Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Her audition: Michelle Chamuel, 26, of Amherst, Mass., auditioned with a unique version of Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” that got Adam Levine to turn around almost instantly. Before the audition ended, he was followed by Shakira and Usher. Michelle chose to join Team Usher.

Battle Round: Defeated Chelsea M. singing “Titanium.”

Knockout Round: She sang Pink’s “Raise Your Glass” and defeated Audrey Karrasch, who sang “How to Love.”

Live Playoffs: Sang “True Colors” and advanced to the Top 12 based on fan voting.

Her background: Michelle described herself as a representative for “nerdy people,” an introvert who finds music as her best means of communicating. But this introvert has also been fronting a band called Ella Riot, which has been performing between 150 and 200 gigs per year, mostly in smoky, small, packed rooms where she would be forced to “glam up” beside messy bathroom stalls. “Yikes, right?” she said on The Voice.

On picking Usher: “It was a tough decision. Mentally, I think my brain was like, ‘Go with Adam, because he turned around first.’ But something, a feeling inside felt like it was pointing at Usher. A pull. So I went with that. One hundred percent gut.”

What the show didn’t show: Michelle’s specialty is electro rock and she’s also been performing at The Reverb Junkie. In fact, she has released two EPs under that name. She tried out for The Voice in Season 3 and failed to make a team. Shortly afterward, she applied for work in a cafe. When they asked if she had anything upcoming that would pull her away from work, she recalls joking that The Voice might be calling. “They looked at me like I was crazy.” Sure enough, a week later, The Voice called, asking her to try out again for Season 4.

Quote: “I did a lot of persoanl work to try to stay calm (for her audition), then the door opened and I went on stage and the calm stayed for about 2 seconds,” Michelle said in a post-audition interview. “So I sang the first line pretty jittery. Then this voice inside my head said, ‘No. You’re going to do this.’ So I breathed, calmed down and got the second line out. And I think at that point, Adam turned. I thought, ‘Cool, I can just have fun now.'”

On iTunes: Her audition song, “I Kissed a Girl,” a pop song called “Caught in the Lie,” and two EPs from 2012 as the Reverb Junkie, “All the Pretty People” and “Ep1.” And Ella Riot released a five-track EP in 2011.

Keeping up with Michelle:
Twitter: @MichelleChamuel
Facebook
YouTube channel
Website

“You Don’t Know” (from 2012 “All the Pretty People” EP)

“When the World Was Young”

“Caught in the Lie” (snippet from the soundtrack for a webshow “Little White Lie”)