Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Karina Iglesias is the 35-year-old from Miami who took her grandmother along to her blind audition.

It was fitting that she attend. After all, Karina said she discovered her love for music by singing alongside her grandmother in church when she was a young girl.

Her grandmother suffered a stroke and lost her own singing voice in 2004, Karina explained.

But she was still quite capable of cheering Karina on from backstage and reacting enthusiastically when Blake Shelton and Adam Levine turned their chairs on the very last note of Karina’s audition song, “I’m the Only One.”

Not that it’s Karina’s first time in the limelight.

According to her website bio, she was part of an eight-person choir assembled back in 2009 to sing the national anthem before Miami Dolphin home games.

She was featured on a live concert DVD performing with Latin recording star Franco de Vita; the DVD album earned two Latin Grammys.

And as a soloist, she released her own album “The Way” in 2007 and a single “It’s Not Easy” in 2011.

More recently, she’s been teaching voice to high school students at a music school in Florida — one where the theory is, if you let children learn singing the current music they love, they’ll enjoy it more.

“It’s an honor to be able to teach those kids, because I get to be kind of a role model to them,” she said.

Not that she’s ready to give up on her own career.

And her decision to audition with a Melissa Etheridge song, complete with a verse in Spanish, was devised as a way to pique the coaches’ interest and, at the same time, pay tribute to a fellow lesbian artist who has forged a Grammy Award-winning career.

“I love Melissa Etheridge,” said Karina, who married her own partner in November, according to The Voice website. “I’m a big fan of hers. I think it’s really hard for already-out artists to make it big in this industry, and she’s a big example (of being able) to do that.”

You can follow Karina on Twitter at @karinaiglesias_. And you can check out a lot of her music, originals and covers, on her YouTube channel.

Here are a couple of examples.

Update: Karina lost in the battle round to Judith Hill when they performed “It’s a Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World.” But she was stolen and joined Team Shakira. In the knockout round, she performed “Are You Gonna Go My Way,” defeating Monique Abbadie, who sang “The Power of Love.” Performed “Let’s Stay Together” in the live playoffs and failed to advance when Shakira awarded her save to Garrett Gardner.

“Song for Her” (an original)

“How Come You Don’t Call”

“Stand in the Light” (from her 2007 album)