Her audition: Ayanna Jahnee, 20, of Nashville, Tenn., auditioned with “Skyfall.” She immediately displayed a powerful voice with impressive range, more than enough to prompt Christina Augilera to turn her chair and nab the very final spot on Season 10. Christina called her a “dream come true” and the “perfect ender” for Team Christina, then sang a spontaneous duet with Ayanna.
Her background: Ayanna’s mom made costumes for her own theatrical performances and that’s what prompted Ayanna’s own interest in musical theater. She recalls her first role as a munchkin in “The Whiz” when she was just 7. “I just fell in love with being able to open up to people in that way,” she recalls. When Ayanna was in eighth grade, she lost her mom to cancer and says music helped her cope. “My mother didn’t get to do a lot of the things she wanted to,” Ayanna said. “Getting a chair for myself would be like making her dreams come true as well.” Mission accomplished.
What the show didn’t show:
After “The Whiz,” Ayanna continued performing in school shows, often wearing costumes made by her mother, according to her bio on The Voice website.
Her favorite roles in musical theater included playing Audrey in “Little Shop of Horrors” (it marked the first time she stepped out of the background, she says) and Joanne in “Rent.” “I never performed in a more heart-wrenching and captivating production,” she says of the latter role. “Plus, I got to play a lesbian for an entire week; it was awesome!”
Ayanna says she started to write original music when she was 10 and performed with her best friend as Soul Sisters of Christ at church and family events for a short period. She’s continued to write music, but said it’s evolved into inspirational music with “soul and jazz influence.”
After high school, she attended Columbia College Chicago to study vocal performance. She says she performed her first headline show as a solo artist there last year. “Not only did I sing but I also danced, which was something I’ve never done before, with backup dancers included,” she says. “I felt so empowered by that performance and couldn’t wait to continue my journey as a solo artist.”
She had already auditioned for The Voice twice and for American Idol once without ever advancing past the open call auditions. She updated her artist page and sent in a video submission for Season 10 anyway thinking “it was a lost cause,” she admits. Within a week, she was invited to a private audition.
She opted for “Skyfall” as her blind audition song because it “tells a powerful story and I knew that in order to get a chair turn, I needed to sing a song that spoke to my heart. So in a way I believe that ‘Skyfall’ was the perfect start of the music I prefer to sing.”
She says she did an interview prior to auditioning in which it was mentioned that spots were filling up for Season 10. But she had no idea there was just one spot left when she took the stage. “Everything that happened for me in that day was a blessing,” she says. “It was as if God was moving in my favor and wanted me to end Season 10. Literally the first line of my audition song was ‘This is the end, hold your breath and count to ten.’ If that isn’t divine intervention, I don’t know what is.”
On iTunes: Just her performance from The Voice.
Keeping up with Ayanna:
Twitter: @AyannaJahnee
Facebook
YouTube
“Forever Young / Halo” mashup (covers)
“Back to Black” (Amy Winehouse cover)
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