Gwen Sebastian, a native of Hebron, North Dakota, received a boost to her country music career when she auditioned for season two of the hit NBC reality television music competition The Voice. She sang the tender Sugarland hit "Stay" with a lot passion and told a compelling story. While she turned three coaches chairs (Blake Shelton, CeeLo Green, and Adam Levine), Sebastian ultimately chose Shelton as her coach.
After securing a spot on Team Blake, Sebastian was coached by Shelton and also got advice from Shelton's mentors (his wife and fellow country artist Miranda Lambert and the original American Idol, Kelly Clarkson) in preparation for the next stage of the competition, the battle rounds. She took on team member Erin Willet, a singer/songwriter and native of Gaithersburg, Maryland. The two sang "We Belong" by Pat Benatar and both singers fought it out until the very end. Shelton had a tough decision to make.
"Seriously, I wish it wasn't that good," Shelton told Sebastian and Willet after the battle.
Even though he chose Willet to go on to the next round, Shelton complimented Sebastian on her positive contributions to the performance.
"Gwen, I could tell when you were singing, you were taking some chances, I mean you know what kind of singer Erin is and how powerful she is. I appreciate the chances you were taking as far as the notes you were going for," Shelton said.
According to her website, the North Dakota native was a part of her family band when she was young and then became a solo country artist. She performed several shows, released albums as an independent artist, and worked hard to be noticed in the country genre.
In a quote from her website, Sebastian describes the push she needed to further her music career.
"No matter what I decided at that point, I know I'd still be singing," she says. "But at any job, you always want a promotion. And that's kind of how I look at all this. Now I'm working to climb the ladder a little more."
Since being eliminated from the show, Sebastian has toured with Shelton, is featured on the track "My Eyes" off of Shelton's latest album Based On A True Story, and released her debut self-titled album on June 25, with "Suitcase" as the lead single.
In 2013, she has toured with Shelton on his Ten Times Crazier tour as a back-up vocalist as well as performing her own shows in support of her album. She was also the opening act on Miranda Lambert and Dierks Bentley's Locked And Reloaded tour, according to an article on www.theboot.com.
For more on Sebastian, visit www.gwensebastian.com
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