Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Her audition: Emily Hough, 16, of Petersburg, Ill., auditioned with Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi.” Blake Shelton turned midway through the performance and, by the time it ended, Emily had Adam Levine and Jennifer Hudson facing her as well. Adam applauded her appreciation of The Beatles at such a young age. Emily opted to join Team Adam.

Her background: She says she’s from a small town where it’s not very exciting. She did her first talent show at age 7 and finished third. That convinced her mom the family had a star in its midst. Emily says she thinks her town might be angry if she doesn’t pick Blake because everyone there listens to country music. “So I might want to try to learn a little of that,” she says. She’s hoping to make her parents proud because of all they’ve sacrificed for her. Another of Emily’s talents: She does accents.

On picking Team Adam: “From the beginning, even when I went in for my open call, I knew I wanted Adam. His words that he said for me when I was on stage — he definitely fought the hardest for me and just really convinced me that we’d work well together. I think I made a good choice.”

What the show didn’t show:

* On Facebook, she identifies herself as an acoustic, pop and country artist.

* In a video on her website, she says she prefers singer-songwriter, acoustic music in the Ed Sheeran and early Taylor Swift vein. She performed Taylor’s “Our Song” for that aforementioned talent show.

* She also says she wrote her first song about five years ago, about her mom as a Mother’s Day present.

* Emily’s been singing since she was 5, according to her bio on The Voice website. She says her dad signed her up for guitar lessons when she was 8.

* Besides music, her other favorite activities include cheerleading and cross country.

* Her Facebook bio says she’s working on a debut EP, and she’s posted three originals to her YouTube channel in the past couple of months. You can check one of those out below.

* One of her biggest performances to date came in July 2016 when she opened for The Brothers Osborne and Canaan Smith at the Menard County Fair in Illinois.

* As for her choice of audition song, Emily says she loves “Big Yellow Taxi.” Plus it’s fun and catchy, and she wanted an audition song that was upbeat. She told Voice Views the message resonated too: “It talks about ‘you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone,” and I really like that. It reminds me not to take things for granted, especially a huge experience like The Voice. You never know when it might be over, so you have to soak in everything while you have it.”

On social media:
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Twitter: @emilyhoughmusic
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