NBC’s ‘The Voice’: Danielle Bradbery on Blake Shelton; Michelle Chamuel on future

Since we don’t have a new episode of “The Voice” to talk about tonight, we thought that we would do something a little bit different, and write instead on what the top two contestants from this past season are doing when it comes to planning for their future.

When it comes to Danielle Bradbery, the shocking thing is that she’s already in the studio working on some new music, even though she doesn’t have a great deal of performing experience away from the show. However, one of the complaints during the show was that the producers were hyping up this whole “undiscovered artist” label, when she in fact had performed at a Scotty McCreery concert. So what is the real story here? Even though she did sing before the “American Idol” champion, she was not some opening act, and it came after her blind audition was filmed. Speaking to TVLine, Danielle offered up an explanation that really makes quite a bit of sense:

“I kind of got the feel of being in front of people and four famous people, so it was kind of [wanting to keep getting practice]. My stepdad, he puts up these festivals and stuff, so he tries to squeeze me in between the acts. So I didn’t necessarily open for Scotty; there was someone before him and after me.”

As for Michelle Chamuel, it still sounds like she is looking to go the independent music route despite making it so far on the show. Speaking to Rolling Stone, she sounded almost relieved in a way to be the runner-up, and tried to put into words what exactly she was hoping to do:

“I’m definitely going to be using this time to try to figure that out. Today, I’d say I’d like to remain independent and release music that’s from my heart, whether it will catch on or not. I’m not trying to blow up. Because you can use this as a platform to do just that, and Usher taught me a lot about how to gain success by doing things that are true to myself and expanding on them. So that’s a path to explore. But from this vantage point, standing in my driveway, I really just want to make art in completion. Produce it myself, sing on it, chop it up, mix it and release it. Sorta like mixtapes in a Frank Ocean-type of way.”

Chamuel also explained that she actually felt pressure from some people to express her sexuality as a lesbian on the show, but she opted not to since it would have been forced and felt unrelated to the actual performances she was doing.

Do you think both of these ladies could go on to do some great things? If you want to see Danielle’s recent interview on “The Today Show” where she is featured alongside Hunter Hayes, you can do that by heading on over to the link here.

Photo: NBC