see some video footage, checkout my youtube page : https://youtu.be/BlzihwENBjg