Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Recent post-Voice releases include four songs featuring artists we met on Season 17.

They include Matt New, Elise Azkoul and EllieMae.

Here’s a bit about those releases. The links take you to the songs on Apple Music. Or you can check out the Spotify snippets below.

Matt New from Season 17 is back with a lovely ballad called “Barely Getting By.” It’s a song he wrote for his wife on their 10th wedding anniversary and performed for her as a surprise at a Decemberr show at the Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center in Midland, Texas. Matt also recently announced that he’s leaving his job as co-manager of a gym and embarking on a full-time music career. The new song follow “L.A.” as his second single since the show.

Elise Azkoul from Season 17 also released her second single since the show Friday. It’s a ballad called “Memory” about memories from a relationship that didn’t quite work out. Elise was 28 when she auditioned for The Voice and already planning an album of soulful pop. This marks the third single she’s released, following “Coffee Baby” and “Sweet Soul.”

EllieMae Millenkamp from Season 17 — she uses just EllieMae as her stage name — hasn’t yet dropped her first post-Voice single. But she’s a featured vocalist on two singles released recently. They include a country song called “Reasons” by Daniel Hayes and a pop song called “Waiting on the Clouds” by Andersen Coates. Of the latter, EllieMae says “this is not my normal country sound and I’m excited I got to step out of the box a little bit on this.”