A look back: Christina Grimmie’s solos on The Voice

The Voice

A look back: Christina Grimmie’s solos on The Voice

May 18, 2014 By Mark Franklin 1

Christina Grimmie was the very first singer we met during the Season 6 blind auditions on The Voice.

She served up a version of “Wrecking Ball,” singing the song better than Miley Cyrus could ever hope to and turning all four coaches’ chairs in the process. She joined Team Adam and has been singing for him ever since.

Adam Levine with Christina Grimmie after she advanced to the Top 12 on The Voice. (NBC Photo)

The 20-year-old from New Jersey is known as the show’s YouTube sensation. She says she posted her first YouTube cover at age 15 at the urging of a friend, never thinking it “would blow up into a big deal.”

Well, it sorta did. As of Saturday night, she had nearly 2.7 million YouTube subscribers, up about 600,000 from when she auditioned. She lives in California now, and has been trying to branch out beyond YouTube.

She released an 8-track pop album called “Find Me” in 2011 and a fine 11-track album called “With Love” in August 2013. To get a feel for her versatility, check out the catchy pop tune “Tell My Mamma” (watch at right) and the absolutely beautiful ballad “I Bet You Don’t Curse God.” Great stuff.

Some trivia about Christina: Singing the Miley song for her audition was sorta coming full circle. Her first YouTube video was a Hannah Montana song. And Christina is a video game fanatic. In fact, she has a 2P tattoo, for second player, on her left arm, because she was always player two when playing video games with her older brother growing up.

You can check out all of Christina’s solo performances from Season 6 below. I’ve also noted where each song landed on the iTunes singles chart and the Voice Views grade it received in that night’s song by song grades blog.

Check back Monday night. I’ll be live blogging as usual and grading each performance as it occurs.

Audition: “Wrecking Ball” — iTunes rank: 77; Grade: A