The Voice officially returned to NBC on March 6th, and it is clear that Season 23 will feature some of the strongest vocalists to date!
After two episodes of the show’s ICONIC blind auditions, one artist has already made her mark on the Emmy Award-winning musical competition series, amassing nearly one million views on YouTube for her stunning rendition of “Both Sides Now” by Joni Mitchell.
This powerful vocalist is none other than 24-year-old Kala Banham, and she is definitely a force to be reckoned with.
In an exclusive interview, Celeb Secrets reporter Melanie Rooten sat down with Banham to discuss all things surrounding her viral audition and more. The budding songstress even spilled some behind-the-scenes secrets regarding The Voice that you need to check out for yourself.
As a big fan of The Voice, Banham has always dreamed of auditioning for the show. On February 19th, the Florida native took to Instagram to break the exciting news that her dream had become a reality.
“Many of you know that I’ve been attempting to get on #TheVoice for YEARS,” she wrote on social media. “So to say I finally made it to that stage is an absolute dream come true. Thank you so so much for all of the love and support so far! Now place your bets: Did I get a chair to turn?”
SPOILER ALERT 🚨 The answer is yes!
Although Banham managed to get three of the four judges to turn their chairs during her show-stopping audition, the talented singer-songwriter revealed that the experience was “absolutely the most terrifying thing [she’s] ever experienced.”
“You can hear a pin drop. It is silent and there’s so many people and it’s dark and there’s just spotlights on each of those chairs,” said Banham about the intense process. “You can’t hear anything or see even a glimpse of anyone, so it’s definitely a really intimidating experience.”
She continued, “the second that I saw someone turn around, I just immediately blacked out. I’m so glad it was recorded and aired on national television, because you could have easily convinced me that it didn’t actually happen and I hallucinated the entire thing.”
Aside from her phenomenal vocals, Banham’s blind audition had a little bit of ✨extra✨ excitement.
First-time judge Niall Horan used his one and only block of the season to knock Kelly Clarkson out of the running, leaving only himself and Chance The Rapper as the judges for Banham to choose from.
When asked about the experience, the 24-year-old shared, “You know, as a fan of the show, I had always watched people’s auditions where a block was used and I would always feel so bad for the artist. I’d be like, ‘Oh my gosh, they probably really wanted to work with that person! Like, now they don’t have the opportunity to choose someone,’ and I honestly had that mindset up until the very moment.”
“I didn’t realize that Niall had used his block until I saw Kelly’s face, and she stood up and was like, ‘No!’ Even in that moment, the fact that, you know, they only get one to use for the entirety of the season, and it’s Niall’s first season, so the fact that he heard my voice and thought that there was something unique and special enough to where he wanted it so badly that he would use his one block for me, like all of that thought of like, ‘Oh my gosh, I feel so bad for that person,’ it immediately went out the door,” the promising artist revealed.
Ultimately, Niall’s decision to use his block “was a huge factor in deciding to go with his team at the end of the day” as opposed to Chance, even though Kelly was originally Banham’s number one choice.
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“I love Kelly Clarkson. She is one of the best vocalists of all time, and I don’t have any technical training at all. Everything that I’ve done has just been self-taught… While I’m proud of myself for how far I’ve come, what I was really looking forward to about this show specifically is that you work with these people who have that technical training, who know exactly what they’re talking about, and for that reason specifically, I thought that Kelly would’ve been a great coach for me,” the Florida native revealed.
Regardless of how it went down, Banham is EXTREMELY happy with having Niall as her coach!
“Being successful on the show, you wanna be with a coach who’s really passionate about you, and so even though [Kelly] was technically my number one choice going into it, I said that whoever gave the most passionate pitch, whoever seemed the most excited about working with me, specifically as an artist, was the one that I was gonna go with,” which ended up being the former One Direction member himself.
When asked about working with first-time judge, Banham said that he is “hands down the most involved” out of all of the judges this season, going on to list some of the wonderful things Horan has done to go the extra mile.
“He sent us all emails like personally after our auditions… he set up individual Zoom calls with each of us just to try to get to understand us a little bit more in terms of what we want for ourselves, not only on the show, but as artists in general, so he is such a kind person,” she uttered. “He is so humble and so sweet. He’s everything that he seems to be.”
Overall, when asked about how the positive feedback and overnight success has been so far, Banham shared that “It’s been absolutely unreal.”
“I mean, I’m definitely my harshest critic… I was really scared for it to be on TV and to see what people would think of it, so I absolutely did not expect the amount of love that so many people have shown it so far,” she revealed to us. “It’s amazing and really humbling, and I’m so, so grateful for it.”
Is anyone else locking in Kala Banham as their winner of The Voice Season 23?? Because we definitely are 🙋♀️
Check out our full interview below, and don’t forget to tune in to NBC on March 27th to see the infamous battle rounds begin. Afterwards, be sure to let us know your thoughts on rising superstar by either leaving a reaction at the bottom of the post or by sending us a tweet at @celebsecrets.
