Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Her audition: Sophia Hoffman, 18, of Chula Vista, Calif., performed “Tell Me You Love Me” by Demi Lovato: Sophia delivered an impressive vocal, showing off a big voice on the Demi song. She got an early chair turn from Reba McEntire and another from Niall Horan midway through the song. Reba liked the power and strength in her voice. Niall liked the maturity she showed at such a young age. Sophia opted to join Team Niall.

Here’s more about Sophia:

* She auditioned in Season 23, singing the ballad “Amor Eterno” in Spanish. She failed to turn a chair, though all of the coaches offered her words of encouragement. Even then, Niall complimented her on an “amazing” voice. Kelly Clarkson suggested she return with an audition song that would show off more of her versatility a a singer.

* “I definitely struggled with that (failing to turn a chair),” Sophia admitted in her Voice Season 24 intro package.” I would sit in my mom and dad’s room and I would cry. And I thought because of that moment that I wasn’t ever going to get where I wanted.”

* Of course, she flipped the script when she got a second chance in Season 24. She told The Star News, her hometown newspaper, that she picked Niall “because I knew he saw something in me from the beginning.” She also liked the fact that he said he heard some Jennifer Hudson grit in her voice and that he got his start on a singing show.

* Sophia got her start singing around age 4. Her parents enrolled her in vocal lessons and she got involved in musical theater.

* “It was just like, ‘boom,'” the told Chico State Today. “I took off and I found my love for singing. Not just love, I found the passion for it and I found a new spark in me.”

* Sophia says she gets her determination from her mother Hilda, who fled an impoverished upbringing in Mexico City and moved to the U.S. at age 6.

* According to her Voice bio, Sophia is a second-year student at Chico State University, where she’s studying communications and public affairs.

* As for her audition song, Sophia said she first heard it on a road trip to Utah. “I cannot describe what it did to me,” she told The Star News. “It was something in my heart (that said) I need to learn this song.”

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