Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Her audition: Jackie Verna, 23, of West Chester, Pa., auditioned with “Peter Pan” by Kelsea Ballerini. Adam Levine turned early in the performance, finally landing a country singer for his team. Team Blake Shelton and Team Alicia Keys were already full.

Her background: Jackie describes herself as a country-pop artist. “I was the little girl who would jam out to Britney Spears and Kelly Clarkson in my bedroom.” But one of her biggest ambitions growing up was to be a University of Alabama cheerleader. She applied to the school and was accepted, but a car accident foiled those plans, leaving her with facial injuries and short-term memory loss. The injuries took about two years to recover from and Jackie says she wasn’t sure she’d sing again, “not because I couldn’t sing, but because I was so scared of what people were going to be looking at.” An aunt’s gift of a keyboard helped her rediscover her love of music.

What the show didn’t show:

* Jackie says she always wanted to be a singer and started posting cover videos to YouTube when she reached high school.

* According to her bio on The Voice website, the crash she talked about in her intro package happened when a driver ran a red light and t-boned the vehicle she was in.

* In 2012, at age 17, Jackie made it to the semifinals of the Delco Idol competition.

* She also made it to the celebrity judges round of the American Idol Season 13 auditions at age 18, but didn’t advance to Hollywood.

* Jackie says the Idol audition was her first “stepping stone” back into the spotlight after the crash. “I’m actually really glad that didn’t happen for me,” she says of not advancing, “because I didn’t know myself as an artist at that time. It’s only the past year and a half or two that I really figured out who I wanted to be (as a singer).”

* Jackie wound up attending Penn State and has performed at local open mic nights.

* She describes her Voice blind audition as her “first huge performance” and the first time she ever sang with a live band. “It’s cool that I’m getting all my firsts as a performer on The Voice,” she told Voice Views in a conference call interview. “It’s also sort of scary.”

* What wasn’t scary was hearing Adam compare her to Season 3 winner Cassadee Pope when Tuesday’s episode aired. “I almost fell out of my chair when he said that,” Jackie confessed. “I love Cassadee Pope as an artist. I watched her on her season. She absolutely is a phenomenal artist. Just to be compared to her is a real honor.”

* As for her choice of audition song, Jackie said she’s a big fan of Kelsea Ballerini. Jackie also said she’s been in a relationship like the one referenced in the song. “I thought, ‘Hey, I might as well sing about something I’ve been through.’ It’s a powerful message too.”

On having Adam as a coach: “I’m so super happy it was Adam who turned for me. When I was thinking who might turn for me, he wasn’t even in the cards. To see him turn around for me was like, ‘Wow, I shouldn’t have played myself down like that.'”

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