Idol Chatter & Voice Views

DaNica Shirey, fourth from left, sings during Wednesday night’s results show on The Voice with the other members of Team Pharrell (from left) — Luke Wade, Sugar Joans, Elyjuh Rene and Jean Kelley. (NBC Photo)

Was DaNica Shirey shocked to be voted into the Top 12 on The Voice?

Oh, yeah.

Anyone watching her reaction when Carson Daly called out her name last Wednesday could see just how surprised she was.

“I did not expect at all to be voted through. I was in shock,” said DaNica, 25, and the first Yorker to make The Voice, let alone qualify for the finals.

“I knew a lot of people on my team had followers,” she explained. “I don’t have very many, so I was really scared. I was just thinking, ‘I’m going to be in the bottom. I just hope and pray Pharrell believes in me enough to save me.'”

Turns out DaNica didn’t need a save. She and Luke Wade were the two members of Team Pharrell to make the finals based on fan votes. Pharrell then used his save on Sugar Joans.

It all capped a whirlwind two weeks for DaNica, during which she had to learn a song she’d never performed before — Joni Mitchell’s “Help Me” — for her first live performance on the show.

DaNica Shirey reacts to the news that she made the finals on The Voice while Team Pharrell colleagues Elyjuh Rene, Jean Kelley and Sugar Joans look on. (NBC Photo)

“It challenged me, and I want to challenge myself,” she said. “I don’t think Pharrell would steer me in the wrong direction. I trust him 100 percent.”

The performance went splendidly, of course, though DaNica admits to “freaking out a little bit” because she kept trying to read the reaction from the show’s four coaches and wasn’t getting a clear signal of whether they liked it or not.

That became abundantly clear when the song ended and the compliments starting flowing in her direction. Blake Shelton was so impressed, he called it “a clinic for singers.” Gwen Stefani said DaNica sounded “gorgeous.”

Overwhelmed by emotion, DaNica admits she started “bawling my eyes out” once she was offstage. Of course, she admits to being quick to shed tears of joy, and there’s been lots to be happy about since she first appeared on The Voice back in September.

Making the moment even better was the fact that her 4-year-old daughter Aslynn was in the audience watching this week’s performance with DaNica’s mom.

“She was so happy,” DaNica said of Aslynn. “She told me ‘You did really good singing. I watched you.’ She told me she was proud of me.”

The next step comes Monday night, when she’ll perform as part of the Top 12.

DaNica can’t share what she’s singing. But she can talk about her song choice in general terms.

“I feel like, this time around, people will be able to see a different side of me. But this is something where I took a song and I’m trying to make it my own.

“I think people will be really surprised when they hear what I’m doing. Once they hear the twist on it, I hope they like it and don’t hate me for it. I think it’s pretty cool.”