The Voice 24 Blind Audition 4: Teen pop singer Kaylee Shimizu turns 4-chairs with The Beatles “Golden Slumbers” cover
The Voice Season 24 Week 2 of Blind Auditions continued with a two hour Tuesday episode. Similar themes continued as previous episodes with this season having an abundance of 4-chair turns, and each judge winning over a decent share of those 4 chair turns. One young competitor had all the judges stunned with her voice, and her name is Kaylee Shimizu. She was one of two Hawaii competitors to appear on Tuesday’s episode.
Kaylee is a 17-year-old from Ewa Beach, Hawaii. She has a big family, and they love to “hang out and sing.” Currently busking on the Waikiki strip, she has been singing since the age of 7. She recently graduated from high school, and a singing career is her plan. Her and her family joke that the whole family is great at singing, except for her dad. Kaylee great-grandpa, who passed away from Leukemia was her “greatest supporter ever.” The line from her audition song choice, “Golden Slumbers” by The Beatles that goes, “sleep little darling don’t you cry” reminds her of him. Family is everything to her, she says, adding that she will be thinking of him the whole time she is on stage.
Kaylee dedicates “Golden Slumbers” to her late great-grandfather
Kaylee performs the classic song using the Jennifer Hudson arrangement from Sing. Her soulful chops are evident from the opening line. All 4 judges turn fairly early on. Her vibrato has an interesting floatiness to it. She hits a borderline whistle note to top it off. The performance was a bit over embellished, but it got the point across which is that Kaylee is a gifted vocalist who could go very deep in this competition. She gave one of the best vocals of the season yet. That being said, for all the tricks and runs she packed in this performance, I’m excited to see her tackle something that is a bit more poppy and with more zip arrangement wise.
John Legend remarks, “Your voice was just dazzling, it was so creative, it was so musical.” He asks Kaylee if she grew up singing. She mentions that she’s from a Filipino family, and has been singing her whole life. Eventually her family joins her on stage, as John pitches hard for her. Gwen Stefani notes that her vibrato is “slow like a wave” adding that she has never heard “anything like it before.” Niall Horan calls her “technically gifted.” And Reba McEntire says, “when I was 17, I had not the imagination to be even thinking about singing like you,” calling it “spiritual.” She mentions that she sang with her family too.
John Legend compares Kaylee to a ‘young Ariana Grande’
In the end, Kaylee makes the choice that stylistically makes sense and chooses John Legend as her coach. John is thrilled to win over Kaylee, calling her a “young Ariana Grande”.
Kaylee gave the best vocal of the night, but country rocker Jacquie Roar also brought fire power to her vocal and shockingly chose Gwen over Reba. Those two were probably the best of the night, and each actually deserved their 4-chair turns (I say actually as there are so many this season!). The other two that intrigued on Tuesday night were Team Reba’s seasoned background vocalist Ms. Monet who took on the Whitney Houston version of “Higher Love” and Team Niall’s LVNDR who did an amazing indie pop flip of Drake’s “Hotline Bling.” It was a solid episode overall.
