(Jamaica Observer) TESSANNE Chin left viewers of The Voice in awe last night after an unbelievable performance of the Whitney Houston classic I Have Nothing that also had her coach, Adam Levine, declaring that she was the winner of the NBC TV talent show.
Within hours Jamaicans and the rest of the world will know whether Levine’s prediction will hold true, as the results will be aired tonight in second of a two-part finalé from Universal Studios in Los Angeles.
Chin got the show going and set the bar for the other three finalists with her rendition of Pink’s Try, the track which caught the ear of all four coaches during the show’s blind auditions on September 24.
She stepped up her game during the next performance — a duet with Levine of The Beatles’ Let It Be. The highlight of that performance was the infusion of a reggae beat to which Chin ‘skanked’ away and their harmonies brought the house down.
Before her final performance, Chin joined her fellow finalists Will Champlin and Jacquie Lee in a soulful rendition of The Jackson 5 classic I’ll Be There, on which she again stamped her classy vocals.
Clearly saving the best for last, coach Levine chose I have Nothing, most likely not even recalling that Houston ironically had often been referred to as the voice.
He described this as the biggest challenge he was giving to Chin, knowing her potential, even as Chin stated that she was sceptical about choosing a song by this iconic artiste.
“When I first heard I was doing Whitney my first instinct was… ah not doing Whitney,” she said.
All her fears were clearly left on the rehearsal room floor as once she stepped onto the stage, robed in red, Chin owned the track from start to finish, hitting heady notes in the process and coming to a pyrotechnics-accented finalé.
Chin’s performance hit the iTunes top 100 chart within an hour of the performance entering at number 23 and up to press time last night jumped to number 11.
Her duet with Levine stood at number 24; Bridge Over Troubled Water was at 42; and her performance of Try was at number 65.
The social media world lit up following her performance.
CNN late night anchor Piers Morgan offered his support for the Jamaican singer via Twitter. He tweeted: “Beat dem bad @Tessanne ! #Jamaica #Voice”.
This was retweeted more that 2,000 times within the first hour of its posting. Former finalist Kat Robichaud also reached out to Chin via Twitter: “The #voicegraveyard is crying right now. We’re all overwhelmed by @Tessanne. We love you. @NBCTheVoice #VoiceFinale”.
Co-anchor of the fourth hour of the Today Show Hoda Kotb, was also on Twitter with her support for Chin. “U watching @NBCTheVoice ?? #ofcourseyouare. — @Tessanne was great!!!,” she added.
As usual, Chin used Twitter to thank her supporters.
“Thank you so much for all the love and support on this journey everyone!!! Please vote :) and buy…” she tweeted.
Meanwhile, the mood at Chin’s St Andrew family home last night was celebratory.
Scores of relatives and close friends — many clad in black Team Tessanne T-shirts — turned up to cheer on the Hideaway singer.
Chin’s cousin, Priscilla Lee — who was in Los Angeles for last week’s performance — said the singer was not overwhelmed going into last night’s finals.
“She doesn’t feel pressured. She is enjoying it wholly and she has her entire family support,” Lee told the Jamaica Observer.
Chin’s immediate family were in Los Angeles for the finals.
“She is just thankful for having reached this far, and the support she gotten from Jamaica overall.”
Lee said there were no talks as yet of impending record deals.
“That will definitely come after the competition though,” she said.
