Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Her audition: Meghan Linsey, 28, of Nashville, Tenn., auditioned with a country version of the Nazareth rock classic “Love Hurts” and sounded great doing it. But no one turned their chairs until late in the performance when Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera and Pharrell did so almost simultaneously. Meghan decided to join Team Pharrell.

Her background: Meghan has already had a taste of country music stardom, scoring a Top 5 country hit (“Keep on Loving You”) with then boyfriend Joshua Scott Jones as Steel Magnolia. At the time, the duo wound up touring with some of the big stars of country music, including Blake Shelton. But Steel Magnolia broke up in 2011 and Meghan has been struggling to kickstart a solo career as a country singer ever since. Meghan tells The Voice she grew up singing a different sort of music and thinks she might be a soul singer at heart.

What the show didn’t show: Meghan and Jones met at a karaoke bar where she worked. They competed on Season 2 of the CMT competition “Can You Duet” and wound up winning. In addition to “Keep on Loving You,” the duo scored two other Top 30 country hits; their self-titled debut album hit number three on the country charts and number seven on the Billboard 200. Since the duo split up, Meghan has released a couple of singles with other male artists, including “Baby Get Out” with former Voice standout Cody Belew in 2013. She also released a six-track self-titled EP in September. You can check out two of the tracks below. One of her goals on The Voice is “finding out who I really am as a solo singer and getting back to singing more soulful stuff,” she said in a conference call with the media. She credits coach Pharrell with helping restore her confidence. “This business is hard, and not always kind,” she adds.

On picking Pharrell: “I was really excited when he turned around, because he was the coach I wanted.”

On iTunes: Her audition song, that six-track self-titled EP, a pre-Steel Magnolia album in 2002, the Steel Magnolia album and EP and these recent singles — “Baby Get Out” with Cody Belew and “Gasoline and Matches” with James Otto.

Update: Meghan Linsey battled Paul Pfau in a Team Pharrell battle. They sang “Don’t Let Me Down.” Pharrell declared Paul the winner; Meghan was stolen by Blake Shelton. Adam Levine and Christina Aguilera tried to steal her as well. In the knockout round, she was matched against Travis Ewing, Blake’s other stolen contestant from the battle round. Meghan performed “Natural Woman,” turned in one of the most impressive vocals from the opening night of the knockouts and was declared the winner.

Live playoffs: She performed OneRepublic’s “Love Runs Out” and was voted into the finals. The song landed at number 103 on the iTunes singles chart.

Top 12: She performed “Girl Crush.” The song landed at number four on the iTunes singles chart, third best from the show. It landed at number one on the iTunes country chart.

Top 10: She advanced to the Top 8 on fan voting. Her cover of “Home” hit number 25 on iTunes, third best of the night’s 10 songs.

Top 8: She advanced to the Top 6 on fan voting. Her cover of “Something” hit number 27 on iTunes, fifth best of the eight songs performed.

Top 6: She performed “Amazing Grace” and “Steamroller Blues” and advanced to the Top 5 on fan voting. “Amazing Grace” hit number 5 on iTunes, second best for the night. “Steamroller Blues” hit number 24, fifth best of 12 songs from the night.

Top 5: Meghan scored her third Top 10 iTunes hit since the finals began with “Tennessee Whiskey.” The song landed at number 5 on the iTunes singles chart and number one on the country chart. Her other song from the night, “I’m Not the Only One,” hit number 21 on iTunes.

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Twitter: @meghanlinsey

Love Never Sleeps (from 2014 EP)

Try Harder Than That (from 2014 EP)

Cocaine and Jesus (original)