Meet Madi Davis of The Voice Season 9

The Voice

October 2, 2015 By Mark Franklin 0

Her audition: Madi Davis, 16, of McKinney, Texas, performed Carole King’s “It’s Too Late” for her blind audition. Her version of the song got Gwen Stefani and Pharrell Williams to turn around before she even hit the chorus. Over the course of the discussion that followed, Gwen and Pharrell approached the stage simultaneously to convince Madi to join their teams. Madi selected Team Pharrell.

Her background: Madi told us she loved to sing when she was young, but never knew if she was any good because she had hearing problems. She eventually had reconstructive eardrum surgery, which allowed her to do better in school and develop a love for singing. She eventually joined the Children’s Choir of Greater Dallas and got to sing in Paris as part of that group.

What the show didn’t show: She might still be in high school, but this young lady has put together an impressive musical resume. She has released a pair of EPs, including “What I Know,” which came out in March. You can check out a couple of her originals below. Also make sure to check out “The Chase,” a standout track from the newest EP.

In addition to guitar, Madi plays piano and ukulele, according to a story in her hometown newspaper. She participated in multiple choirs before deciding at age 13 that she’d like to pursue a music career as a solo artist. According to her website bio, she won the McKinney Boyd High School talent show as just a freshman, was a finalist in the Dallas Opera’s national anthem competition and was a semifinalist in a competition called Battle of the Legends.

On Facebook, she classifies her music as folk-pop, indie. And, yeah, she admitted she was caught off guard when Pharrell and Gwen approached the stage after her blind audition, each trying to convince her to join their team. “It was definitely overwhelming,” she said in a conference call with the media. “I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to implode so much at one moment in my entire life. It was just kind of unreal.”

In the end, Pharrell won out. Madi explains: “I just felt this weird, weird, like connection with Pharrell. And I felt like he has a lot of strengths where I have weakness and he could really help me a lot.”

I’ll be posting profile blogs on every singer who lands a spot on Season 9 of The Voice. For links to the others, head here. Keep checking back. There are many more to come.

On iTunes: Madi released the five-track “What I Know” in March, a followup to a self-titled, six-track EP in 2014. That EP includes a mix of covers and originals. She also released a single, “Child’s Heart,” in 2013.

Update:
Battle round: Defeated Sydney Rhame, singing “Riptide.”
Knockout round: She performed “A Case of You” by Joni Mitchell and defeated Amy Vachal. The song hit #54 on the iTunes 200.
Live playoffs: She sang “Songbird” by Fleetwood Mac and hit number 22 on iTunes. That was the fifth best among 24 songs from the live playoffs. She advanced to the Top 12 on fan voting for Team Pharrell.
Top 12: She performed “Who Will Save Your Soul” and was voted into the Top 11. The song hit number 34 on the iTunes Top 200 (seventh best of the night) and number 19 on the pop singles chart.
Top 11: She sang “Love is Blindness” and hit number 16 on the iTunes Top 200, fourth best from Top 11 night. The song also hit number two on the alternative songs chart. Madi was voted into the Top 10.
Top 10: She performed “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” which landed at number four on the iTunes Top 200. She was voted into the semifinals.
Top 9: She sang “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and hit number five on the iTunes Top 200, fourth best of the night. But she failed to land in the Top 3 in fan voting and had to sing for a save to make the Top 4. She performed “Don’t Dream It’s Over,” but the save went to Jeffery Austin.