Houston singer Desz lifts her voice to newheights
The Houston area has shown up, and frequently shown out, on “The Voice.”
Danielle Bradbery from Cypress and Sundance Head from Porter won their respective seasons. La Porte’s Jake Worthington was the Season 6 runner-up. And Baytown’s RaeLynn, who didn’t even make the top 10, is arguably the biggest star to come out of the reality-competition series.
Desz looks to be the next local to slay the competition. The powerful R&B belter, whose full name is Desiree Washington, inspired a four-chair turn during the blind auditions. She chose fellow Texan Kelly Clarkson as her coach. Desz advanced further during the battle rounds, easily outsinging her competitor on Harold Melvin & Blue Notes’ soul classic “If You Don’t Know Me By Now.”
John Legend called her “a real force to be reckoned with on this show.” Gwen Stefani was impressed by the “power and confidence.” Coach Clarkson dubbed her a “warrior vocalist.”
“I just wanna be her little Grasshopper and she be my Mr. Miyagi,” Desz says of Clarkson. “I just wanna be her best friend.”
Desz was born on Camp Pendleton in California but moved here with family as a baby. She attended James Madison and Westbury high schools and spent four years at Prairie View A&M University studying vocal pedagogy and vocal performance. She says a lack of financial aid prevented her from finishing her degree.
“I’ve only known Houston. I remember living in Arcola, on the southwest side off Airport and Hillcroft,” she says. “It’s my home.”
Moving to LA
Prior to “The Voice,” she was a worship leader at Harvest Point Fellowship Church. All her other time was spent performing at local venues, along with “weddings, receptions, bar mitzvahs, birthday parties, whatever.” She was a regular at Live Oak (formerly Sugarhill Bar & Lounge) on Southmore and sang at Prohibition downtown.
“Wherever I could fit in and there was a mic, I was singing every single night of the week for $75-$150,” Desz says. “I was like, ‘This isn’t enough. I don’t wanna be a lounge singer. I wanna be a star.’ I had gotten complacent in my community. I needed a change of scenery to open my mind to new opportunities.”
She purchased a one-way ticket and moved to
Los Angeles in
2019. Three weeks later, she scraped together money for a mystery audition that read,
“A-list celebrity, must be able to sing and dance.”
It was for a spot in Kanye West’s Sunday Service Choir. “About a week later, I got a text saying, ‘You made the Kanye
West Coachella choir,’ ” Desz says. “I said, ‘ Kanye West? Girl, are you serious?’ ”
The Coachella performance was in April 2019 and quickly turned into a much longer gig. Desz was included on the “Jesus Is Born” album and toured the world with West and the choir. They performed in November 2019 at Lakewood Church. “That experience, you had to be there to really feel the love in the room,” she says.
“It was so amazing to be in my hometown and have all my friends and family out there to see how hard I’ve been working.”
Singing for mom
It’s her biggest credit to date. But “The Voice” is finally turning the solo spotlight on Desz, and she’s determined to make it impactful.
She previously auditioned twice, in Houston and San Antonio, with no success. She was invited to try again and secured a spot on Team
Kelly by singing “Un-Break My Heart” by Toni Braxton, whose songs have never been performed on the show. Likely because they require such a dynamic range.
“Everybody knows this song. And I had the audacity to try to put my own little twist on it. It was definitely nerve-wracking, going in singing such a highpressure song,” she says. “That’s like singing Whitney Houston’s ‘I Will Always Love You.’ You gotta sing it or you’re not gonna sing it.”
Adding to the pressure were COVID-19 guidelines that are still in place on the show. Rapid testing. No studio audience. No hugs or high-fives from coaches.
“We didn’t sing without our masks in open rooms because we didn’t want spit particles flying. It was difficult because, being a vocalist, you wanna just sing. But no, ma’am. Don’t do that,” Desz says. “Then you don’t have an audience to cheer you on and maybe even hide behind. You’re just singing for judges, and they can hear a mask drop on the floor.”
Pandemic worries or not, Desz’s powerful voice has been able to cut through so much reality-TV noise. Her audition is one of the most viewed of the season on YouTube, closing in on 2 million clicks. It’s also a tribute to her mother, whose unexpected death proved a defining moment for an 11-year-old Desz, who had a love for music but struggled with shyness. During a car ride, mom offhandedly asked Desz to sing at her funeral. A month later, she died of a simultaneous heart attack and aneurysm. Desz’s first public performance was at her mother’s funeral.
“It was the most nerve-wracking, the most uncomfortable situation I could ever be put in, and I would never wish that on anyone,” Desz says. “But I did it because I wanted to honor her. It helped me, and every time I get onstage, it is a piercing feeling that I get. This is where I need to be. There has never been anything else I have ever been sure of besides being onstage with a microphone.
“Music healed me. I want to sing and have somebody feel better about themselves. I just want people to pull from me like a well. Just scoop a little out.”