Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Her audition: Ria Eaton, 19, of Billerica, Mass, performed “Cups (When I’m Gone)” for her audition on The Voice. Looking like a star, Ria displayed a nice rasp in her voice. And right at the close of her song, Blake Shelton and Shakira turned around at the same moment. Shakira compared Ria to a pearl in an oyster. Nevertheless, Ria joined Team Blake.

Her background: Ria’s mother was a dancer “her whole life,” starting her own dance studio at age 18. That meant Ria spent a lot of time in her mom’s studio. But she decided she would rather sing than dance. Ria’s mom took it in stride, becoming her “mom-mager.” At first, Ria got into musical theater. At age 9, she says, she performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. But finances have been a problem for the family since her father lost his job about five years ago. Her mother closed her studio; the family lost their home. Ria took a job as an ear piercer at a mall. “I’ve been writing, trying to get my face, my songs, out there. But recording time costs a ba-jillion dollars,” she says, “and we don’t have that.”

On choosing Blake: “The decision was really hard. Shakira almost had me. But there’s just something about Blake that’s so loving and caring. He was in my head and in my heart and I had to pick him.”

What the show didn’t show: Ria admits she wasn’t all that optimistic when she first learned about the opportunity to audition. “I never thought that I would ever audition for any kind of music TV show, and then my mom was telling me that I got a contact for one of the private auditions in Boston and I was like, ‘OK, whatever. What’s it going to hurt? I’ll do it. Nothing’s going to happen. Nothing’s going to come out of this. Whatever, I’ll do it.'” she said during a conference call with the media. “So I did it and I got pushed along to the next round and all of the sudden I was getting ready to sing at my blinds and now I’m here and I can’t even describe the emotions that have been — I’ve been through this entire process but I’ll tell you every single one of them is worth it.” Not everyone was surprised. The Lowell Sun tracked down her fifth-grade music teacher, Jeff Gage, who remembered her performance in an elementary school play. “I imagined that this might happen back in elementary school. There are fifth-grade girls that sing beautifully, and then there’s Victoria, who was belting it out like a Broadway singer back then. She’s really amazing.” The accolades kept coming. As a teen, she was named best pop artist at a “Music on and Up” Concert held at the Hard Rock Café in Boston and she was one of the top four finalists in the “Berklee College of Music Battle of the Bands.” You’ll find strictly covers on her YouTube channel, but at one point when she was about 15, she was working on originals, some of which you can still listen to on ReverbNation. Ria said the response to her blind audition was more than she expected. “The past 24 hours have been insane, and I could not feel more humbled and I’m so overwhelmed by all the love and support that I’m getting,” she said the day after it aired.

On iTunes: Just her audition song.

Update: She lost to Megan Ruger in the battle round; they sang “My Happy Ending.”

Keeping up with Ria
Twitter: @RiaMusic
Facebook
YouTube

Editor’s Note: For links to profiles of all the Season 6 artists on The Voice, go here.

“Skinny Love”

“Dancing on My Own”

“Stay”