Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Her audition: Ivonne Acero, 17, of Aguila, Ariz., auditioned with Taylor Swift’s “Style.” She was barely two lines into the performance when Gwen Stefani turned around; Pharrell quickly followed. He called her voice “amazing.” Ivonne decided to join Team Pharrell.

Her background: Ivonne auditioned with Colbie Caillat’s “Try” in Season 8, but failed to turn a chair. In that year’s intro clip, she explained about how she was working at a cantaloupe factory to help pay her way to The Voice audition. “You don’t have any idea how many people have come up to me and said, ‘You’re the cantaloupe girl,'” she says this time around. Though she calls not turning a chair in Season 8 “brutal,” she says she also appreciated the advice she got from the coaches. Pharrell even approached the stage to provide her a lesson on showing confidence on stage. “As soon as I got home after my audition, I was like, ‘OK, it’s time to work.'” She says she performed local gigs, sang with her school’s concert choir and got involved in the school musical. “I feel that experience has given me more confidence, but now the pressure is on,” she said before auditioning. “I definitely feel like this time, I’d better get a chair.” Mission accomplished.

What the show didn’t show: First off, about the cantaloupe factory — Ivonne no longer works there. She explains that was just a summer job she took last year for the sake of convenience because there aren’t many places to find a summer job in the small town where she lives. It was also convenient because both of her parents live there.

On Facebook, Ivonne credits her cousin Jen with convincing her “that music is what I was put on this earth to do. I now understand that.” Jen is also the one who convinced her to attend her first open call audition for The Voice about a year ago.

In a conference call with the media, Ivonne described her Season 8 rejection on the show as “the best thing that has ever happened to me because it’s just helped me grow so much as an artist and as a person.” Since she entered the Season 8 blind auditions with very little experience, the student at Wickenburg High School says she took vocal lessons from her music teacher and did everything she could to build her confidence so the blind audition outcome would be different the second time around. You won’t find much video of Ivonne singing on YouTube, but she has several videos on Facebook.

For links to more bios of Season 9 artists on The Voice, head here.

On iTunes: Just her performances from The Voice.

Update:
Battle round: Lost to Siahna Im, singing “You Keep Me Hanging On.” But Ivonne was stolen by Blake Shelton.
Knockout round: She performed “Part of Me” by Katy Perry and defeated Chance Pena. Her song hit #166 on the iTunes Top 200.
Top 24: She performed “One of Us” and hit number 72 on the iTunes Top 200. She was eliminated when Barrett Baber and Zach Sebaugh were voted into the Top 12 and Emily Ann Roberts got the Team Blake save.
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Keeping up with Ivonne:
Facebook
Twitter: @acero_ivonne

Blind audition — Style

Battle Round — “You Keep Me Hanging On”

Knockout Round — “Part of Me”

“Try” (Season 8 audition)