Lily Elise Has Still Got the Voice

After she had to withdraw from USC and was holed up in a hotel room 24-hours a day for close to a month, Drake graduate Lily Elise couldn’t tell all her friends or family what she was doing.

“I think at that point people had deduced,” she said.

They were able to make that educated guess because they’d seen the 20-year-old San Anselmo native’s face all over the TV , where she made it through the first two elimination rounds and onto the live shows before being eliminated as the finalists were narrowed down to the final eight. The winner receives $100,000 and a recording deal with Universal Republic.

“It was the most nerve-wracking experience of my life,” she said. “It’s like a pressure-cooker.”

Lily Elise, who graduated from Drake in 2009 and sang with the a cappella group ‘Til Dawn while she was there, auditioned for The Voice back in early February after failing to make the cut for another singing TV show – The Glee Project. But, it wasn’t until May that friends and family were able to finally see on TV what she’d been doing for the past few months. 

The NBC hit show started for viewers with blind auditions, where the singers sang to the back of the judges/coaches chairs and hoped to get Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera, Blake Shelton or Cee Lo Green to turn around and pick them.

“Singing to the back of chairs is hard,” said Lily Elise. At first, she didn’t make that cut and thought her ride was over before it barely started. But, having gotten a chance to sing in front of Christina Aguilera – a long-time idol – was more than enough. 

Then, sitting backstage, she was told to wait, don’t leave yet, she might get a second chance. She was told to pick another song, go out and sing it -- right now. And, this time, .

“It was super emotional,” she said, both for her and for her parents, who had been flown down to support her.

The string of auditions really started for Lily Elise, though, three months before that. Once she made it through the first few rounds of general auditions, the remaining people who would appear in that first show of blind auditions were sequestered in a hotel – making it hard to go to classes.

The day before the San Anselmo singer competed in round two, known as the battle round because two singers faced off in one song, Lily Elise withdrew from USC’s inaugural Pop Music program.

“Lily’s always wanted to be a singer and you can’t discourage that,” said her mom, Tori, who joked she was lucky Lily went to college at all, instead of just running off to be a singer.

But, once Lily Elise had made the commitment to withdraw from school for the competition, she knew she had to win the battle round to make it worth it.

“I went in ready to fight,” she said. 

After singing Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone,” . 

Though only a week passed between the two episodes on TV, a month passed in real time, during which Lily Elise came back to Marin, but couldn’t tell friends or family (beyond her parents and sister) what had happened.

“For my mom not to tell her mom, that was hard,” she said. 

Now, everyone knows.

After Lily Elise appeared , singing “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and a group performance of “Lady Marmalade” with Christina Aguilera, she became a trending topic on twitter worldwide, received hundreds of emails and phone calls from long-lost relatives she joked.

She even got her own haters – anonymous people who left comments online about her. 

At first, that aspect was hard, but Lily Elise quickly realized that if she wanted to be a pop star than she was going to have to learn to deal with it.

“You don’t get to have haters, unless they have something to hate you for,” she said.

And, none of those haters got to sing on TV with their long-time idol. The “Lady Marmalade” rendition was widely admired and a high point for Lily Elise. Even her mom knew what a big moment it was – seeing her daughter live out her dream.

“It was one of my most emotional moments,” said Tori.

Lily Elise didn’t make the cut from the first live round, when half the contestants were eliminated, but she isn’t down about it.

“I’ve been for my whole life waiting to be a singer and to be in this situation,” she said. 

Now, she’s writing and recording her own songs to release a short CD and working to take advantage of all the new doors that are opening for her. (She already released an EP with her band at USC, The Beat Advocate, but wants to branch out on her own.)

And you can be sure that many of those new songs she writes will be about one of the biggest experiences of her life.

“You learn so much about yourself,” she said, when you have to be with yourself (and the other contestants) in a hotel all the time, work hard, perform on demand and rise to the pressure – and be a role model for other up and coming singers.

When she was seven-years-old, Lily Elise saw ‘Til Dawn perform and knew she wanted to join the group one day. She ended up singing with them from eighth-grade through senior year. Now, the kids at Youth in Arts, which sponsors ‘Til Dawn’ were seen on local NBC gathered around the TV watching Lily Elise. And, she’s sure they will again one day.

“You haven’t seen the last of me,” she said.