Okay, I watch a lot of TV.  So sue me.

Tuesday night’s blind audition session of the Voice (2 hrs.) concluded with a performance by Maiya Sykes.  Her exact age was carefully concealed, but circumstantial evidence would put her around forty.  She is from Los Angeles.  She has been a wedding singer (“If you’re Armenian and were married in California in the last five years, I probably sang at your wedding!”), a session and backup singer (toured with Macy Gray for six years), and she has given lessons in vocal technique.   Her dad is a professional saxophonist, singer, and drummer, and her mother sang backup with Earth Wind and Fire among others.

Maiya went to Yale and triple majored in music composition, political science, and Afro-American studies, as well as being pre-law.  Her mother nudged her to try a music career over law.  She has a winning personality: humility, humor, and wisdom.  Clearly lot of living, in contrast to the talented 15 year-olds in the competition.

Anyway, go on Youtube or the Voice website and watch Maiya kill Sam Smith’s hit “Stay with me”.  She lays it all out there.  In many ways her performance is better than the (stellar) original.

All of the horses aren’t in yet, but my money’s on Maiya…