Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Her audition: Lina Gaudenzi, 23, of Miami, Fla., auditioned with the Stevie Nicks song “Landslide.” Christina turned her chair in the middle of the performance. Blake joined her at the very end. Blake complimented her on a fantastic finish to the song.

Background: Lina told The Voice her mom was a model, appearing in the first Victoria’s Secret catalog. She followed in her mom’s footsteps, starting modeling at age 13 and continuing until she went through an awkward stage in high school. She wound up studying classical music and moving to Paris “on a whim. OK, I’m going to sing in cafes. It’s going to be a piece of cake. Well, it wasn’t really a piece of cake.” But it convinced her she wanted to do music, so she returned to Miami and started gigging. She says she considers herself a bluesy, soul, folk artist.

On picking Christina:  “It was very hard. I went with Christina because she is this powerhouse. And she’s been one of my idols my whole life. It was just a natural choice for me.” Lina said she’s hoping Christina will help her with being confident and strong on stage.

What the show didn’t show: She might have tried modeling for a while, but in her Facebook bio, Lina says she knew she wanted to be a singer when she was young and would watch Rogers and Hammerstein musicals with her mom. She says her musical tastes have varied over the years — at one point she studied opera. “The last three years I have focused solely on honing my craft as a singer,” she writes, “performing in as many bars, restaurants, cafés as I could. Jamming and collaborating with as many artists and musicians that I could. I can honestly say that these three years have made me grow incredibly as a human being as well as a musician and performer.” The native of Germany also has some musical abilities we haven’t seen yet; she has played percussion, vox and kazoo with a Miami-based “interstellar folk group” called Uma Galera.

Quote: “I feel incredibly inspired on a daily basis to create not only music, but poetry or anything else that allows me to express myself,” she writes on Facebook.

Keeping up with Lina: On Twitter — @linagaudenzi — Facebook — YouTube

For profiles of other Season 5 contestants, go here.

Lina Gaudenzi, “All You Wanted Was Love”

Lina Gaudenzi, “Baila La Pena” with Uma Galera