Jade Robbins
Maybe?
A wake up call for a young singer in search of greatness.
A ringing phone snapped me out of my trance. I was being called to the front office, and I was really scared for some reason. I thought, “Oh no am I getting in trouble what did I do wrong? I thought I was being a good kid this week?!”
So I walked to the front office, and my heart was beating. I'm told my mom was on the other line. She called me and she says, “I have some really important news to tell you.”
I don't know if this is good or bad, so I say, “Just spit it out mom!”
And she said, “You're going to The Voice!”
I wanted to do this my entire life, I couldn’t believe it. I was in utter shock.
All week we were fundraising and preparing, and I was finding a song that I really really wanted to sing. You see, I didn't know that we only had thirty seconds to sing, so I prepared this three-minute song.
The night before we left for Las Vegas I had a panic attack. I told my mom I didn't want to go and I didn't sleep all night. But in the morning I decided to get up and put on my big girl shoes. I was ready and we had raised all the money we needed, it was all set.
So we were driving out and I was singing the entire drive. I was watching all these beautiful things pass by and then, all of a sudden, there were these lights and flashing buildings that were taller than anything in Durango. They reached up for the clouds like dreams. Six times taller than the Straighter Hotel, and if you're from here, that’s our tallest building.
I was just in awe. I had never seen anything like this in my life! We went out to dinner. Oh wow. There was a lobster and crab and it was so decadent and I almost felt guilty for eating it. We went to see a magic show. Basically, my mom was just trying to show me a good time so that I wasn't so stressed out, because my audition was the next day.
So we woke up at three o'clock in the morning, and it was completely dark out. For Las Vegas, there wasn't a whole lot of traffic when we left. We drove up to this big arena, and this arena is probably the size of four Walmarts stuck together. It took up an entire two blocks and the line for the Voice audition went all the way around the building.
And we didn't realize people were getting there at like twelve o'clock at night. We stood at the back of the line. We went through the entire line all day. Six hours without food or water. We had no idea what we were getting into. So we were starving and were dehydrated and I had a headache. But I was still just so excited, oh my.,
When it finally got time to go into the room, there were all these people singing. I was so intimidated because there were these fifty-year-olds that had been singing their whole lives, auditioning for this competition.
I go into the room. It’s grey. And there are producers and about twenty people sitting in a row. They point to us one at a time and say thirty seconds... go. So, we stand up front and we sing our hearts out. No music. No anything. Just fear.
Then they tell us to sit back down once everyone is done. They go around the room, and say in a chilling calm, “NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, maybe, NO, NO, NO, NO.”
So everyone in the room left except for me. The main producer told me that he would give me a call at the end of the day if there wasn't a lot of girls like me. You know, blonde and the same kind of bluesy thing I got going. I think it's an algorithm kind of thing.
We went back to the hotel room after eating schwaggy food, these gross, greasy hamburgers, (this is before I went vegetarian) because we were so hungry. I slept for like five hours.
Four o'clock rolled around, and I didn't get a call. We waited and waited, but no call. I was honestly devastated. I had told myself and I told my mom that I wouldn't be that sad if I didn't get a callback. I told her I would have been happy just because all these people had rooted for me. But, I was feeling sorry and not for myself, but for all the people that had given to me. I had thought that I would do this, you know?
So I was sitting there just so sad, and we decided not to go out that night. We decided to stay in the hotel and get some good rest. The next morning we were driving home and I was just sitting in the silence and thinking about how I had failed, really. If I wasn't good enough in Las Vegas, how could I be good enough in the world?
Then, my mom reached over and grabbed my hand and gave it a little squeeze and she said “It's OK Jade, next time.”
I realized that, even though I had failed at the audition, and I hadn't really lost anything. I had gained experience and knowledge. I had gained the understanding that even though we're kind of big fish in a small bowl in Durango, there's a whole world out there. And I'm going to have to work a lot harder if I want to make a difference.
So I walked to the front office, and my heart was beating. I'm told my mom was on the other line. She called me and she says, “I have some really important news to tell you.”
I don't know if this is good or bad, so I say, “Just spit it out mom!”
And she said, “You're going to The Voice!”
I wanted to do this my entire life, I couldn’t believe it. I was in utter shock.
All week we were fundraising and preparing, and I was finding a song that I really really wanted to sing. You see, I didn't know that we only had thirty seconds to sing, so I prepared this three-minute song.
The night before we left for Las Vegas I had a panic attack. I told my mom I didn't want to go and I didn't sleep all night. But in the morning I decided to get up and put on my big girl shoes. I was ready and we had raised all the money we needed, it was all set.
So we were driving out and I was singing the entire drive. I was watching all these beautiful things pass by and then, all of a sudden, there were these lights and flashing buildings that were taller than anything in Durango. They reached up for the clouds like dreams. Six times taller than the Straighter Hotel, and if you're from here, that’s our tallest building.
I was just in awe. I had never seen anything like this in my life! We went out to dinner. Oh wow. There was a lobster and crab and it was so decadent and I almost felt guilty for eating it. We went to see a magic show. Basically, my mom was just trying to show me a good time so that I wasn't so stressed out, because my audition was the next day.
So we woke up at three o'clock in the morning, and it was completely dark out. For Las Vegas, there wasn't a whole lot of traffic when we left. We drove up to this big arena, and this arena is probably the size of four Walmarts stuck together. It took up an entire two blocks and the line for the Voice audition went all the way around the building.
And we didn't realize people were getting there at like twelve o'clock at night. We stood at the back of the line. We went through the entire line all day. Six hours without food or water. We had no idea what we were getting into. So we were starving and were dehydrated and I had a headache. But I was still just so excited, oh my.,
When it finally got time to go into the room, there were all these people singing. I was so intimidated because there were these fifty-year-olds that had been singing their whole lives, auditioning for this competition.
I go into the room. It’s grey. And there are producers and about twenty people sitting in a row. They point to us one at a time and say thirty seconds... go. So, we stand up front and we sing our hearts out. No music. No anything. Just fear.
Then they tell us to sit back down once everyone is done. They go around the room, and say in a chilling calm, “NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, maybe, NO, NO, NO, NO.”
So everyone in the room left except for me. The main producer told me that he would give me a call at the end of the day if there wasn't a lot of girls like me. You know, blonde and the same kind of bluesy thing I got going. I think it's an algorithm kind of thing.
We went back to the hotel room after eating schwaggy food, these gross, greasy hamburgers, (this is before I went vegetarian) because we were so hungry. I slept for like five hours.
Four o'clock rolled around, and I didn't get a call. We waited and waited, but no call. I was honestly devastated. I had told myself and I told my mom that I wouldn't be that sad if I didn't get a callback. I told her I would have been happy just because all these people had rooted for me. But, I was feeling sorry and not for myself, but for all the people that had given to me. I had thought that I would do this, you know?
So I was sitting there just so sad, and we decided not to go out that night. We decided to stay in the hotel and get some good rest. The next morning we were driving home and I was just sitting in the silence and thinking about how I had failed, really. If I wasn't good enough in Las Vegas, how could I be good enough in the world?
Then, my mom reached over and grabbed my hand and gave it a little squeeze and she said “It's OK Jade, next time.”
I realized that, even though I had failed at the audition, and I hadn't really lost anything. I had gained experience and knowledge. I had gained the understanding that even though we're kind of big fish in a small bowl in Durango, there's a whole world out there. And I'm going to have to work a lot harder if I want to make a difference.