Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Michelle Brooks-Thompson offers a bonus to customers at the bank where she works full time.

“I tell them, ‘If you open an account, I’ll sing a little tune for you,'” she told The Voice.

Of course, she’s on The Voice because she’d prefer to do her singing on a stage, a much bigger stage.

The 28-year-old from Sunderland, Mass., explains that she and her family moved to St. Louis because her husband had hopes of making the roster with the NFL’s Rams.

“Before he got to play his first game, he got released,” she said. “Now it’s as though I’m trying out for a team. It’s very scary because of what happened to him in the NFL.”

On The Voice stage, Michelle launches into a rambunctious version of “Proud Mary.”

Adam Levine and Cee Lo Green turn around almost simultaneously, shortly after she begins singing. After the big chorus, Christina joins the party.

“I was waiting for a crack or a flaw,” Christina said. “By the end of it, I was having so much fun with you (I thought), ‘I have to be an idiot not to see what’s going on behind my chair.'”

Adam called her “incredible” and wound up with Michelle on his team.

What the show didn’t show: In a post-audition interview, Michelle said she was hoping Adam and Cee Lo would respond to her performance. “When they turned around, I’m like, ‘Sweet. Focus. Keep singing.'” On Facebook, we learn that Michelle began singing in her grandfather’s church and, by age 13, after her mother’s death, took on the role of church musician and musical director. She performed in choir throughout high school, then attended Mount Holyoke College, whee she formed the Five Colleges Gospel Choir. She was accepted to the Berklee College of Music, but decided to pursue a professional career instead. She plays piano and hopes to release a gospel album by the summer of 2013. You can hear more of Michelle here.

Editor’s Note: Check back for live blogs on The Voice when the battle rounds begin.

Michelle Brooks-Thompson performing “I Won’t Complain,” a song she hopes to include on a gospel album

Michelle’s blind audition on The Voice