Cherie Oakley - Battle Round Thoughts

Read about Cherie Oakley's thoughts immediately following the Battle Rounds on NBC's "The Voice"

Battle Rounds
By Cherie Oakley on June 1, 2011 5:00 AM
Yesterday was very emotional. I got up and got ready early. Before I knew it, the battle rounds were here. Just like that, all this waiting, all this work and boom there it is. I wonder if everyone likes the fact that Lily and I get along or not. I think it would be more interesting if we didn't so it would be more like a "fight to the death" kinda thing, but that's just not the case. I adore Lily. I've had a great time working with her and feel fortunate to be paired with her.

After waiting a few hours it was time to head backstage. I got a strange feeling, like I knew this wasn't going to be my time. It didn't matter how hard I had worked or how bad I wanted it, I knew in my gut I wasn't meant to win. I had felt this feeling earlier in the week but tried to ignore it as the battle round got closer. In order to go out and perform well you have to give yourself the mental "pep-talks", but no matter how many times I tried to convince myself I was going to go out there and win, my gut knew differently.

I stood there and saw Reba McEntire sitting next to Blake. Looking at her sitting there with her bright red hair and smile across her face I couldn't believe how funny God is. I requested to meet Reba when she recorded a song I had written called "Turn On The Radio". I have wanted to meet her for years, but it just never worked out. Now here I was, and not only was I going to get to meet her, I was going to get to perform in front of her ... It was so surreal. As I walked on stage, Reba recognized me and mouthed the words, "Cherie, Oh my gosh!!!" I was so giddy and then the song started. It was crazy! I had a ball performing with Lily. I wasn't concerned about anything except having a blast up on that stage and soaking in every moment of it. When our performance was over I was just thrilled to stand in front of Reba and FINALLY get to meet her. She told the whole audience about how I wrote her song and that we've never gotten to meet ... It was the moment of a lifetime. Like a dream!

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Elminated 'Voice' Contestant Cherie Oakley On Getting to No. 1 With Reba | Billboard.com

While NBC's "The Voice" has more than its fair share of performers who have released major label records, made popular videos and toured extensively, Cherie Oakley was the lone contestant with a No. 1 under her belt.

Oakley's song "Turn on the Radio," recorded by Reba McEntire, topped Billboard's Country Songs chart at the beginning of this year, but the now-eliminated songwriter is not sure whether it helped or hindered her chances at making it into coach Christina Aguilera's final four.

"You hope that it's all about the performance," Oakley said during a conference call Wednesday (June 1), the day after viewers of "The Voice" learned her journey had ended. "You never know… but the brain wonders 'did it hurt me?' From a certain perspective, I felt like an underdog. I felt like I stood out as the only person with a country background [on Aguilera's team] and that was drastically different from everyone else. Christina was very vocal about the fact that country was out of her comfort zone."

Oakley's competition was the soulful pop singer Lily Elise "and at the end of the day that's what [Aguilera] gravitated toward," Oakley said.

Although she is not continuing with the competition, Oakley was highly complementary about the guidance Aguilera provided and the opportunity to meet McEntire, with whom she had only spoken on the phone previously.

Oakley wrote "Turn on the Radio" shortly after rains flooded Nashville last year with the intention of recording the song for her debut album. Before she could get into the studio, her deal fell through, but the song wound up in McEntire's hands.

Oakley, who has sang backup for Carrie Underwood and Gretchen Wilson, gave McEntire permission to be the first to record the song provided it would be released as a single.



"She called to celebrate it being No. 1," Oakley said, who at the time was deciding to take a chance with "The Voice."

The shocker, from Oakley's perspective, came when McEntire entered "The Voice" as an adviser to coach Blake Shelton. Their meeting in Los Angeles, however, was shorter than their phone calls. When Oakley returned to Nashville, that all changed when she was invited to McEntire's office for a celebration of the single's success.

"One of the coolest experiences of my life" -- having McEntire thank Oakley for the song on national television -- "I got to share with the world," Oakley said. "She's been an idol of mine my whole life. I'm 10 times the fan now that I've gotten to know her."

The Voice Tv Show: Cherie Oakley Eliminated – Did she Deserve it?

Via twirlit.com...

Lily Elise and Cherie Oakley went head to head today in a battle for Team Christina. The song was Kelly Clarkson’s “Since you’ve been gone.”

Now I didn’t have much of an opinion about either of them. So I had to do some background checking. Cherie Oakley, is the country girl of the group. She’s from Nashville and has been touring around as a backup singer with Carrie Underwood and Gretchen Wilson. She actually wrote a song for Reba “Turn on the Radio” that hit number one recently. The two met for the first time on tonight’s episode.

Twenty nine year old Lily Elise is in the Popular Music Program at USC. She didn’t make it through the first round of the blind audtion but was swooped up when on the second run by Christina.

When the battles started. It took a while to get it going. Lily Elise started off pretty shaky and their voices blended in an odd sort of way. I’m still not sure whether I liked it or not. Although, I can say that her high note was pretty amazing. She can definitely belt out those high notes. Although, when Cherie Oakley started singing – she blew me away. Her voice just sounded so much more polished and professional in my opinion.

But that’s not who Christina picked and to be honest, I’m a little blown away by her decision. I don’t even know what she was looking for – it was pretty obvious to me that Cherie Oakley WAS the better singer.

Should Cherie Oakley have been eliminated tonight?

A special message for everyone who watched Cherie on "The Voice!"

Cherie Oakley is still #1 to us

As you know, Christina picked Lily on last night's "The Voice" so Cherie was sent home. I think Cherie was a thousand times better and was classy with a lot of stage presence. And Cherie did something that no one else with whom she shared the stage did: she sang in tune! So, what do y'all think?

Relive the experience via this video:

Catch Cherie Oakley on Tonight's episode of "The Voice"

Via Cherie Oakley/Facebook:

In preparation for tonights battle check out one of my original songs!



Catch Cherie on "The Voice" tonight on NBC 10/9c



Cherie talks about jitters the night before the competition...



Cherie on Facebook
Cherie on Twitter
Cherie on MySpace
Cherie on YouTube
Team Christina on Twitter

Cherie gallery at NBC "The Voice" Official Site

I was fortunate to meet Cherie at the Carrie concert at the California Mid-State Fair back in 2006.

Good luck, Cherie!!

'Voice' contestant hails from Evansville

Via wfie.com...

EVANSVILLE, IN (WFIE) -

An Evansville-native is finding her voice on a NBC reality show.

Cherie Oakley is a contestant on "The Voice."

Cherie is a member of Christina Aguilera's team of singers.

Cherie says in her profile on NBC.com that she was on "Star Search" when she was 10. Cherie says she then did some work in musical theater before moving to Nashville at the age of 20.

After working in Nashville for a while, Cherie got a job doing background vocals for Carrie Underwood.

She says that she finally got a record deal but it fell through, not before she helped pen Reba's hit single "Turn On The Radio."

The road to the stage of "the Voice" has been long for Cherie so you won't want to miss what happens.

Cherie Oakley competes on NBC's "The Voice"

Boy, was I surprised and happy to see Cherie Oakley's audition on "The Voice." The artists compete as the battle rounds begin Tuesday on The Voice at 10/9. Of course, I'm rooting for Cherie on tonight's episode of 'The Voice.'