Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The Voice is celebrating its 20th season this spring.

And I’ve decided to celebrate too, by shining a spotlight on my all-time favorite post-Voice music.

Please note that I’m not labeling these songs as “the best” post-Voice music. That’s simply too dependent on musical tastes.

These are my favorites, songs that make me smile or move me every time I listen.

I hope you’ll celebrate these artists with me. After all, they’re the ones who have made The Voice worth watching since the show premiered April 26, 2011.

Editor’s Note: There’s also a Spotify playlist I’ll be updating weekly. Just search for Celebrating 20 Seasons of The Voice.

Dustin Christensen, “Ruler of Your Heart”

Dustin Christensen closed out his “Sad Songs, Mixes 1 @ 2” album with this wonderful ballad. He told Voice Views it’s a song “that sort of just fell out of me in the span of an hour one day.” It’s a song “about realizing that things aren’t where you want them to be, whether it’s not being with the one you want to be with, or not being where you want in life, or anything else. And it’s the hopeful settlement of telling yourself you’re going to get there. It’s talking to the future person you haven’t met yet or that spot in life you haven’t arrived at yet, and saying it’s going to happen because you’re going to make it happen because you believe in yourself and god enough to never give up on it. I think it was a good message to leave at the end of an album called ‘Sad Songs.” Dustin, from Season 9, released a pair of singles — “Younger Eyes” and “Once Upon a Time” — last year and said more new music will be coming in 2021.
Dustin’s Instagram. Dustin Christensen on Apple Music. Dustin Christensen on Spotify.

Jonny Gray, “DMFD”

This song is as dark as a song gets. It’s also a great tune, penned by Jonny, who joined the Air Force at age 18, served until 2006, then turned his focus to music, eventually auditioning for Season 5 of The Voice at age 29 in 2013. He explains the song’s origin in a YouTube video of a live performance of the song in Austin, Texas. He was in the military at the time. “I was on a bus going from Kuwait to Iraq,” he says. “And an Army guy was telling a story about how he went home and was surprising his wife with two weeks of leave. And she was with somebody else, which is a pretty common thing that happens. So I went back to my camp and I was playing this little riff and was telling my friends about that. And everyone said that if that was their wife or their husband, they’d probably lose their mind. So I wrote a little song about what would happen if that was me.” The song wound up on Jonny’s 2015 “Promises Broke” album. It’s also his only post-Voice album to date, but he’s still performing around the Austin area.
Jonny’s Facebook. Jonny Gray on Apple Music. Jonny Gray on Spotify.

Kat Robichaud, “The Gremlins Song”

This is the one and only Christmas song I will listen to out of season. Why? Because it never fails to make me smile. I mean, who writes a Christmas song about out-of-control gremlins? Kat Robichaud from the Top 10 from The Voice Season 5, that’s who. After The Voice, Kat headed west and co-founded a variety show called Misfit Cabaret. This song is from the “A Very Merry Misfit Cabaret” holiday show and also landed on the “A Darling Misfit Christmas” album released last November. Check out a live performance, including gremlins provided by the Shadow Circus Creature Theater, below. The cabaret hasn’t hosted live shows since the pandemic began. But it hosted a virtual show in February. And Kat’s been working on Misfit Cabaret The Movie.
Kat’s Instagram. Kat’s Patreon. Kat Robichaud on Apple Music. Kat Robichaud and the Darling Misfits Apple Music. Kat Robichaud on Spotify.

Dia Frampton, “Billy the Kid”

Here’s a hunch. If Dia made a list of 50 songs she’s most proud of writing and recording, this little ditty would not be on the list. I mean, Dia has recorded some powerful, soul-bearing music. This isn’t one of those songs. But I also run a blog called Once Upon a Time in a Western. And this song features one of my favorite voices singing about the Old West. So it was making my list of favorite post-Voice music, dammit. Dia wrote the song with Isom Innis and Mark Foster for her 2011 post-Voice debut album “Red.” Oh, and speaking of soul-bearing, have you read Dia’s wonderful journal piece “I’d Get to the Top of the Mountain if It Would Just Stop Fucking Growing”? Talk about poignant. Just know the story has a happy ending. Dia and sister Meg released a new album in 2019, their first project together in eight years.
Dia Frampton Instagram. Dia Frampton on Apple Music. Dia Frampton on Spotify. ARCHIS on Apple Music. ARCHIS on Spotify. Meg & Dia on Apple Music. Meg and Dia on Spotify.

Lelia Broussard, “Buffalo Stars”

This marks Leila’s second appearance on this list. The first was for the incredibly catchy pop tune “Headfirst” with Secret Someones, a band she joined post-Voice. But to fully appreciate Leila’s vocal magic, it’s best to hear it in a solo setting. This lovely tune was one in a series of singles Leila released back in 2013, just as Secret Someones was forming. Despite an excellent debut album, that group — featuring three female singer-songwriters — disbanded after one release. Lelia is now releasing music with Royce Whittaker as Jupiter Winter. They dropped three singles last year. They’re also a couple in the romantic sense. In fact, Lelia recently announced that they are now engaged. Congrats, Lelia!
Lelia’s Instagram. Lelia on Apple Music. Lelia on Spotify. Secret Someones on Apple Music. Secret Someones on Spotify. Jupiter Winter on Apple Music. Jupiter Winter on Spotify.

Alara, “A Blackened Rose”

Moushumi was a 22-year-old singer-songwriter from Edison, N.J., when she auditioned for Season 10 of The Voice and made it all the way to the Top 20. And she’d already released an EP called “Red Like Mine.” But she veered off in a different direction musically and decided to change her stage name to Alara before releasing this haunting single in 2019. She wrote the song in 15 minutes, then recorded it with producer Steve LaFashia while wearing pajamas in a 100-year-old cottage in Philadelphia. “It’s the first song I’ve ever written that I don’t mind listening to,” she told WickeddChildd.com. “Most artists I know can’t stand to listen to their own music, but I actually listen to this song for fun.” The story behind the sound, she added, “is pretty simple. Sometimes an asshole is an asshole and there’s nothing you can do about it but leave.” Alara has released three other singles since. The latest, “All You Care to See,” landed in January.
Alara’s Instagram. Alara on Apple Music. Alara on Spotify. Moushumi on Apple Music. Moushumi on Spotify.

See also …
Week 1: Christina Grimmie, Sawyer Fredericks, Mia Z, Kensington Moore, Taylor John Williams, Koryn Hawthorne, Zaxai, Brynn Cartelli

Week 2: Kat Robichaud, Chevonne and The Fuzz, Melanie Martinez, Archis (Dia Frampton), Rebecca Loebe, Jamar Rogers, Brian Nhira

Week 3: Brennley Brown, Craig Wayne Boyd, Adam Wakefield, Kyndal Inskeep, Austin Jenckes, Jared Blake, Cassadee Pope

Week 4: Secret Someones (Leila Broussard), D.R. King and Jackie Foster, Wolfchild (Gabriel Wolfchild), Ricky Manning, Moses Stone, Wé McDonald

Week 5: Tony Lucca, Juliet Simms, Chris Mann, Duncan Kamakana, Jordy Searcy, Adanna Duru, Stephen Marcellus

Week 6: Chloe Kohanski, Meghan Linsey, Christiana Danielle, Charlotte Sometimes (now LACES), Chance Pena, Matt McAndrew, Angie K (Angie Keilhauer)

Week 7: Ricky Duran, Luke Wade (as LAWS), Billy Gilman, Emily Keener, Kylie Rothfield, Johnny Gates, Amanda Brown

Week 9: RaeLynn, Natalie Stovall, Gracee Shriver, The Swon Brothers, Ashland Craft, Kristi Hoopes, Texas Hill (Adam Wakefield and Craig Wayne Boyd)

Week 10: Angela Wolff, Brooke Stephenson, Fousheé, Paxton Ingram, Ashley DuBose, Javier Colon, Gigi Rich