When the season one finalists returned to the stage of “The Voice” Tuesday (May 1), two of them partnered with performers who appear on their albums, last year’s winner Javier Colon went solo with his new single and Beverly McClellan sang with a legend she had just met, Cyndi Lauper.
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“I’ll go anywhere she wants to me to go,” McClellan said after the performance, hoping collaboration is in their future. “I just pray it’s the blues.”
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Lauper last album, released in 2010, was “Memphis Blues,” a journey she took into the indigenous art form with B.B. King and Jonny Lang playing with her. For “The Voice,” they turned to “Money Changes Everything” from Lauper’s 1983 debut album, “She’s So Unusual.”
“I love her and everything she stands for,” McClellan said before explaining the song choice. “You have to go back to the beginning. She’s got many flavors in that bowl of sauce.”
Lauper returned the compliment. “It was great to hear her,” Lauper said. “The blues is based on call and response and she’s a signer who listens. I wanted to connect with another singer, because then you connect with the audience and take it to a higher place. If you can’t connect when you’re doing music, it’s not worth it. I felt tonight; it was true.”
Lauper’s son Declyn was on hand too, and he wholly endorsed the idea of his mother becoming involved in a singing competition show. “I could coach, but not be a judge,” Lauper proffered. “I can’t judge people. Besides, her son noted, “I don’t think she has a mean bone in her body.”
The other three finalists from last year, meanwhile, are out working their post-“Voice” albums. Colon, who performed his new single “A Drop in the Ocean,” will be opening some shows for Maroon 5 this summer and he is looking at some dates in South America.
“I want to keep working the music from this album before I start thinking about making another one,” he said.
Vicci Martinez had a bit of kismet as the release date of her single, “Come Along” with Cee Lo Green, coincided with her “Voice” performance. The song is on a four-song EP that Universal Republic released Tuesday; the full album comes out June 19.
“I was set to release in the winter, but I asked if I could finesse things and take more time to put out something I was really proud of,” she said. “Glad that I got that extra time.”
Dia Frampton, who brought Kid Cudi onstage to reprise his rap segment on “Don’t Kick the Chair,” is currently opening shows for the Fray. She toured from January through March with Blake Shelton, performing in arenas for the first time after a lifetime of intimate gigs.
“I’m learning the live show,” she said. “I think when the cameras are on me I tense up. I’m 24, I’m still really shy and there are some people who can go out there and just kill it. Look at this season — Jermaine Paul, Chris Mann, they seem so fearless. I’m not like that. I came to the conclusion that I’m a slow learner and it takes time for me to become comfortable with what I can do. I think Blake’s really helped me learn that.”