On final night of Blind Auditions —Week 3 (March 10, 2015) — for Season Eight, five ultra-talented singers made it through the first round of The Voice. As always, Adam Levine, Christina Aquilera, Pharrell Williams and Blake Shelton picked Paul Pfau, Caitlin Caporale, Vance Smith, Nathan Hermida and Hannah Kirby based solely on their voices and not what they looked like. We spent a few minutes with the four of the talented advancing artists from Week Three – Season Eight of The Voice to recount their feelings about making it onto NBC’s highly-rated, reality singing contest.
Paul Pfau (Team Pharell) talks about the confidence his coach has instilled in him to be himself: “With Pharrell, it’s not really been about what he wants to do. I mean, as you can see from last season and from this season, his pitch is always about what the artist wants to do. That’s the truth. He really sticks to that. The first time I really got to talk to him is during our team photo shoot. He explained to all of us, why he chose us. He told us why
he’s excited to work with us and what he sees in us. But, for the most part, he’s just like, ‘I want to do what you want to do. I just want to help you get there.’ So, there’s been a lot of times that, like, if there was like a rehearsal or something where maybe the band director was saying I should do one thing or maybe something else I was kind of not sure. But, Pharrell always just told me to stay true to who I am and what I want to do, because, the show is amazing as it is and there’s a huge audience that it reaches. It’s only here for a limited time. So, I really want to get across who I am as an artist rather than focusing on just like what I have to do to like win the show.”
Vance Smith (Team Christina) admits he was incredibly nervous during his blind audition: Definitely, from the start, when I was walking up the stairs, there were definitely a lot of nerves. There was a lot of pressure just built up from waiting and thinking about the song choice. I had no clue of what the outcome of the overall performance
would be. I think throughout, I definitely was nervous. I don’t think the nerves died down. I was just like, ‘Man, if they turn, it’s a blessing. If they don’t, well, I did my best…I did my best for that moment.’ I was definitely nervous, but I don’t think they got the best of me. I didn’t let them do my best of me. I did my best to kind of control it throughout the performance. Actually, all the nervousness left after I’ve saw the chairs turned. I was like, ‘I did it.'”
Caitlin Caporale (Team Pharrell) recalls how it was like having a fantasy realized when Christina asked her to perform an impromptu duet of “Impossible”: “After I chose Pharrell and he gave me the hug, Christina came right up after him and she’s like, Come over here.’ I’m like, ‘What is going on right now? She was, Come sit in my chair.’ At
that point, I’m thinking, ‘I’m just going to be sitting in her chair.’ And, that was enough for me. I’m looking around and she’s like, ‘Let’s sing together.’ I’m like, ‘I cannot believe this is happening to me right now.’ All I could think to myself was, ‘Don’t mess up. Just make sure you sing this. Don’t hit a wrong note.’ (laughs) So, then I just went for it. It was really all the emotions coming at once. I mean, I’ve never seen her in concert. So, the first time for me to hear her sing is with me, in front of me. It was just a dream come true.”
Hannah Kirby (Team Blake) admits she didn’t really have a Plan B in case the singing career didn’t take off: “My parents, who are educators, they wanted me to go to university, so that if at some point they couldn’t support my music career, I would be able to support my music career myself. Everything that I’ve ever done, and
that my family has ever done, has been planned, so that I would be able to focus on music as my Number 1. Ever since I was a child, all I wanted to do is sing. I mean, there was at one point, when I was in elementary school, I said, ‘I wanted to be a singing paleontologist.’ But, the university that I’m at doesn’t offer a paleontology degree, so I went with psychology since both of my parents are counselors. But, I’m here doing what I love.”
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