The Voice 28: Kirbi Brings Worship to the Blind Auditions and Gets 4 Chairs!
Week 2 of The Voice Season 28 auditions wrapped up on Tuesday (Oct 7), and it simply wasn’t as strong as the premiere week, especially this 1-hour Tuesday episode. Either way, it did end with a big four-chair turn moment from 24-year-old singer Kirbi.
We are introduced to Kirbi on her mom’s flower farm in Florence, Alabama, which she started when her daughters left for college. The business took off when she started selling eggs and flowers. Kirbi writes songs on the farm and sings to the animals. Her parents are her biggest supporters and were with her for audition day. Kirbi also shareds how her grandmother would skip cancer treatments to come to Kirbi’s shows. She misses her and chose to perform “God Only Knows” by her grandmother’s favorite band, For King & Country.
Kirbi began the song strongly, showing off her unique tone. It has a slightly nasally quality to it that is pleasing, and would be very recordable in the studio. She also displayed a nice head voice. As she showed off her range, she got Niall Horan and Michael Bublé to turn, followed by Reba McEntire and Snoop Dogg. It was evident that she has an emotional connection to the song. Her voice also cracked a few times towards the end, showing that her voice possesses texture that differs from her clear opening vocal. She is a skilled singer, and I don’t believe this song showed even half of what she can do.
“We wait all day for voices like yours”
Niall told her, “We wait all day for voices like yours.” He called her vocal delivery “Next level.” Reba asked what genre of music she likes to sing, and she responded saying she grew up singing both country and blues, but that she puts her faith into her music, which she wanted to show in her audition. Reba told her, “You sound very grounded for as young as you are.”
Michael related to the fact that faith is important to her, and remarked, “I feel like if I turned on the radio and heard you, I would know it is Kirbi.” He believes that she could sing any genre.
Snoop invited mom to come on stage to say, “Your mother did such an amazing job with keeping you grounded and raising you the right way, and she should be commended.” He applauds her for her music choice in a world of negativity.
In the end, Kirbi chose Team Niall. Niall has been a popular choice, with Kirbi marking his 4th four chair turn. Although she didn’t sing country for her audition, this also makes it Niall’s 3rd country leaning act on his team (including Dek of Hearts and Kayleigh Clark). Considering how strong his team is, I expect Reba to steal one in the Battles.
Other than Kirbi, the other singer that showed promise was Team Snoop’s Toni Lorene, a Cocomelon voice actress who sang a rendition of “Cuz I Love You” by Lizzo which showed a lot of potential with her big voice that was full of character.
