The Voice 26 Blind Audition: Season 21 Returnee Camryn Brooks Earns Redemption with “Light On”
The Voice 26 auditions continued for a 4th and final week on Monday (Oct 14). The teams are starting to fill up, but night 5 auditions were some of the best yet with refreshing song choices and some unique voices. To top it all off, the episode ended in a feel-good way, as a Season 21 no-chair-turn came back for redemption. (Read our Recap)
Camryn Brooks, 24, from Mount Shasta, California sang “Hometown Glory” by Adele for her first go-round. But the Season 21 panel (made up of Blake Shelton, John Legend, Kelly Clarkson, and Ariana Grande) did not hit their buttons. Now, she has a brand new panel to sing in front of. As we meet Camryn, she gives a shout-out to Season 25 semifinalist Serenity Arce who she sees at the wall of contestants. She also auditioned in Season 21 and returned to the show successfully.
Camryn felt inspired by what the coaches said to her in Season 21. Ariana told her to come back. Her plan was to finish school shortly after her audition and start gigging, but after some struggles, she was told she had developed a heart disease called myocarditis, and she couldn’t even get out more than a few words without gasping for air. She wasn’t sure she would ever sing again. In her video package, Camryn says, “Going through something as scary as that puts into perspective what matters.” She worked on her heart health with doctors and now she is able to sing again. In Season 21, she was a caregiver to her paralyzed brother, but now she feels as if they have swapped roles due to his support.
Camryn is in tears by the end of her performance of Maggie Roger’s “Light On”
Camryn sings Maggie Rogers’ “Light On” for her audition. Her tone is rich and flutters in a beautiful way with lovely phrasing. She has emotion in her voice too. Gwen Stefani turns after Camryn reaches for a note, resulting in the singer with tears of joy in her eyes. The vocal gets a bit lost from there, but still it’s evident that she has an amazing voice. After hitting another big note, she gets the other three coaches to turn and she has a tough time finishing the song due to the tears. Her family is ecstatic as they watch.
Gwen is thrilled and makes sure Camryn knows that she was first to turn. After Camryn shared that she is a returnee, Reba McEntire said, “we tell so many contestants if they don’t get a chair turn to please come back.” The stage is scary even after doing it once, Camryn admitted. Michael Buble said he was last and turned because of “FOMO” and that his favorite part of her audition was her “losing it” as it’s “such a human thing.” Snoop Dogg observed she’s the perfect example of what they say all the time when telling contestants to come back,. “You should be commended for that,” he said. Camryn started singing in the second grade, she revealed, and came home wanting to learn the National Anthem.
Camryn’s admission kicked off a bit with Michael singing the Canada National Anthem. She did tell the coaches that she sang Michael’s version of “Feeling Good” at her performing arts school when competing. Gwen said, “there’s certain singers that touch you because of your tone.” Camryn’s voice reminded her of the ‘70s and called her voice “soothing”. Michael joked after that pitch, that he too wanted to be on Team Gwen.
Team Gwen nabs another talented artist
Ultimately, Gwen’s pitch won out as Camryn picked Team Gwen.
Camryn’s performance wasn’t the only big moment of the night. Two 4-chair turners who were experienced performers nailed their auditions. One was Cameron Wright who joined Team Michael after singing Barbara Streisand’s “The Way We Were” and another was Lauren-Michael Sellars who joined Team Reba after auditioning with a spiritual choice of “Oceans.” Team Gwen also continued to be a stacked team, and she picked up two very talented jazz vocalists in Kay Sibal who sang Laufey’s “From the Start” and Beya who sang “Our Day Will Come” by Ruby and the Romantics.
