Former Backup Singer Ms. Monét Owns ‘The Voice’ Stage with Powerful Steve Winwood Cover

It was another night of fierce competition during the blind audition rounds of NBC’s reality singing competition The Voice.

Former backup singer Ms. Monét wowed the judges with a powerful cover of the Steve Winwood classic “Higher Love” on the October 3 episode.

It might have taken judges Gwen Stefani and Reba McEntire a minute to turn their chairs, but once they did, the competition was on to snag the powerhouse vocalist.

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Niall Horan kicked off the comments with high praise. “God, that was incredible. The only reason I didn’t turn is I didn’t feel like I could be of help,” he said. “I mean, it’s such a technical voice, and there’s so much power and control, and that first note there in the chorus is a tough one to hit. It’s insane. But I’ll tell you what: look who’ve you got!”

McEntire followed: “Wow, that was wonderful. I love your range, your energy. You seem very polished and you sang your butt off, so way to go on that. “

Stefani then made her pleas to score the singer for her team. “Now that you say that you’re a background singer, it kinda excites me because I think that’s the one thing I feel that I could help you with,” she said. “It’s frustrating, I think to have a voice that’s that good and never really have your star shine by yourself, in front, and I think a lot of that just has to do with letting your full personality and your individuality come through. I would love to bring that out and make you shine. “

In a shocking moment, Ms. Monét revealed that she previously worked with Stefani on her 2017 holiday album, You Make It Feel Like Christmas.

John Legend rounded out the judges’ feedback. “One of the things about being a great backup singer and a great supporting vocalist with other artists is that you’re very versatile, you’re very gifted,” he said. “Whatever anybody asks of you, you can hit it. It’ll just be about defining yourself as an artist and as an individual because you deserve the spotlight.”

Ms. Monét happily joined Team McEntire, and the rest is becoming history. The Voice airs on Monday and Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.

Photo by: Greg Gayne/NBC