If you’ve been tuned into The Voice this season, then you know the name Jacquelyn George. The Franklin local has been singing almost her entire life, but her path to The Voice was quite the surprising route.
A Franklin resident for over 20 years, George moved to town from Lakeland, Florida with her family when she was eight. They moved to allow her brother to pursue his musical dreams as a member of Christian contemporary boy band Plus One, not
knowing at the time that Jacquelyn would later chase her own musical dreams.
Growing up, George was a little girl with a big voice. Posting her first video on YouTube singing cover songs when she was only nine, she went on to lead worship at church, and as a teenager began backup dancing for Christian artist Nicole C. Mullen. At 15
years old, she was first contacted by The Voice to audition. She answered the call but explains that the lengthy process of multiple auditions didn’t result in a trip to Los Angeles for the blind auditions.
After high school, a full-ride scholarship led her to Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee where she studied marketing and music. It was there that she had the opportunity to tour with many Southern gospel artists as a member of the university’s acapella group.
Then about three-and-a-half years ago, The Voice reached out again so George auditioned for another season via video call, singing her original song “Broken,” but never heard anything back. Then just a few months ago, out of nowhere, while celebrating her grandmother’s 90th birthday, she got a life-changing call. “I get this call from The Voice and I thought it was a scam,” she says. She remembers how a representative from the show let her know that they still had her audition tape from three-and-a-half years ago and wanted to fly her out to California for a blind audition for Season 27 of the show.
“It's kind of crazy to think about that because a lot of times you have this big dream,” George says. “As a young girl, for me, my dream when I was 15 was to be on The Voice. My dream as a little girl was to be on TV and sing and let my voice be heard. But
I think once college happens, you get older and you're like, ‘Is it worth pursuing my dream again?’ And for me, I kind of had this fork in the road a little bit because you have to sacrifice a lot going out to Hollywood. Being with family, your work, your friends, just
the mentality of it all. So in a way, I almost said 'no' to going out to Hollywood and auditioning until I reminded myself of that little Jackie. The little girl in me that has a dream to let my voice be heard. And it honestly wasn't until my husband was like, ‘No, you need to do this. You'll regret it if you don’t and if anything, do it for the little girl in you.’”
With that motivation, she flew out to Hollywood a week after she got the phone call and began her journey on The Voice.” “When they flew me out, I thought to myself, ‘I will regret not just putting it all out there and just picking a really brave song that can show vocal range and just can show my personality,’” George says. “Because I feel like a lot of people when they first hear me, they hear my [speaking] voice and they're like ‘Oh, your voice is so high, you sound like a Disney princess.’ But when I sing, it's like a completely different tonality. So I really wanted to show my range; that it's not just all high, but I can also do like low notes and
so I picked "I Have Nothing" by Whitney Houston.”
With that song, she caught the attention of judges John Legend and Adam Levine during her blind audition. Legend became her coach, and they even got to share a duet that day. “He's always kind of been an iconic musical influence in my life and in my husband's life,” she says of Legend. “We actually had our first dance to "Never Break" by John Legend. And then I sang "Ordinary People" at our wedding. I mentioned that in my blind audition to John because John Legend and Adam turned for me and he kind of was pulling out all the stops. He was like, ‘OK, what can I do for her to choose me?’ When I said that he got a mic and he was like ‘Alright girl, do you want to do a duet?’ I definitely felt on cloud nine and it was a really cool full circle moment for my husband and me.”
Before this whirlwind audition process, she had temporarily taken a step back from pursuing a career as an artist but through this process, she found her way back to it. “I put the dream of music to rest and I became a songwriter the last four years,” she
says. “I started writing music for other artists here in Nashville. I kind of put performing down and picked up songwriting. I think for me it was just so wild because it was a total dream for me to go out there and to say ‘yes’ to this. Sometimes when you detach from a dream, it just kind of comes back to you. You either get better as a musician or you get more experience, or you have more tools underneath your belt to take on that dream and all the resilience that comes with it and everything you need to go through in order for it to be a success.”
Follow Jacquelyn George @Jacquelynvgeorge on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.
George's New Album: Come As You Are
“The message [of the album] is to women that either have been in a place of heartbreak, or if they're in a place of insecurity, or if they're looking for remedies outside of themselves, to be reminded to come as you are, no matter what season you're in in life and to show up,” she says. “I think that's an important message just for women in general, to come as you are no matter if you're feeling crappy one day or if you're feeling on cloud nine the next. The message of that is to hopefully inspire other women to find their voice and to dream again.”