Meet Shelby Brown of The Voice Season 9

The Voice

October 8, 2015 By Mark Franklin 0

Her audition: Shelby Brown, 16, of Elberta, Ala., auditioned with “Stars” by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, adding a country flair. All four coaches turned around when Shelby hit the chorus. Adam Levine told her “the brilliant moments were so brilliant,” he had to turn around. Shelby decided to join Team Adam.

Her background: Shelby tells us her town is “extremely tiny” with a population of about 1,500. She works in a tackle shop. The town does have a bowling alley, which is where Shelby does most of her singing. She started singing karaoke there and twice won the alley’s annual karaoke contest. “Now they book me for my own gigs.” She calls her audition with The Voice “a chance to see if I’ve got what it takes.”

What the show didn’t show: She sure passed that test. And, according to her bio on The Voice website, Shelby has done more than sing at the bowling alley. Those karaoke performances led to vocal lessons, a stint with her high school choir and performances in school talent shows. The bio also says that last year Shelby deciding to start homeschooling so she could focus more on her music.

Still, it’s a big jump from performing at the Gulf Bowl to The Voice stage. How did she manage the transition?

“I don’t even know,” she said during a conference call with the media. “I go from performing in front of less than 200 people maybe a couple times a month — and to be 16 and go in front of hundreds of people (in The Voice audience), four celebrities and to be televised is just a huge leap.

“When I get nervous I get rather quiet,” she added. “And someone backstage even said to me, ‘You know, you’re so calm.’ And I’m like, ‘I swear, man, I’m really not.’ I have no idea how I kept it together, but it’s insane. I’m so thankful that I got the opportunity to do that. It was amazing.”

“Stars,” her audition song, is one she performs quite frequently back home, and Shelby said she always gets good feedback on it.

“That is just such an emotional song. And when I sing a song, I want to be able to be emotionally attached to it, so I can share that,” she said. “But also, the artist behind it — Grace Potter — she’s a rock singer, but she’s also collaborated with Kenny Chesney. So it was very simple to take a rock song by someone who does country music every now and then and to kind of incorporate country into it.”

Then it came time for Shelby to select a coach. And the young lady who hopes to one day wind up in Nashville recording country music selected Adam over Blake.

“When it came time for their comments, I feel that Adam was focused more on my actual talent and my performance,” Shelby explained. “I really appreciated Adam really, really noticing my performance and really paying attention to that aspect. And pointing out that, you know, I can do other things than just country.”

For links to profile blogs on every singer who has landed a spot on Season 9 of The Voice, head here.

On iTunes: Just her performances from The Voice.

Update:
Battle round: Defeated Amanda Ayala, singing “Edge of Seventeen.”
Knockout round: Defeated James Dupre, singing Carrie Underwood’s “Jesus Take the Wheel.”
Live playoffs: She sang “You’re No Good.” The song hit number 66 on iTunes, 12th best among 24 live playoff songs. Shelby was voted into the finals for Team Adam.
Top 12: She sang “In Color” and was voted into the Top 11. The song hit number 35 on the iTunes Top 200 (eighth best from the night) and number 8 on the county singles chart.
Top 11: She performed a country version of the Lady Gaga hit “You and I.” The song hit number 96 on iTunes, ranking last among the songs from Monday’s show. But Shelby was voted into the Top 10.
Top 10: She sang “Go Rest High on That Mountain.” The song hit number 10 on the iTunes 200 and Shelby was voted into the Top 9.
Top 9: She sang “Even Got Must Get the Blues.” The song hit number 18 on the iTunes 200, finishing last among the Top 9. Shelby failed to make the Top 6 in voting and was eliminated from the show.