Singers from Texas ecliped on ‘The Voice’
Texans Val T. Webb and Frank Garcia delivered powerful performances in their knockouts rounds on “The Voice” Monday night, but both ultimately were sent home.
Garcia, who is from Roma in the Rio Grande Valley and competed on Team Dan + Shay, was up first. He chose to sing José José's “El Triste.”
“I competed in another TV show singing this song and online I was getting cyberbullied a lot because I was very feminine,” he told the coaches and mega mentor Keith Urban. “I was in the closet. Now I'm ready to sing the song the way I want.”
After hearing Garcia, Urban said he had star power: “If there were 10 people on that stage, you'd be looking at Frank.”
Garcia sang in Spanish. Urban told him that he needed to convey the meaning of the song through his facial expressions and body language to make sure the audience understood it.
In his performance, Garcia moved with confidence, capturing the rich emotions of the song and earning loud, sustained cheers from the crowd.
Then his teammate, Olivia Rubini, took her turn in the spotlight, singing Elton John's “Tiny Dancer.”
John Legend and Reba Mcentire gave Rubini the edge. Chance the Rapper — who told Garcia he had a “a very robust, strong sound, but it's also gently dramatic. It's like a telenovela” — gave Garcia the win.
Ultimately, Dan + Shay chose Rubini to move on to the playoffs.
Webb, a background vocalist and worship leader who lives in New Braunfels and competed on Legend's team, chose Anita Baker's “Sweet Love,” which she described as a love song for her husband, a fellow performer.
“It's definitely a little added
pressure to sing in front of Keith Urban,” she said.
Urban and Legend both noted that taking on an Anita Baker song was a risky choice because it's so vocally challenging.
“It's not easy to sing Anita Baker, but if you do it right, you're going to make the audience very happy,” Legend told her.
He also encouraged her to slow down as she sang to allow the audience to luxuriate in her voice.
During the knockout, she seemed to put her whole body into the song.
She went up against Nathan
Chester, who sang Elvin Bishop's “Fooled Around and Fell in Love.”
The coaches said they were very close. Mcentire said she'd pick both of them. Shay Mooney gave Chester the edge, and Chance didn't give a recommendation, though he noted Webb seemed to have some pitch issues early in the song.
Legend gave the win to Chester.
A few minutes after that, Webb posted a lengthy note to her Facebook page, underscoring how positive the experience had
been and how much she had gotten out of working with Legend and Chance, who was her original coach. It also quoted Proverbs 31:28: “Her children arise and call her blessed.”
“Please know that I do not feel defeated, “Webb wrote. “This is an experience that I got to live out and share all because I did something afraid that I never thought I'd do after being pushed and motivated by my son who thought I belong on world stages and screens.
“That in itself is the honor and win for me.”