While those who tuned in to The Voice last week on NBC saw a confident Rachel Christine Gebel, the singer admitted last week that the nerves were certainly there.
“You’re standing there behind these big double doors,” Gebel explained. “There’s a lot of pressure on you. You can feel your heart beat in your head.
“Your legs literally feel like they’re going to give out,” she added.
Gebel got a chance to relive that moment, which was originally taped last fall, during a watch party at the Delavan Lake Store March 20.
A party she wasn’t expecting.
“I walked in and I was like, ‘Is there a birthday party going on or something?’” she said of last week. “They’re like, ‘No, this is all for you.’ It was an incredible feeling. I’ve never felt like that before.”
Rachel, her mother and father and her performance partner and sister, Micah, were all in for a standing-room-only party at the store as Rachel finally got to see her blind audition for the celebrity-coached vocal show that is in its 23rd season.
“Oh my gosh, that was amazing,” Rachel explained. “I’ve seen myself on television before, but nothing like that. Not on NBC.”
Rachel’s blind audition was selected by two judges – pop star Kelly Clarkson and new judge, Chance the Rapper.
Rachel explained during a telephone interview March 23 that she went into the contest hoping to be coached by Clarkson.
“I grew up on her,” she said. “I believe she’s one of the best singers of our generation, and I can learn a lot from her.”
Rachel said that she was fully aware of when Chance hit his button first, but she kept hoping Clarkson would push her button as well.
“I just had to have her,” Rachel said. “I was so excited that she turned around on the last note.”
Now the show will enter its “battle rounds,” which will be ongoing for the next few weeks. Rachel was in California from Sept. 21 through mid-October of last year filming the show, but cannot give hints about how she did.
In fact, she admitted she had a hard time over the last few months not telling anyone that she’d gotten onto the show.
“Oh, man, it was hard to keep my mouth shut,” Rachel said. “I was only allowed to tell my close family and my employer. Having to keep quiet that I got a chair turned and that I hugged Kelly Clarkson was really tough.”
Still, she’s excited to see how the show plays out because, as she said, “I loved every second of it.”
“Everyone from the contestants to the coaches to even the people who tell you where to stand and when you can go to the bathroom, everyone was super nice,” Rachel said. “Everyone seemed to love their job. Everyone was just really grateful and really kind.”
The Voice airs on NBC at 7 p.m. every Monday and Tuesday.
