By Karen Moul Last season on
The Voice, Daniel Rosa didn’t make it past the blind auditions. When none of the judges turned around, he asked what he could do better, and they suggested he work on his pitch.
Rosa took the advice to heart and when the
Voice powers-that-be invited him back to try again in season three, he was ready.
“The greatest thing that ever could have happened to me,” he says, “was to not make it on the show last season. I was very inspired to move on.
“I needed a lot of work. I learned that I needed to trust myself. I knew that I needed to work on my stage presence. I still do,” confesses Rosa, who admits that this week’s episode was the first time he had ever performed with a mic in his hand.
“I was terrified holding that microphone, so I didn't last season and this time I did. So it was really liberating.”
It wasn’t just Rosa’s new-found poise and confidence that drew notice; his arrangement of Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know” caught the attention of Cee Lo and Blake, both of whom spun their chairs and made a play to add him to their teams. But the real highlight was seeing all four judges’ obvious delight in Rosa’s return.
In the end, Rosa went with Team Cee Lo, and he looks forward to the battle rounds.
“I don't know what I'm going to bring to this next season,” he muses. “I just know that last season helped me so much to get here so I feel like a completely different person from last season. So I think that's really going to help me through.”
Cee Lo also added R&B singer Trevin Hunte while Adam selected Bryan Keith and Joe Kirkland. Christina went with Devyn DeLoera and De'Borah. The big winner was Blake, who snagged two of the most telented singers of the evening, Scottish rocker Terry McDermott and yodeler Gracia Harrison.