‘The Voice’: Bobby Womack’s Niece Wows Coaches with Amy Winehouse Cover (VIDEO)
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The niece of legendary R&B and soul singer Bobby Womack blew the coaches away on Monday’s (October 9) edition of NBC‘s The Voice, earning four chair spins and a guaranteed ticket to the next round.
JaRae Womack, the 35-year-old from West Palm Beach, Florida, opened up about her family’s musical history before she took to the stage for her Blind Audition.
“My grandfather is amazing; he’s Cecil Womack,” she said. “He was in a group called The Valentinos, Sam Cooke started their career. He did his own solo career. And my uncle Bobby Womack, he ventured off and did his own solo career, and now it’s time for JaRae Womack.”
JaRae did her family proud as she delivered a soulful rendition of Amy Winehouse‘s “Back to Black,” earning chair turns from all four coaches and a standing ovation.
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“That was insane,” Niall Horan said, telling the talented singer that she took Winehouse’s iconic track and “completely made it her own.” He even got on his hands and knees and begged JaRae to join his team.
Reba McEntire was up next, and while she said she wasn’t familiar with the song, she “loved the quality of [JaRae’s] voice in it.” She also said the performance “touched her soul,” and she was “honored and blessed to be in your presence to get to listen to you sing.”
John Legend then gave a speech that almost brought JaRae to tears, telling her, “There’s also something about soul that’s genre-less. I couldn’t tell if you were a soul singer, necessarily, but I could tell you were a soulful singer, which means something about it is authentic and true and passionate. You owned the song, you lived in the song, and you were speaking honestly through music.”
Gwen Stefani also had high praise for the performance, saying that JaRae used her voice to “show us your heart, your soul, your emotions, the lyric, the story… that’s the whole reason we do music, right? It was really powerful and really emotional.”
JaRae had a tough decision ahead of her, but in the end, Legend’s heartfelt words won out as she chose to join Team Legend.
Elsewhere, the show announced that going forward, the Tuesday night episodes will move to 9 pm ET on NBC instead of 8 pm, starting tonight, Tuesday, October 10.
