Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Madi Davis and Sydney Rhame during rehearsal for their battle round performance. (NBC Photo)

Madi Davis just knew it was coming.

The 16-year-old singer-songwriter from McKinney, Texas, landed a spot on Team Pharrell during the blind auditions for Season 9 of The Voice.

Then Sydney Rhame, 16, of Atlanta, Ga., did the same. In fact, she landed the very final spot on Season 9.

“I knew I was going to be paired with Sydney (in the battle round) as soon as I found out she was going to be on Pharrell’s team because, out of everybody on our team, it just made the most sense to put me and her together — not only because we’re close in age, but because we have similar styles,” Madi said in a Wednesday conference call with the media.

What made that difficult is the fact that the two have been friends since meeting at the executive producer call-back auditions, Madi said.

“Since the begininng of the process, we’ve been going through it together,” she explained. “When I first found out, I was kind of upset. But then I realized, ‘How many people get to sing on national television with one of their close friends?’ I kind of saw the bright side and I just kind of buckled down.”

Still, the pairing was also intimidating, Madi said, because Sydney has such a strong and powerful voice. And Madi says Pharrell kept pushing her to add more power to her own performance.

“It was really frustrating for me, because I felt no matter what I did I wasn’t going to be as powerful as Sydney and I was just going to be really dull compared to her as far as vocal strength goes. I worked so hard to find that part of myself that Pharrell was talking about.

“The day before our battle, we decided not to play guitars,” Madi added. “And I think that’s what set me up to rise to the occasion because it helped me sing better and louder and to really kind of show Pharrell I was willing to do what he asked me to do.”

Sure enough, Madi was declared the winner of a battle round that wasn’t televised. Sydney was eliminated from the show.

“It’s just a bummer that Sydney wasn’t stolen (by another coach),” Madi said.

Both of the young artists have already released music. To learn more about Madi, head here. To learn more about Sydney, head here.

Keep checking back. I’ll be posting more recaps of battle round matches.

Madi Davis performs during the battle round on The Voice. (NBC Photo)

Madi Davis and Sydney Rhame perform during the battle round on The Voice. (NBC Photo)