Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Her audition: Cierra Mickens, 23, of Eagle River, Alaska, sang “Crazy” for her audition on The Voice. As soon as she hit the chorus, her big voice soared. That prompted Shakira to turn her chair. Blake soon followed, and Usher turned around at the very end of the song. But it was Shakira who took charge, walking onto the stage to praise Cierra’s performance. She joined Team Shakira.

Her background: Cierra says her parents divorced when she was 3. Her dad was a chaplain in the Air Force for 20 years and introduced her to gospel music in church. But she went to school and studied criminal justice and political science with the intention of going to law school. After graduating from college, she returned to Alaska where she works with her dad as an administrative assistant. They help military families get acclimated to living in Alaska. But she says there’s nowhere in Alaska to perform music on the scale she’d like. She calls The Voice her crossroads, to help determine whether she pursues law school or music.

On choosing Shakira: “When Shakira actually came on stage and hugged me and whispered to me, ‘This is the most important decision you’re going to make. And none of these other guys are going to understand you like I do. I just need to be your coach.’ At that point, I was like, ‘Well, OK.’ I hope Shakira brings out my versatility. I sing a lot of different types of music, and I hope I’ll be able to fit into different boxes rather than doing just R&B music.”

What the show didn’t show: Clearly a young lady with a great sense of humor, Cierra admits to several obsessions on Facebook, including the Seattle Seahawks (meaning she must have gone wild over this year’s Super Bowl) and coloring. “Weird for a 23-year-old,” she writes. “I’m aware, but I just don’t care.” Her family moved to Alaska when she was age 4, after her father’s retirement from the military, and she sang in church and school choirs until graduating from high school. Then it was off to Washington State University, where she became a member of the jazz ensemble in her sophomore year and pulled together a group of musicians who called themselves Purple and performed every week for three years as the house band at a local pub. That sense of humor — it extends to her blind audition, because until the final seconds of her performance, it appeared she was destined to be a member of Team Blake. “I’m an R&B, pop and soul artist, but Blake turned around first,” she says. “I was like a little confused. But I thought, ‘all right, I made it. I’ll sing some country music.”

On iTunes: Just her audition song, but head to ReverbNation and you can check out a couple of Cierra’s performances with Purple, including a sassy version of “Fever.”

Update: She was defeated by Emily B in the first battle round; they sang Sara Bareilles’ “Brave.” Then Cierra was stolen by Usher. She was in eliminated in the second battle round by T.J. Wilkins; they sang “Get Here.”

Keeping up with Cierra:
Twitter: @cierramickens
Facebook
YouTube: Not found

Editor’s Note: For links to profiles of all the Season 6 artists on The Voice, go here.

“At Last”