It's hard to believe this girl was 14 years old when she soulfully belted Labrinth and Emeli Sandé’s “Beneath Your Beautiful" before coaches Kelly Clarkson, Blake Shelton, Alicia Keys, and Adam Levine in her blind auditions. Now, after winning Season 14, it's obvious that she will succeed in the music industry — with incredible support from her mentors and family members, The Voice winner Brynn Cartelli is ready for her first album. In an interview with Bustle, she talks about her journey through the competition and plans for her future in music.
First of all, she says she didn't expect to make it as far as she did, let alone win the competition. "It’s really crazy — pretty mind-blowing," she says. "I never expected it at all. I’m just really thankful to be here and I’m thankful to everyone … who has been supporting me and buying my music. It’s been a dream come true and I never imagined that this would be the outcome."
The music she is referring to is her portfolio of 11 performances on The Voice, which can be purchased on iTunes. One of those songs is her newly released single called "Walk My Way," and, not to speak to soon, but it has "summer jam" written all over it. People are already beginning to speculate that Cartelli's victory will be unlike any of The Voice winners' to date — that she has the real potential to become a mainstream pop star. "Walk My Way" was written by Julia Michaels, Justin Tranter, and Nick Monson, who all have either performed or written for the mainstream. And after Cartelli sang the track live during the finale, it rocketed to No. 1 on iTunes.
“‘Walk My Way’ is something you would hear on the radio right now,” Cartelli explained on the show. “Just knowing that this is something current, this is something that people are going to be able to jam out to with their friends — it makes me pumped up to sing it.”
Soon enough, though, fans will be able to listen to that song and more when Cartelli releases her first album, which she says will hopefully have a dark soul-pop sound, inspired by some of her favorite artists at the moment, Sia and Dua Lipa. However, she's open to expanding on that. "I also hope I can pursue whatever I feel sounds right for me," she says. "I could do an album with a country track on it, we could do a pop track on it." She says work on her album will be "starting very soon. I’m very excited to get in the studio and meet the writers and work with them and create all the magic that I can," she says.
As much as she loves singing radio bangers, more importantly, she wants her album to tell a story. "The songs I write are stories," she says. "I’m a storyteller at heart. Music can bring any part of feeling out of anyone, and I want them to cry, I want them to have a song they can jam out to in the car with their friends … any situation, I want to create a moment for it." Reminder that she's not even old enough to drive yet — like what? "I just want my album to have a whole story to it," she says. "I want it to be a journey of why I’m here and how I got here — how I’m still the same girl that I was like nine months ago."
One has to wonder, when someone checks such a big dream of their list at such a young age, what could possibly be next? For Cartelli, it's appearing on The Tonight Show. "This is like my ultimate dream," she says, withholding laughter. "Winning The Voice is cool, but this is my dream dream. I wanna be on the segment of “Ew!” with Jimmy Fallon … it’s like my favorite thing of all time." Well, if she can win a nationwide televised singing competition, surely Fallon could squeeze her in.
For updates regarding her upcoming album, follow Cartelli on Twitter and Instagram and get ready to see her career soar even further.
