Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Blind audition: Courtney Harrell, 36 of Los Angeles, stepped from the background as a songwriter into the foreground by singing James Bay’s “Let It Go.” A solid vocal prompted a chair turn from Blake Shelton. Then Courtney hit a heck of a glory note, prompting Alicia Keys to pound the button that spins her chair. Blake complimented her on a “brilliant voice.” Alicia Keys said she got a very emotional feeling from Courtney’s performance. Courtney decided to join Team Blake.

Her background: She’s a full-time songwriter, who spends her time working on lyrics, melodies and scratch vocals. She’s written for Mary J. Blige, Jennifer Hudson and Ne-Yo. “I kind of got settled into being in the background, in a supportive role,” she says of her music. But she adds that she knows she was born to sing. Growing up, she says music was her world. She received a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music. Then, at age 17, she discovered she was pregnant. She devoted herself to her son, who’s now 18, but stayed involved in music through songwriting and working as a background singer. Her Voice performance marked her first time singing by herself in 15 years. “There is a song in my heart that no one else can sing but me,” Courtney says as she heads to The Voice stage. She said she picked Blake because she believes he respects “true artistry.”

What the show didn’t show:
* While raising her son, she worked as a music teacher in the Boston school district from 2005 to 2009, according to her bio on The Voice website.
* After her teaching contract ended, a producer friend asked her to help write a song for Chris Brown. That sparked her move to Los Angeles.
* She could have done lots more name dropping on The Voice if she wanted to. She’s also written songs that wound up on albums by Tamar Braxton, Kelly Rowland and Ariana Grande, among others. She co-wrote three tracks on Fantasia’s 2013 album, “Side Effects of You.”
* According to AllMusic.com, she’s also provided backing vocals on albums by Jessie J., Ariana Grande and Michelle Williams, among others.
* In 2010-11, she toured with and provided background vocals for John Legend.
* She dubbed herself “The Phoenix Heart Project,” saying the name sprang from her dual goals of raising her son as “a healthy and whole human being” and refusing to give up on herself in the process.
* Courtney elaborated on her decision to join Team Blake during a conference call with the media, saying: “I appreciate Blake and just the world that he comes from. Country music has some of the greatest songwriters and greatest songs ever. And I wanted to be in a welcomed into a world that was so dear to my heart and that would also stretch me, not just musically in terms of my performance vocally, but just my understanding in how to interpret songs that are different than my writing style. I felt like this was a chance for me to kind of dive into the deep. I was already taking a chance showing up in this way anyway, so why not go big? I threw myself into it and just hope I can swim.”

Keeping up with Courtney:
Twitter: @courtneyharrell
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