Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Jackie Foster landed a spot on Team Kelly Clarkson on Season 14 of The Voice. (NBC Photo)

Her background: She says she starting singing at home around age 6, then got into musical theater. Her first role ever was as a munchkin in The Wizard of Oz. In high school, she dreamed of attending the Berklee College of Music, but knew the tuition wasn’t going to be affordable. Then came the news that she received a full scholarship. Once there, she became the lead singer of Self Portraits, a Boston-based band. “I’m always wearing flowery dresses and dressing really cute. Then, when I get on stage, it’s dark colors, grungy makeup and a lot of this,” she says, swinging her hair in true head-banging fashion.”People kind of think, ‘Are you sure that’s the same girl.”

What the show didn’t show:

* According to her Voice bio, Jackie grew up in a musical household. Her siblings sing and her father plays guitar.

* Jackie’s first exposure to Berklee came during a summer program while she was still in high school. She studied a variety of genres there, that bio says, but grew to love rock. She’s now a senior at Berklee.

* On Facebook, she lists her musical genres as pop/rock, contemporary, R&B and jazz. And on Twitter, she writes: “Music is all I know.”

The Self Portraits have their own website and also include guitarists Gray Trainer and John Benoit, bassist Ethan Cate, and drummer Chris Drago.

* In 2016, Self Portraits released a three-track EP called “Dreamcatchers” that included the tracks “Time” and “Be O.K.” Both had previously been released as singles. You can check out one of those singles below.

* In her Berklee online profile, Jackie says the artists who have influenced her most include Paramore, Sara Bareilles, Tori Kelly and Jesse J.

* The same profile touts her musical diversity, and that’s backed up by a YouTube channel where the covers include “Summertime,” “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and “It Don’t Mean a Thing.” In Boston, she’s also performed with a corporate and wedding band called Radiance.

On picking Kelly: “I think our voices are really similar and one thing I’ve always admired about her is that she’s constantly changing, choosing different styles that she thinks fits herself. She can totally help me become the artist I want to be.”

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