Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Her audition: Nala Price, 17, of Sebring, Fla., performed Adele’s “Send My Love (To Your New Lover),” showing off a big voice and prompting quick chair turns from Adam Levine and Gwen Stefani. Adam called what Nala can do with her voice “astounding.” She opted to join Team Adam.

Her background: Nala says she hails from a small town where “there’s a lot of cows and a lot of country.” It’s a small town with limited singing opportunities, so her mom began entering Nala into singing competitions all around Florida. “When I first started singing, I was very shy about it. It was almost impossible to get me on stage.” She’s since overcome her struggle with nerves. At age 12, she landed the lead role in a play called “The Secret Garden.” Now 17 and finishing high school, she says The Voice opportunity comes at the perfect time — when she’s at a crossroads determining which path to pursue in the future.

What the show didn’t show:

* Her bio on The Voice website says Nala acts and dances as well as singer. In fact, she participates in dance classes five times a week.

* In spite of her stage fright, the teen has performed in more than a dozen musicals, starting at age 7, and more than 25 talent shows. Most recently, she performed in “Hairspray.”

* In March 2015, she performed at Carnegie Hall in New York with her high school choir.

* She told her hometown newspaper, the Highland Sun-News, that Adele is her favorite artist. “Getting to perform her song on stage was incredible,” Nala said.

* Nala told Voice Views that in addition to Adele, her other major influences include Amy Winehouse, Andra Day, Beyoncé and ZZ Ward, and that she enjoys singing pop-soul music the most.

* She has more than 3,700 subscribers and more nearly 300,000 views on her YouTube channel where she’s posted more than two dozen covers in the past two years, including her audition song.

* While Nala says she’s now much more comfortable with being on stage, she admitted to being “very nervous” before that blind audition. “But before I stepped foot on stage, I just closed my eyes, took deep breaths and prayed and that helped me tremendously,” she said.

* She dreams of performing on Broadway. “I love to sing, dance, and act and being able to do all three of those things on stage for a living would honestly be a dream come true. If not Broadway, I would love to do anything involving music. Having my own album one day, or even teaching young children music would make me incredibly happy.”

* As for choosing a coach, here’s what Nala told Voice Views: “Having to choose between Adam and Gwen was not easy for me, but I went with my heart in the moment and chose Adam because I’ve grown up listening to Maroon 5 and have always loved their music. I felt as though Adam’s experience in the music industry could really help me to learn and grow as not only an artist, but as a person and I’m super thankful that he put his faith in me and pressed his button!”

Keeping up with Nala:
Twitter: @nala_price33
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube

“Mercy” (cover)

“Sandcastles” (cover)