GLEN COVE, NY — A former Glen Cove resident is making her community proud. Shye was the runner-up on NBC’s The Voice this week.
“It was surprisingly such a great process,” Shye, 18, told Patch about the experience. “I got so much out of it.”
She grew up in Glen Cove and went to Glen Cove High School until transferring for her senior year when the family moved to Pennsylvania. Most of her family remains on Long Island.
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It was the first time she tried out for the show.
“I was bored,” she laughed. “I really felt like I had nothing to lose at that point.”
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Shye blew away the judges, who all turned their chairs in the blind audition, with a rendition of “Superman.”
“It is just so rich and creamy,” Reba McEntire said on the show. “Oh, I just loved it.”
Ultimately, Shye would pick Michael Bublé for her team.
“You have this wonderful range,” he told her. “You’re so sweet and I’d love to take the journey with you.”
But as the judges, including Snoop Dogg and Gwen Stefani, showed support for Shye, the singer was overwhelmed.
“I don’t think there was a single thought behind my eyes,” she said. “I had to keep singing and pretend that didn’t happen.”
She hoped for one or two judges to praise her performance, but was”beside myself” from the clean sweep.
Shye, who has been singing since she was six, didn’t expect anything to come from her initial appearance on “The Voice.” But she admits now, “it’s insane.”
There was no disappointment in falling short in the finale. Shye said she wanted (and voted for) winner Sofronio Vasquez.
“He really deserves it. I’m just glad Team Bublé was the one and the two,” Shye said.
But Shye did connect with the judges at the start and the audience thereafter. Her powerful, soulful style belied her 17 years (at the time).
Even before the audition aired, one person who was in the studio audience messaged her that it was such an emotional song. “That’s all I could ever hope for.”
Aside from delivering impressive vocals, for Shye it’s all about “being able to connect with the audience on another level.”
Having performed so well on “The Voice,” Shye is rethinking her future that had her becoming an environmental scientist. Instead, she’ll focus on her music career “and maybe even acting.”
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