With only one spot left on Rita Ora’s team, it was going to have to be an electric talent to turn the Voice coach’s chair.
When 19-year-old Theoni Marks took the stage to tackle Adele’s Easy On Me, it was clear that the For You singer had found her missing puzzle piece, sending her straight through to the battles.
WATCH: Theoni Marks Sings Adele’s Easy On Me on The Voice
For the 19-year-old, watching her audition back felt akin to an “out of body experience”.
“It didn’t feel real last night; I didn’t even feel real. It was amazing,” she tells New Idea, adding that she only told a small circle of people about her plans to go on The Voice.
“I had a little watch party with my friends and family. Everyone was so supportive,” she says.
Keeping her stint under wraps was easy enough for Theoni, who had been throwing her nearest and dearest off the scent for years now.
“People have been telling me to go on The Voice for years and I just kept saying: ‘No, it’s not for me’. So no one assumed I was going to do it.”
This made it a welcome surprise for Theoni’s friends when she closed off the blind auditions. But tackling the stage last came with added “pressure” for the 19-year-old, as well as a reduced choice of judges.
While the 19-year-old tells New Idea she had her heart set on Jess if given the option of all four coaches, she describes her coach Rita as “an angel” to work with.
“She’s a beautiful person. You can feel the love radiating from her when you’re around her. She’s very lovely.”
As for how the order on stage was decided, Theoni describes it as a random process.
“They were essentially mixing names up and going: ‘Okay, your turn’. I did know beforehand that there was only one slot left.”
Prior to taking the stage, the contestant described the music industry as “hard”.
“It’s an unspoken thing,” she adds to New Idea. “It has never been a direct hit, which I’m very grateful for. But it’s all the unspoken things like pressure placed on women to be thin, to be well spoken, to be polite, to be girly, whatever womanhood is – whatever that means.”
She continues: “I’ve never felt like I fit the mould. I’ve never felt like I could just slip right in and be one of those pop girlies. I’ve never felt like that ever in my life.”
Theoni goes on to emphasise that in her lifetime she’s only ever seen one artist represent her on stage, which is the musician she chose to cover in her audition – Adele.
“Now that she’s lost her weight, people are being so uncalled for and rude and making it a weird thing,” Theoni says, adding she wants “more representation” in the industry.
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