It's all live: Stephanie Rice on 'The Voice'

Native songbird needs support as live voting begins Monday

Tune into NBC's "The Voice" on Monday and vote for Texarkana native Stephanie Rice.
Tune into NBC's "The Voice" on Monday and vote for Texarkana native Stephanie Rice.

Texarkana native Stephanie Rice has parlayed her large-hearted emotions, smarts and unabashed love for singing to make it to the live voting rounds of "The Voice."

Courtesy of a steal from Alicia Keys this past week, the 27-year-old Houston resident now moves forward as a new member of Team Alicia. Live voting starts with Monday's episode.

"I couldn't be here without everyone's love and support," Rice said about the hometown love she's received. She believes her dreams are coming true because of the encouragement she's felt from fans, including Texarkana.

And to them, Rice says, "I think the most critical and crucial thing to share with everyone is that you guys hold the keys." Tune in to Monday night's show, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. local time on NBC, and vote.

Rice urges her supporters to vote during the short window of time votes can be cast on Monday. Generally on "The Voice," voting can be done at the show's official website, using "The Voice" app or on iTunes with a performer's eligible songs. But Rice said Monday's voting will be done through the "Voice" app and Twitter. She encourages fans to Tweet #VoicePlayoffsStephanie.

During this past Monday's elimination round episode, Rice performed a powerful rendition of "Safe and Sound," but she wasn't chosen by her coach, Gwen Stefani, to move forward.

In the battle and knockout rounds, admitted Rice, there's always a strong chance you'll be sent home. She wasn't thinking about that in the moment she was singing, though, instead focusing on how great she felt to sing a song she loves so much.

"I'm just so blessed I get to do this for someone," she recalled feeling. But then the moment of truth arrived, and Rice knew she'd have to make peace with it, as she put it.

Keys, though, saved Rice from going home.

"Honestly, I was really hoping for Alicia because I felt a really strong connection with Alicia even though I wasn't on her team," Rice recalled this week while enjoying the Thursday morning on her Los Angeles hotel room's porch just days after the episode ran. She was still taking it all in.

Rice had been walking off "The Voice" stage, feeling that she wasn't quite ready to go home, when she heard Alicia hit that steal button.

"I dropped to my knees," Rice admitted about her reaction. She suddenly found herself in a joyful moment, then exclaimed how thankful she was for Alicia's decision.

Before that, she said, "there wasn't any more glimmer of hope for me." Stefani had chosen Troy Ramey, a singer with undeniable vocal talents, to move on. Rice is impressed with his voice's strength and its raspy sound, so she respects Stefani's decision. In that moment when she seemed to lose and he won, she hugged Ramey.

And it was obviously a tough choice for Stefani, who nevertheless helped nurture in Rice much of what "The Voice" hopeful gained in recent weeks: confidence.

What she felt a kinship with in Gwen, Rice said, is that the superstar singer had been told how different her voice sounded. She was told she wasn't marketable. Similarly, Rice recalled being told that, too, when she was young, that she sounded weird but not in a good way.

"It scarred me," Rice said, reflecting on a painful episode from her youth. She didn't sing publicly for a while because of it. With this connection, though, Rice gained a lot from Stefani.

"She really instilled in me this self-confidence that cannot be shaken now," Rice said, who, with a laugh, added she has joke puns run around in her head along the lines of having "No Doubt."

About being with Keys now, Rice believes it was meant to happen this way. "I can see how it played out organically," she reflected.

In Keys, she sees the type of artist she wants to be. When she sees Keys perform, she feels connected. And she sees a singer who empowers women, a special and crucial thing in this world now, Rice said.

"I feel honored to even be in her presence, much less be on her team," the Texarkana native said, adding, "I've only been on her team for a short amount of time, but I feel like this new door has been opened and I feel so free."

Now, Rice vows to make Keys' decision worth something and to work harder and harder from here on out in "The Voice." She's also mindful of what her fans have given her. That's the motivation and inspiration to give it all every second of every day, she said.

"I have been accepted with this overwhelming amount of love and support," she said. This has, she believes, 100 percent carried her through it all in her quest to share her heart through music. That's her dream.

She's learned something in what's happened so far, and she wants to share that realization with everyone, putting it this way: "Every time I thought, 'I can't,' I did."

On this show, Rice said, you can go easy or go hard. She strives to do it the hard way, even though fear sets in and she has to dig deep. It's a scary thing, sharing your heart, she says. For the knockout round, she picked the rawest song she could, she believes.

But she also believes the way to do it is to make the hardest choice and then deliver, because connecting with people is important. Now, she wants to keep sharing her message of hope on "The Voice."

"I'm loving every second of it and I'm not ready to go home," Rice said, "so please vote."

(On the Net: NBC.com/the-voice.) 

Upcoming Events