Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Blind audition: Josette Diaz, 17, of Cresskill, N.J., performed “Love Yourself” by Justin Bieber at a time when only Miley Cyrus had a spot left on her team. And Miley had already bypassed a couple of singers when Josette’s crystal clear vocals captured her attention, though she waited until Josette’s impressive a cappella ending to turn her chair.

Her background: Josette taught herself guitar and piano when she was young. “I can’t see myself doing anything else,” she says of music. “I definitely love performing.” At her high school, Josette is part of the choir, the rock band, the jazz band and the vocal ensemble. On weekends, she teaches guitar lessons. She has eight students, one just 7 years old. “She’s 24-7 music,” he dad says. Oh, and Josette says she’s a big Miley Cyrus fan.

What the show didn’t show:
* Josette told her hometown newspaper she grew up listening to her mother singing in the kitchen and followed in her footsteps as soon as she could talk. And she told SoundAffects that Celine Dion was one of her early inspirations.
* She got her first guitar as a surprise gift from her father when she was 9 and started teaching herself how to play.
* In a conference call with the media, Josette said she’s been writing her own music since age 7. “It’s definitely a huge passion of mine. My music is very chill – has a very kind of acoustic coffeehouse vibe to it.”
* She told SoundAffects she already had 123 copyrighted songs at the time of the March interview and was hoping to release an EP in the not-too-distant future.
* She released a single — a song called “Problem” — earlier this year. You can check out the music video below. And you can hear other originals on her YouTube channel.
* Josette is a student at Cresskill High School and wrote a song about safe driving for a GEICO contest, then worked on an accompanying video with other students in her video production class. The result was the video below and a cash prize for her school.
* She told SoundAffects that The Bitter End in New York is one of her favorite spots to perform because it has the “perfect amount of intimacy” and a “cafe vibe.” She also said she’d like to move to New York after high school, and perhaps attend NYU.
* Josette said she had no idea there was just one spot left on the show when she auditioned, but she was aware the teams were filling up after so many people had already tried out. “I was one of the last few to go,” she said in that conference call with the media. “So that definitely made me very nervous. But when Miley turned around for me — I can’t even put into words how excited I was. It was a dream come true for sure.”
* She also said “Love Myself” was a perfect blind audition song for her because it’s so acoustic. “Whenever I gig, it’s always just me and my guitar and the song. So I thought it was a perfect choice for me and my style of music.”

Keeping up with Josette:
Twitter: @Josettemusic
Facebook
YouTube