So it was just a matter of time before 26-year old Amy Vachal would embrace the spotlight herself. Last Monday, October 5 (Tuesday, Manila time), she did just that at the popular reality talent show “The Voice” when she passed the blind auditions and moved on to the Battle Rounds phase of the competition.
Vachal is a granddaughter of Cebu political kingpin Pablo Garcia and niece of ex-governor and Cebu 3rd District representative Gwendolyn Garcia. The pretty Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter breezed through the Blind Auditions of “The Voice” with a breathtaking rendition of the 1930s classic standard “Dream A Little Dream of Me.”
Her reading of the song, accompanied only by her acoustic guitar, was obviously influenced by the 1968 version of The Mamas & The Papas featuring the late Mama Cass Elliott on vocals.
“There was an effortless beauty to Amy’s audition — in the way she made little tweaks to the classic melody, through her starry-eyed connection to the lyrics, by virtue of her decision to avoid the reality-competition trap of making everything (or anything) about pure bombast,” wrote Michaeal Slezak of TVLine.com in his review of the show.
All four judges were just as mesmerized as three of them turned around for her while a fourth judge expressed regret for not pressing his buzzer.
Adam Levine sounded apologetic for not turning around but pointed out that his team was already full.
“Not only am I sad that I didn’t get to turn for you, but you could win this whole thing,” the Maroon 5 frontman boldly declared.
Gwen Stefani was next to comment and said, “First of all, I don’t have a beautiful Pocahontas, fairy princess, angel-like singer on my team. You’re creative with the way that you’ve performed and you seemed like a real honest artist…“I can really help you on this journey, because I did this already. I feel like we could have such a connection.”
Pharell then asked Amy what she wanted to do and what genre she wished to specialize in. When she replied that she wanted to “blur lines,” citing crooners like Ella (Fitzgerald), Billie (Holliday), Frank (Sinatra) and Sam Cooke, he pitched, “I would be unbelievably appreciative to have the opportunity to aid you in that journey…Let me be the guy that can help you explore that side.”
And finally, there was Blake Shelton who seemed to be the judge who wanted Amy the most and was already exclaiming, “Please, Lord! Please pick me!” even while she was singing.
Comparing Amy to Norah Jones and Colbie Caillat, the country superstar said, “I’m already sad right now, just thinking that I don’t probably seem like the right guy for you. But let me say this, I know that I’m looking at a superstar…I’m so impressed, please pick me”.
In the end, Amy picked Pharell but Shelton was happy she made it on the show and looked forward to the prospect of stealing her in a future episode.
Here in the Philippines, “The Voice” airs every Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:50PM.
Watch Amy Vachal’s sensational blind audition performance in “The Voice” here:
source: interaksyon.com
