The Voice Alums Wonder if the Show Hindered Their Careers

First, there is season 4 alum, Holly Tucker, who was a country singer on Team Blake Shelton. After leaving the show at Top 6, she immediately got to work, but found record labels weren’t interested.

Immediately after being voted off The Voice, she says she began working on a four-song EP. When she started shopping it around to different record labels, they told her they wanted to see what she could do on her own. “When I say that they said that they wanted to see what I could do on my own, that was essentially saying, ‘We want to sit back and see what you can do. We want to watch you build your team and then we can decide if we want to jump on board,’” she says.

Tucker decided to release a full album independently. Currently, she’s touring across Texas promoting it. Still, the singer is a little frustrated.

“You have The Voice and you had American Idol at that time and you have America’s Got Talent and there’s all these great singers and great entertainers that come off those shows, so [record labels are] just being overrun with people knocking on their doors and I can understand that,” Tucker says. “They can’t be expected to give everybody a record deal that walks through their doors.

“But at the same time, there is some validity in getting on one of those shows and spending however many weeks you did in front of that kind of audience and it does kind of make me scratch my head and wonder why,” she continues. “Why would you not want to capitalize on all of that momentum right there? Even if it’s just for a short contract or something.”

Tucker thinks The Voice should maybe “slow it down” a little. Twelve seasons in six years have flooded the market with alumni. Also, short seasons don’t allow viewers to get to know each singer.

“I think they could slow it down a little bit,” she says. “Like on my season, I think there was a lot more time that had passed in our season as a whole. Now they get to the top eight and they knock four or five of them off at once. They didn’t do that on my season. It was always knocking one or two off at a time and that allowed the audience to get to know the people better and the contestants and everything. That’s one thing I’ve been kind of disappointed in, that the audience doesn’t get to actually know the people at the top.”

Actually, I think the current format–which eliminates one singer a week for the first two or three weeks in live finals competition–gives contestants a bit more exposure than knocking off two or three singers each week. Also, The Voice Save on elimination night gives some singers even more exposure. For instance, season 11’s Aaron Gibson confessed he was grateful for his three week run in the bottom 2, as it gave him more opportunities to sing. Still, she has a point. With only 6-7 weeks of live shows, it can be difficult to get invested in an individual contestant.

Also, Tucker feels having The Voice on her resume has been a liability at times:

“Some people immediately write us off, ‘Oh, you’re just from The Voice.’ There’s tons of people that get on that, so we kind of have to overcomes some stereotypes that other artists might not necessarily have to overcome. And I mean there are times where I feel like there are a lot of marks against me.”

Season 11 singer, Dana Harper, also a member of Team Blake, is staying upbeat about her prospects as a Dallas based singer, but she realizes some viewers are bigger fans of the show (and the coaches) than they are of the contestants.

“The mega fans kind of get weeded out and they’re on to the next season and it’s more about The Voice than the artist,” she says. “Then there are the people and the fans that are really captivated by you and want to see what you’re going to do next.”

Harper plans to release a single in the next few weeks.

Pictured: Dana Harper — (Photo by: Tyler Golden/NBC)

Via Dallas Observer