photo: Derick TortorellaFor weeks during Season 1 of "The Voice," it seemed that Javier Colon had the competition in the bag, with Dia Frampton being the only contestant who might be able to pull off an upset. But it was scrappy rocker chick Beverly McClellan who really embodied the show's original premise. The idea of "The Voice," with its blind auditions, was that the winner would be simply the singer with the most killer vocals, whether that singer looked like Adam Lambert or Susan Boyle. This point was hammered home when Bev first auditioned; I can still recall with amusement the startled looks on the coaches' faces when they swiveled their chairs around and saw a 42-year-old, bald-headed, neck-tattooed woman in lumberjack attire growling before them, looking as different from the typical 2011 pop starlet as conceivable.
photo: Derick TortorellaBeverly was what the show was supposed to be all about. She may not have looked the part of a typical ProTooled pop star, but when she dueted with her proud mentor, Christina Aguilera, on Xtina's empowerment anthem "Beautiful," and confidently belted out the line "I am beautiful, no matter what they say," it was the most touching, goosebumpy moment of the entire season. And it was 100 percent believable. It was indeed a beautiful moment, and it was then that I knew Beverly was a winner, no matter how the voting panned out.
Beverly has since released a new album, Fear Nothing, the title of which is of course her motto in life (it's tattooed on her chest!). It's a life philosophy that has taken her far, on "The Voice" and beyond. The album is feisty, gutsy, bluesy, and very Beverly, plain and simple.
Beverly recently came by Yahoo! Music to perform some songs off Fear Nothing, and talk about her long, strange "Voice" journey. Check out the awesome results here!
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Dia Frampton releases debut video