York’s DaNica Shirey advances on The Voice

The Voice

York’s DaNica Shirey advances on The Voice

October 21, 2014 By Mark Franklin 0

DaNica Shirey (left) and Toia Jones prepare for a battle round match with Team Pharrell on The Voice. (NBC Photo)

DaNica Shirey advanced to round three on Season 7 of The Voice Monday night.

The 25-year-old from York — the first York County contestant on the show — squared off with Toia Jones, 28, of Montgomery, Ala., in the battle round for Team Pharrell.

During the battle round, teammates are paired up, given a song and asked to perform a duet. The winner advances in the competition; the loser goes home, unless stolen by another coach.

DaNica and Toia were asked to sing Beyonce’s “Halo” and turned in a soulful performance so full of glory notes and vocal gymnastics that The Voice used it as a promo for Monday’s episode. In fact, their battle turned out so well, The Voice used it as Monday night’s show closer.

When they were done singing, Pharrell Williams declared DaNica the winner, meaning she now advances to the knockout round, which will be aired beginning next week.

And Toia survived as well; she was stolen and is now a member of Team Adam Levine.

All of the coaches praised the performance, but the highest praise came from Levine.

“Doing a Beyonce song is literally like trying to slay a dragon,” he said. “You guys slayed the dragon, and then you just slapped it in the face to make sure it knew it was dead.”

Williams said he picked Shirey as the winner partly because “you just don’t expect that voice out of her.”

DaNica earned a spot on the show four weeks ago when she delivered an excellent version of Jessie J’s “Big White Room” for her blind audition. Three coaches turned around for her performance. She opted to join Team Pharrell after he called her a “snake charmer” because of her masterful vocals.

The blind audition, actually filmed over the summer, marked the first time DaNica had stepped on stage in more than three years.

As a teen, she won an adult singing competition at the Apollo Theatre in New York, performed on at Madison Square Garden with the David Foster and Friends International Tour and won an online singing competition called Total Pop Star.

But her father Joseph, who served as her manager, was diagnosed with cancer shortly after that victory. DaNica said she lost much of her motivation to perform in public after his death.

The Voice has revived her interest in a career in music, DaNica said in an interview after her blind audition aired. She says she’s hoping it leads to a chance to record her own music and she’s hoping fans will be inspired by it the way she’s been inspired by music during her life.