Megan Moroney‘s “Tennessee Orange” has been a breakout country hit this year. Moroney’s smoky vocals and lyrics about a relationship that took her by surprise earned her the No. 1 spot on Country Aircheck. It’s been so impactful that a contestant on The Voice decided to use the tune as their Blind Audition song, hoping to find similar success on the show with it.
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The contestant, Claire Heilig, stepped out on stage, ready to wow the country-minded audience with a fringe dress and twangy vocals. Her grit was a perfect match for “Tennessee Orange.” Like Moroney, Heilig has a passion to her voice.
I met somebody and he’s got blue eyes / He opens the door and he don’t make me cry / He ain’t from where we’re from / But he feels like home, yeah / He’s got me doin’ things I’ve never done, Heilig sang.
By the time she hit her final note, coach Gwen Stefani turned around to express interest in having the singer on her team. Though the other judges stayed facing away from Heilig, they gave her encouraging feedback.
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“I thought your performance was lovely,” John Legend told Heilig. “My favorite part was how raspy your voice is–that little grit in your voice. I’m so excited for you. You get to work with Gwen Stefani.”
“I’ve got a Barbie doll on my team you guys,” Stefani told the other coaches. “I’m so excited, you’re so cute.”
Horan went on to tell Heilig how lucky Gwen was to have her on her team. “I’m just lucky Reba’s team was full,” Stefani added, nodding to the fact that the country queen, McEntire, didn’t turn around for Heilig.
“The first chord you started singing, I thought, ‘Oh man,'” McEntire said. “Your little gravely voice, it’s really sexy. Your range is wonderful. Best of luck to you and welcome to The Voice.”
Check out Heilig’s full performance, below.
The success of “Tennessee Orange” took Moroney by surprise as the song was released on an as-needed basis for a collaboration for Spotify.
“The only reason we released it was because Spotify gave us an opportunity where I needed to release an original song and the timing happened to be football season,” she told American Songwriter earlier this year. “In the first five days, I had a million streams and my numbers weren’t like that on any of my other stuff.”
Photo by: Greg Gayne/NBC
