Perseverance is key in the music industry, a sentiment many contestants from The Voice know all too well.
Fans of the show have seen a number of former stars audition for the series more than once, in fact, last year a number of ‘All Stars’ were brought back for a second chance.
WATCH: Ella Monnery auditions for The Voice 2020
This year, there’s just one returnee so far, Ella Monnery, who is back after an unfortunate and unforeseeable twist last year saw her drop out of the competition.
The New Zealander auditioned for season eight of The Voice, before her powerful vocals landed her a place on Team Kelly Rowland.
Ella even made it through the brutal battle rounds before heading home while the show was on production break before March 2020, when life as we all knew it changed.
“I remember when we were filming the blinds [blind auditions], we were all talking about this virus overseas. And two weeks later, the whole world had shut down,” Ella, 24, told TV WEEK.
The production team tried to get Ella back into the country, but with hard border closures between Australia and New Zealand, it was impossible.
She held out hope right up until she got the devastating call from a producer.
“They said ‘We’re so sorry, there’s nothing we can do,” she recalls. “I was sitting in the car eating chicken nuggets, but I just started crying.”
Outside of the show Ella has an impressive resume starring as the lead in annual concert Coca-Cola Christmas in the Park, perform her own Diva Tribute shows on cruise ships and has even recently recorded her own debut single, Work That.
Refusing to give up on her dream, Ella is returning to the show and admitted to TV WEEK it’s even more nerve-racking this time around.
“There was definitely more fear of, ‘What if I don’t turn a chair?’ and ‘Oh my God – I’m going to be a failure,'” she said.
“Last year, I was seeing how I went as the girl from New Zealand, but this year, I’m the girl with unfinished business who’s going to fight for what she wants.”
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