Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Considering her killer opening note and the sassy shoulder shake at the start of her blind audition, it’s tough to believe Devyn DeLoera was ever shy.

But the 20-year-old from Snyder, Texas, says she was, painfully so, growing up.

Other kids were into sports while she was the artistic type, she told The Voice. As a result, she felt like “an oddball” and “retreated into a cocoon.”

Her mother says “she’d shut down in public.” It got so bad, she pulled her out of public school and home schooled Devyn for two years.

Music turned out to be the solution, and Devyn says by eighth grade, she finally felt comfortable enough to let other people hear her sing.

“I don’t think I would have come out of my shyness without music,” she says. “It made me happy again.”

But for her big shot on The Voice stage, she also took a big risk, singing a Christina Aguilera song, “Ain’t No Other Man.”

She admitted the song choice might be “suicidal.”

It turned out to be anything but, prompting three judges to turn around.

Christina proclaimed that she “loved it.” Blake Shelton called her “a superstar,” not to mention “a beautiful girl.”

What the show didn’t show: In an interview with a local newspaper, Devyn’s mom credited a young Christian pop band named Jump5 for helping pull Devyn out of her shell with their positive and upbeat message. More recently, she has performed with Ready Revolution, a pop/rock band from San Antonio. They back her on one of the videos on her YouTube channel. During a recent conference call interview with singers from The Voice, Devyn said she has been singing at small shows “all over Texas” since she was 12, covering songs from a wide range of genres, from rock to R&B to country.  Devyn released a single, “You and I,” in February. You can find it on iTunes. No, it’s not a Lady Gaga cover. As for Christina’s reaction to her performance of “Ain’t No Other Man”: “I can’t believe she thought I even halfway did it justice,” an ecstatic Devyn told Christina Milian in a post-audition interview.

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

Devyn singing “Bust Your Windows”