Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Christiana Danielle landed a spot on Team Alicia Keys for Season 14 of The Voice. (NBC Photo)

Her audition: Christiana Danielle, 22, of Fort Wayne, Ind., auditioned with a unique rendition of “Hotline Bling.” Her remake of the song prompted Adam Levine to turn just 11 words into the performance. Alicia Keys and Kelly Clarkson followed. Christiana opted to join Team Alicia.

Her background: Growing up, Christiana says she listened to gospel music exclusively. Her mom is a Christian rapper, Christiana tells The Voice with obvious delight. In her senior year of high school, Christiana says she got into R&B and blues. And she started taking choir classes. Then a throat infection threatened to steal her voice. She’s fine now, but says she considers the way she healed “a miracle.” Christiana recently graduated with a bachelor’s in social work and she’s taking a gap year before going to grad school. “This is what I’m doing in my year off,” she says of The Voice.

What the show didn’t show:

* During a conference call with the media, Christiana said she chose to audition with that unique rendition of “Hotline Bling” because she thought it would stand out. “This showed a lot of versatility and highlighted the different parts of my voice that I feel worked the best for me.” The coaches apparently agreed.

* The actual arrangement, Christiana said, came from “a wonderful band called Thirdstory. I got parts from them and incorporated jazz parts.”

* Christiani said she really wasn’t doing much musically just prior to The Voice. She had led the worship team at the small Christian school in Huntington.

* But she had thought about auditioning for the show and had made some initial inquiries that year before, but “never sent in the video because I was too scared.”

* Then she got an email informing her that the final open call for Season 14 was coming up in St. Louis, about six hours from her home and started discussing it with her father.

* “My dad has been encouraging me to sing ever since I was little. He completely called my bluff. So I went down to St. Louis, and the rest is history.”

* She called the blind audition feedback she got from the coaches “super encouraging” because she’s on a show with so many singers with more experience as musicians.

* “This is like my first step (into music), so I kind of felt like the little baby here,” she told Voice Views. “It (the coaches’ reaction) just kind of empowered me to be like, ‘You know what, you can do this.'”

On picking Alicia: “Alicia really just spoke straight to me, with the whole bending of the genres and reaching back. Everything she said … ahh!”

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