Former Poway resident calls ‘The Voice’ audition unforgettable

Being picked as a contestant on NBC’s “The Voice” is being described as an unforgettable experience by former Poway resident Jackie Foster.

Foster, who graduated from Poway High School in 2014 and was Miss Poway in 2013, sang the song “What About Us” by Pink during her audition, which aired on March 5 and is available to watch on YouTube.

“The Voice” featured blind auditions, in which the four celebrity judges (Adam Levine, Black Shelton, Kelly Clarkson and Alicia Keys) listen to the auditions while facing away from the performers and hit a button to spin their chairs around if they want to recruit the singer for their team.

Clarkson and Keys both spun their chairs around for Foster, an experience she called “truly humbling.”

“To have these two complete superstars hear something in my voice and turn around, I was in shock in that moment,” Foster said.

Clarkson and Keys both had the opportunity to try and sway Foster into joining their team. Foster selected Clarkson. “It didn’t feel like it was happening. It was truly an unforgettable experience,” Foster said.

She previously auditioned for the completion, along with her older sister, while she was in high school, Foster said, but did not make it past the open call. This time, she said she was contacted by the show, after they saw her music on YouTube, who encouraged her to audition.

Several of Foster’s family members were supporting her at the auditions, including her parents, two of her siblings and an aunt and an uncle. “I think they were 10 times more nervous than I was,” Foster said. “It was so great to share that with them.”

Foster will return for the battle round, where she will be paired up to sing a song with another performer, with the winner moving on it the competition. The battle rounds air on March 19 and 20.

She said she is looking forward to working with Clarkson. “Having the opportunity to work with Kelly is unreal. I’m excited to see what song she gives me and what her reasoning is (behind choosing the song).” Foster said she is also looking forward to working with Clarkson on things like her vocal range and thinks their personalities will mesh well. “She’s such a bubbly, happy, infectious person and it’s nice to be around someone like that,” she said. “I’m like that myself. Having two people (with that personality) in the same room can create musical magic.”

Foster attends Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she is a senior. She earned a four-year, full-tuition. “Berklee is such a wonderful school in encouraging students to find their own (musical) genre,” she said. Foster, who is a music business major, discovered a love for rock while attending a five-week summer program at the school and is the lead singer of an alternative rock band called Self Portraits.

Her bandmates have been “so supportive” of her and her journey on “The Voice,” she said.

Foster said she and her band are trying to break a wall and bring rock music back to the forefront of the music industry, and she hopes “The Voice” can help her achieve that goal. “I’m taking my passions and what I learned at Berklee and applying to ‘The Voice.’ … I feel this is where I’m supposed to be, that this is the next step of my career.”

She is also proud to represent Poway throughout the process. “Poway is my hometown,” Foster said. “It’s my roots. It made me who I am.”

Email: news@pomeradonews.com