Her audition: Koryn Hawthorne, 16, of Abbeville, La., sang Emeli Sande’s “My Kind of Love,” showing off a powerful voice, especially for her age. Christina Aguilera turned around midway through the song; Pharrell Williams joined her at the last minute. Christina called Koryn a powerhouse vocalist. Koryn decided to join Team Christina.
Her background: She works part-time at a pizza shop and says she’s always singing, whether at work or elsewhere. As a young girl, she joined a group called Louisiana Kids that goes around singing for charities. Koryn says her favorite was singing at nursing homes and seeing the smiles music brought to the elderly residents. Her mom was a single parent working two jobs to make ends meet, so Koryn says she owes a lot to her.
What the show didn’t show: A junior at Lighthouse Christian Academy, Koryn started taking voice lessons at age 8 and has won numerous signing competitions, including a pair of victories at “Showtime at the Apollo” according to her hometown newspaper. “Singing is just everything I have and everything I want to do,” she says in her Voice video. In addition to performing with Louisiana Kids, she says she sings mostly in church. In fact, in her Facebook bio, Koryn says she likes all kinds of music, but that gospel is her favorite. “It really has a lot of feeling in it,” she writes. “It can make you calm down or it can make you get up and shout — lol. That’s what I like about it.” She adds that pop and R&B are her other favorite genres. Her Twitter bio reads: “Just a musical soul. God gets the glory!”
On picking Christina: “They both said some really great things. But Christina, I felt she was really talking to me and understood me. She said she understands how it is to grow up as a young artist and how easy it is to be put in a box, and that she didn’t want to do that. That she wanted to find out who I am as an artist.”
On iTunes: Just her Voice performances.
Update: In the battle round, she was matched against Vance Smith. They sang “Love Me Harder” by Ariana Grande and The Weeknd. Christina declared Koryn the winner; Vance was eliminated from the show. In the knockout round, she was pitted against Kimberly Nichole. Koryn performed Pink’s “Try” and received high praise from the judges, but Christina declared Kimberly the winner, pushing Koryn to the brink of elimination. Pharrell rescued her with his knockout round save.
Live playoffs: She performed “How Great Thou Art” and received Pharrell’s coach’s save to make the finals. The song hit number 74 on iTunes singles chart.
Top 12: She performed Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger.” The song landed at number 33 on iTunes, fifth best from the show. It landed at number 13 on the iTunes pop chart.
Top 10: She advanced to the Top 8 on fan voting. Her version of “Make It Rain” hit number three on iTunes, best of the week.
Top 8: She advanced to the Top 6 on fan voting. Her cover of “Girl on Fire” was number 35 on iTunes, seventh best of eight songs from that night’s show.
Top 6: She advanced to the Top 5 on fan voting. “Everybody Hurts” hit number 32 on iTunes; “Dream On” hit number 46. They were the sixth and eighth most popular of 12 songs on iTunes.
Top 5: Her cover of “Oh, Mary, Don’t You Weep” hit number 21 on iTunes and number one on the Christian/gospel chart. Her version of “One” hit number 54 on iTunes. They were the sixth and 10th most popular of the 10 songs from Top 5 night.
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Twitter: @KorynHawthorne
I’d Rather Go Blind (cover)
Halo (cover)
Give Me You (cover)
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