Idol Chatter & Voice Views

DaNica Shirey performs “Creep” Monday night on The Voice. (NBC Photo)

DaNica Shirey advanced to the live shows on The Voice by singing songs like Jessie J’s “Big White Room,” Beyonce’s “Halo” and Whitney Houston’s “Saving All My Love for You.”

“Creep,” the 1992 alternative rock hit by Radiohead, doesn’t exactly fit as part of that playlist.

But with a spot in The Voice Top 10 on the line, that’s what DaNica decided to sing earlier this week.

And have no doubt about this: The choice was hers.

Even Pharrell Williams, her coach on the show, was a bit skeptical when he heard what she wanted to perform.

His response: “This could be interesting,” DaNica recalls.

So why “Creep?”

DaNica explains that she likes to play around with karaoke at home, trying out different songs.

“I came across that song, and I always really liked it. I thought it was pretty, but it had more of an R&B feel when I sang it.”

DaNica Shirey with Carson Daly after her performance of “Creep” on The Voice. (NBC Photo)

“He trusted me enough to let me attempt it,” DaNica said. “When we went to rehearsal, he heard me sing it once through. He was like, ‘Call me crazy, guys, but I hear some Al Green in there.’ He had the band change the music completely. From there it just came together so smoothly.”

Performance night went smoothly, too. DaNica received another round of rave reviews from the four coaches on The Voice.

And Tuesday night, she found out America loved the performance as well. She was the third singer host Carson Daly sent to safety based on fan voting.

Of course, the song had already landed at number 59 on the iTunes singles chart, DaNica’s best showing yet. Her cover of “Creep” landed at number 30 on the iTunes pop chart when Voice voting ended, putting her between songs by Sam Smith and Taylor Swift.

“I was kind of proud,” DaNica said, “because I had never really come up with a song like that before, one that I could change like that.”

Oh, and for the record, she’d never really performed the song before.

“The only people who had heard me sing it were my mom, my daughter and my fiance.”

But of the songs she sings, it’s one of her fiance’s favorites, DaNica said. And to make Monday more special, fiance Christopher Bull was in the studio audience, watching her sing it.

There is still one little mystery about that Monday night performance – those six giant fans that were used as a backdrop for DaNica.

“The song being a little darker, sort of alternative, I guess they thought that would be really cool behind me,” DaNica says. “When I saw them, I laughed and I loved the idea. I thought it was really neat.

“But they had me in all that hair. I thought, ‘Oh, my goodness, if these blow on and my hair is everywhere, this is not going to be cool.”

She need not have worried. There were no hair malfunctions. Just more of what Blake Shelton has labeled vocal perfection.

DaNica returns to The Voice stage Monday night during the 8 p.m. Top 10 show on NBC. A free watch party is being held at The Pullo Center, 1031 Edgecomb Ave. on the Penn State York campus. Doors open at 7 p.m.