Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Cecily Hennigan earned a spot on Team Blake Shelton for The Voice Season 16. (NBC Photo)

More about Cecily …

* “Yep, I’m the McDonald’s girl,” Cecily Hennigan writes on her Instagram page. “But I’m so much more than that.” The “McDonald’s girl” reference refers to a video she made last summer that went viral.
Cecily, and two friends stopped by the McDonald’s in Conway, S.C., and ordered food. But on a second turn in the drive-thru lane, Cecily decided to sing the “McDonald’s Drive-Thru Song,” made famous by former American Idol contestant Todrick Hall.

* The song almost immediately brought Cecily a lot of attention too. Within a month, it had been viewed more than 800,000 times and shared more than 13,000 times on YouTube. She was featured on Today. She appeared on the Steve Harvey show, where she sang for the audience and received a $25,000 check from McDonald’s toward her education, plus tickets to a Celine Dion show on Las Vegas. She also got to meet Celine and has the photo to prove it on her Instagram page.

* But, yep, Cecily’s more than the “McDonald’s girl.” She’s a junior at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities. Just six female voice students per year are selected to attend the school.

* Cecily told Voice Views she signed up for audition alerts from The Voice when she was 13, but they were always too far away. At the end of last school year, the alert indicated auditions were being held in Atlanta, Ga. And it just so happened that I and my mom’s schedules were both open for the audition day so we planned to go! We went to the open call in ATL and after one of the LONGEST days of my life, I finally got to the room and sang from my heart and the rest became history!”

* Cecily says she has original music, hasn’t released any yet, but adds that that will change. “I’ve been working on building my writing over the past few years and I personally think it’s getting good but I haven’t shown much of it. I 100 percent plan to get into a studio very soon because I’m tired of holding back everything I work on in my little bedroom. I feel like I’m ready to share it with the world, and I’m fully prepared for the response. I’ve been dreaming for so long now that its time to start doing!”

* Cecily says her inspirations include Celine Dion, Sara Bareilles, Fleetwood Mac, Jewel, Sheryl Crow, Florence and the Machine. As for singing “Foolish Games … “I remember when my mom first introduced me to Jewel and that was the first song she showed me, and I remember how moved I was by the piece. I immediately became obsessed and started listening to every Jewel song I could find. I knew that this song would represent me well as an artist and vocalist because it gave me room to show my range and emotion.”

* Kelly seemed surprised that Cecily knew the song, but Cecily says she’s actually drawn to older music. “I’ve always connected better to older music because I just believe it was more true, raw and pure, and that’s something I want to feel and portray as an artist,” she says.

* And Cecily said she was thrilled to land a spot on Team Blake. “That fact that he believed in me enough to turn for me is a huge blessing among itself. I mean having the opportunity to touch that stage and sing a song in front of a large crowd and huge musicians like that was a dream come true, but knowing that he turned because he heard something special in me, it’s just mind-blowing. I’m honored to be a part of the amazing journey and I’m so excited to work with Blake and see what he’s going to teach me!”

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