Idol Chatter & Voice Views

She’s just 22, but Cassadee Pope has been playing music full-time for years.

The West Palm Beach, Fla., native spent much of that time as front woman for the band “Hey, Monday.”

Even though her experience with the band was “amazing,” she told The Voice she’s ready to embark on a solo career.

“I’m a little nervous (about going solo),” she told Carson Daly. “But it’s like a nervous ready feeling. I’m definitely at the point where I’m ready to make it on my own.”

She later says she’s been living off what little profit she made with Hey Monday and that she’s looking to The Voice for confirmation that she’s made the right career more.

“If it goes well, it really will show me that a solo career isn’t completely off course,” she says.

She launches into “Torn.” And the confirmation is pretty darn immediate.

Before she completes the chorus the first time, all four chairs are facing her direction. When the song ends, the praise begins.

Adam calls her “amazing.” Cee Lo sings a line from “She’s Got Legs,” then compliments her for coming across as “cool and comfortable on stage.” Christina says she thinks Cassadee could sing anything. Blake says he believes “200 percent, you are a superstar.”

What the show didn’t show: She’s got a killer voice. She has a knack for writing pop songs with a catchy hook. Add young, attractive and personable and she’s what the creator of a rival show would call “commercial with a capital C.’ Could she win this thing? Oh, yeah. Could she be the first breakout star on a show where the judges constantly talk about contestants’ brilliant futures but have yet to produce one? Oh, yeah. But, hold it, I’m supposed to be telling you about Cassadee, not editorializing. With Cassadee fronting the band, Hey Monday released an album in 2008, EPs in 2010 and 2011 and a Christmas EP last December. Officially, the band is on “hiatus.” Translation? In a CleverNews interview, Cassadee says fans might one day get new Hey Monday material, but she’s “really serious about the solo stuff and I’m not going to give up on it anytime soon.” To prove the point, she released an excellent four-track EP in May. Live versions of two tunes are embedded below. Head to iTunes and you won’t have much trouble finding the rest. She’s apparently heard some backlash about trying out for The Voice and addresses it in a My 2 Cents blog nearly as eloquent as her rendition of “Torn.” “I didn’t start singing at 4 years old to make it ‘relatively far’ in music,” she writes. As for choosing Blake when all four judges were lobbying hard for her services … the superstar comment had something to do with it, she admits in a post-audition interview with Christina Milian.

Update: The former lead singer of Hey Monday got all four judges to turn around for her blind audition rendition of “Torn.” We didn’t get to see her battle round victory over Ryan Jirovec. But in the knockout round, she was matched against one of Team Blake’s other talented singer-songwriters and won with her rendition of “Payphone.” Fans picked her as one of the two Team Blake members to advance after she sang “My Happy Ending” in the live playoffs. Her version of “Behind My Hazel Eyes” was number 32 on the iTunes singles chart after the Top 12 show. Only Trevin Hunte’s performance (31) did better.

Editor’s Note: Check back for live blogs throughout the finals on The Voice.

Cassadee sings “Secondhand” from her EP

Cassadee sings “Told You So”