Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Kyla Jade, background singer for Jennifer Hudson, performs during her blind audition on The Voice. (NBC Photo)

Rumblings that she might have an inside track on Season 14 of The Voice because of her show connections.

For the past three years, Kyla has been a background singer for Jennifer Hudson.

The same Jennifer Hudson who coached on The Voice in Season 13. The same Jennifer Hudson who is coaching on Season 7 of the U.K. version of the show.

Among Voice viewers, it’s a legitimate concern. For all its Emmy-winning credentials, The Voice is not a show known for playing fair.

The season-long special treatment given to Jordan Smith in Season 9 and the continued use of a Twitter save that occurs on East Coat time and has never been won by a West Coast contestant are just two prime examples of that.

So Voice Views asked Kyla to react to those concerns during a Tuesday afternoon conference call. Here’s what she said.

“People’s perceptions is always going to be that. I don’t even argue. But I say this: When you see Jennifer Hudson’s show, is my name anywhere on the marque? Is my name anywhere on the advertisement? No, because it’s not about me. Background singers — inherently our job is to support the artist. It has nothing to do with us.

“I love that people challenge it because you want to challenge fairness. But I’m an individual artist who is stepping out on the own for the first time. It has never been Kyla. It has never been anything like that because when I am singing with other artists, I am a part of their team.

“So the fact that I have an opportunity to present myself to the world, it is nerve-wracking and crazy and I am just as wonderful as Britton, who is 17 and hasn’t been on a stage like me, and Rayshun who has done other things, like D.R., everyone on this (conference call). We are all the same level. It doesn’t bother me.”

Kyla added that the decision to audition for The Voice wasn’t an easy one.

“I was really apprehension because I don’t compete well,” she explained. “I am someone who loves everybody and I’m so proud of everybody on this show. I feel like the team mother or auntie. I didn’t know about coming to a competition because I don’t like to compete.

“It really boiled down to: ‘Well, Kyla, you’re either going to be a background singer for the rest of your life or you’re going to step out on your own.’ That’s why I made the decision. I love singing background, but I want to see what I can accomplish on my own.”

So far, te 33-year-old Nashville resident landed a spot on Team Blake Shelton, the winningest coach in the show’s history, after turning two chairs with her blind audition performance of “See Saw.”