Idol Chatter & Voice Views

On making the finals: “I have been doing this since I was 11, but it’s crazy to be in this position right now,” says Bria Kelly of Smithfield, Va. “The remaining contestants are absolutely outstanding. Everybody is different. Now it’s a matter of preference, because everyone is equally good at this point. Definitely nerves are going to get to me in the live shows, but I’m going to do my best to focus on the performance and not the millions of people watching.”

Her audition: Bria, 18 at the time, sang “Steamroller Blues.” A big note to open the song immediately got Adam Levine and Blake Shelton to spin their chairs. In the process of slaying the song and showing off all sorts of vocal fireworks, Bria enticed Shakira and Usher to turn around as well. Usher’s response: “Ladies and gentlemen, we have just heard the voice.” After some intense lobbying, during which Usher showed off his Grammy, Bria decided to join Team Usher.

Since then: She defeated Tess Boyer in the first battle round; they sang Janis Joplin’s “Piece of My Heart.” Then Tess was stolen by Blake Shelton. During the second battle round, she was pitted against fellow teen Madilyn Paige. They sang “I’ll Stand by You” and Bria was declared the winner, but Madilyn was stolen by Blake Shelton. She made the finals with a splendid version of “Wild Horses” in the Team Usher playoffs. Her cover of the song hit number three on the iTunes rock chart and number 156 on the overall singles chart, making it the most successful from the final night of the playoffs.

Her background: Bria told The Voice she started playing music when she was about 11 and wound up singing the national anthem for a number of sports teams. But it was after she got a chance to open for Miranda Lambert (Blake’s wife) “that I decided this is what I want to do.” She credits her dad with making it possible for her to do music and attend school at the same time, calling him “the Swiss army knife of band managers.” Meanwhile, she says it was her mom who taught her to sing.

What the show didn’t show: In 2010, she made the semifinals of “America’s Got Talent,” singing Miranda Lambert’s “Gunpower and Lead” and Pink’s “Try” along the way. Performing acoustically, she has opened for country music stars Darius Rucker, Gloriana, Little Big Town and Jerrod Neimann in addition to Miranda Lambert. And in 2012, she released a country single called “Do Goodin’ Son of a …” But she says she’s now going in a different direction with her music, having become a big fan of ZZ Ward’s alternative-blues style of music. “What I basically want to do in my music now is a blues sound vocally and then musically, in the background, I kind of want to have an R&B feel — something mainstream that can be played on the radio,” Bria said in a conference call with the media after her blind audition aired.

Quote: “I definitely want to be able to cut a record to be honest with you. I don’t have the money to be able to do that at this point,” Bria said in the conference call after her blind audition. “I just want to be able to make my own music and have people be happy with it.”

On iTunes: The 2012 country single and her four songs from The Voice.

Keeping up with Bria:
Twitter: @BriaKelly
Facebook
YouTube
Website

Editor’s Note: For links to profiles of all the Season 6 artists on The Voice, go here.

“Carry You Home” (original)

“Just Got Paid”

“Think Again” (original)