by BETHANY LU Staff Writer
Twenty-year-old contestant Christina Grimmie was saved by Adam Levine in the second battle of season six’s “The Voice” on March 31, 2014.
Grimmie battled against 25-year-old Sam Behymer, an indie-pop singer, in a duet to “Counting Stars” by One Republic. Both Grimmie and Beyhmer were part of Levine’s team.
After the performance, Levine claimed that both of them did a phenomenal job, considering the tough rehearsals and the difficult song choice. He finally chose Grimmie to stay on his team and advance to the next round of live performances.
“Adam Levine was clever to choose her. I can see her going to the finals and maybe even winning this season,” says freshman Kaitlyn Guo.
A month ago in late February, Grimmie’s blind audition for “The Voice” wowed the audience in her rendition of Miley Cyrus’s “Wrecking Ball”. All four judges hit their buzzers, and she picked Levine as her mentor.
“Her audition was amazing because she had her “moment” not only once, but twice in the song. That made all the coaches turn their chair for her,” says freshman Natalia Dzietczyk.
Grimmie’s vocal success, however, does not begin here. It started in 2009 when she posted her first YouTube video on her channel, zeldaxlove64. She covered “Don’t Wanna Be Torn” by Miley Cyrus, instantly gaining thousands of views in days.
In 2011, she placed number two at the top five of the MyYouTube competition, beating artists such as Justin Bieber, Rihanna, and Nicki Minaj.
Currently, Grimmie has 2.5 million subscribers and 246 million video views.
Brian Teefey, the stepfather of actress and singer Selena Gomez, discovered Grimmie. He met with her in May 2010 and became her manager once her popularity grew on YouTube. She signed with the Creative Artists Agency, who has been associated with singers such as Chris Brown and Christina Aguilera.
As a close friend to Gomez, Grimmie toured six weeks with her, opening for Selena Gomez & the Scene in the “We Own the Night Tour.”
“I think I started watching Christina Grimmie’s videos when I was 12. I couldn’t believe how quick her popularity grew in such a short period of time. She even got to tour with Selena Gomez,” says freshman Christina Yang.
On June 14, 2011, she finally released an album titled “Find Me”, which included her debut single “Advice” and seven other songs. It immediately became number 35 on the US Billboard 200 chart, top six in the US Independent albums, and number 11 in the Billboard Digital Albums chart. “Advice” also was released for airplay on Radio Disney in 2011 and peaked number three at Radio Disney’s top 30 Countdown.
Grimmie released another album on August 6, 2013 entitled “With Love.”
“She definitely has a lot of previous experience in the past, so many people will be supporting her,” says Dzietczyk.
Round two battles of “The Voice” left only 10 contestants on the show. Eliminations will continue on April 7, 2014 to choose those who will start competing at the live shows.
Come out and support Christina Grimmie on “The Voice” which airs every Monday and Tuesday on NBC at 8/7 central.
How far do you think Christina Grimmie will go?