Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Shelby Brown, Madi Davis and Jordan Smith share a lighter moment prior to the performances Monday night on The Voice. (NBC Photo)

That was a key piece of advice eliminated Voice contestants Madi Davis, Shelby Brown and Braiden Sunshine offered up during a Wednesday conference call with the media.

In fact, Madi said her proudest moments on the show came when she shied away from doing what might be popular to stay true to her artistry.

“That’s something we struggle with throughout this entire process,” the teen said. “There is a certain pull to do what the people like to win. But at the end of the day, my goal wasn’t to win. It was just to make it as far as I could, doing what I love and doing the music I wanted to do.

“There were a couple of times, especially in this last round, where I was like, ‘Maybe just this once I could sing a song I hate to make America happy,'” she added. “But at the end of that day, that’s not who I am and not the kind of artist I want to be.”

Being the youngest artist on the show at 15, Braiden admitted he explored with lots of different genres during his time on The Voice. That was intentional, he said, as he tied to find his niche, something he credited the show for helping him figure out.

“They told me straight out when I wanted to do ‘Renegade’ that rock songs don’t chart,” Braiden recalled. “I’m like, ‘Ok, I still really want to do this song though.’

Shelby echoed their sentiments, saying she regretted none of the song choices she made while on the show, even though not all of them struck a chord with fans.

“If you go out and sing something your heart’s not in, people are going to see that,” she said. “You don’t want to go out and just conform to what people want to hear to get votes when you have a platform like this. You want to show (viewers) who you want to be as an artist.”

Besides, she pointed out, to do otherwise would be misleading, especially when it comes time to release music after the show.

“I sang songs from my heart. I sang songs that I loved,” she said. “People that connected with that, connected with that.”