Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Jermaine Paul proved background singers don’t have to stay in the background by winning Season 2 of The Voice.

Now, Chevonne, a 26-year-old from Little Falls, N.J., is trying to follow his lead.

We met Chevonne on the final blind audition episode of The Voice and discovered she sang background on one of the biggest tours of them all — Lady Gaga’s Monster Ball.

“It was larger than life,” she told The Voice. “I really felt like I was part of a rock band. It was amazing.”

She says being on the Gaga tour “did inspire me to pursue my own artistry. I would watch her and just be in awe of the way she moved and how powerful she was. I want to be able to tell stories and be fearless like her.”

Then Chevonne took the stage looking a little Gaga-ish, with her red hair teased out, wearing killer heels, lots of chains and a large spiked ring on one finger.

She sang The Pretenders’ “Brass in Pocket,” and it looked like she might be another of the featured performers on that episode to leave without a spot on a team.

But Cee Lo and Blake turned around at the last moment, with the latter proclaiming “she’s awesome” and the former complimenting her on “perfect vocal, your pitch and control, I could not let that go unnoticed.”

Cee Lo also said he could hear “something painful” in Chevonne’s voice, at which point she admitted to having “eating disorder issues” and “being very insecure” earlier in her life.

“I want to tell the story now,” she said.

What the show didn’t show: She’s also worked as a background singer for Estelle. And judging from the photos on her website, if anything, she toned down her appearance for The Voice. On Facebook, she describes her genre as “rock and soul under a pop umbrella.” And her Facebook bio describes her as a “pocket-sized Betty Davis at maximum volume, a rainbow-brain naughty nerd, a one-girl girl group, a soul scream machine from straight up outer space.” Wow. Watch out, other contestants. Chevonne also has a bachelor’s degree in music and plays the keys and saxophone. And in 2009, she released a rather unusual four-track “holiday” EP called “Unwrap Me.” You can find it on iTunes; you can watch the video for “My Menorah” on her YouTube channel. As for her audition: As the seconds ticked away during her performance, she writes that she “surrendered to the thought of losing, going home, being humiliated in front of america as the professional background singer who just couldn’t cut it on her own.” But then, two chairs did turn around and “i’ve never felt such a rush of pure elation…EVER. EVER!” I might just find myself rooting for her because she writes great blogs, she has a great original song that I’ve embedded below and she has Thin Lizzy on her iPod.

Editor’s Note: Check back for live blogs once the battle rounds begin on The Voice.

Chevonne performs “Catcall”