Idol Chatter & Voice Views

With Christmas approaching, the flow of original music from former Voice contestants has been replaced by a bounty of Christmas covers.

But we still got excellent new singles from three singers we met on the show, Lauren Duski, Joe Vivona and Stephan Marcellus, plus a non-holiday cover from MaKenzie Thomas.

Here’s a look at each of those releases.

The links take you to the songs on Apple Music. Or you can check out the Spotify snippets below.

* Lauren Duski, runner-up from Season 12, released “Loved Me That Way” on Friday. It’s a wonderfully sentimental tribute to her late grandmother. Lauren co-wrote the song with Brian Bunn and Sean Van Vleet. Says Lauren: “This song came from knowing that everything I am, and everything I want to be…I owe to my grandma.” Lauren also recently signed a publishing deal with Warner Chappell Music in Nashville.

* Joe Vivona from Season 10 has released his first single since the show, the upbeat and jazzy “Spellbound.” He wrote and self-produced the single. On Instagram, he describes it as a “like” song, not a love song. And he indicates that he’ll have more music coming soon. His latest Instagram post delivers this message: “Do not go on The Voice.”

* Stephan Marcellus from Season 13 has delivered another intense and powerful new single called “Holy Water.” On Instagram, he writes poignantly about waiting for “my moment” and, in the process, allowing others to control his self-worth. No more, he proclaims. “I sat on this song for more than a year never knowing if it was good enough … But I praise God and honor my ancestors by letting my voice ring … I honor myself by being scared and doing it anyway.”

* MaKenzie Thomas, from Season 15, released a cover of the classic hit “If I Were Your Woman” on Friday. She also has a Christmas original, “Feels Like Christmas,” due to hit YouTube — but perhaps not streaming sites — on Dec. 17. And she’s celebrating more than 625,000 streams of her music on Spotify in 2020.