by Gina Scarpa

We may not have gotten to see much of Ashley De La Rosa's blind audition for The Voice, but she certainly made an impression during the battle rounds. She took on fellow Team Christina member Jonathas in the Jordin Sparks/Chris Brown duet, "No Air", and it ended up being to his disadvantage that he already sounded too much like Usher. Ashley moved on to the live shows and before they start airing, we talked to her in an exclusive interview about her experiences in the competition so far.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: What made you decide to try out for The Voice?
A. Ashley: I watched season 1 and before the show came on, there was not that much publicity for it. I was so surprised to see the show with four major artists as coaches. I was like, "This is really cool, I should do something like this!" Ever since season 1, I had kept an eye out because I knew that I wanted to try out.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: We didn't get to see all of your blind audition performance, but it is on NBC's site. How did you end up choosing "Shark In The Water"?
A. Ashley: Not a lot of people know it but I really like it. Whenever I do local shows, I always end up singing it. I think it's a really fun song and I didn't want to go up there with a slow song. I wanted something upbeat, and that would show of my voice.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: What went through your mind when you saw Christina turn around for you?
A. Ashley: Honestly, when I was on the stage and I saw her first, it was so exciting and then also, I felt a lot of relief. It's like, "Okay, finally, I got it!" All I really wanted was one chair to turn around and for that chair to be Christina... it was amazing. Standing there on stage and looking at the four coaches, it feels like I'm watching it on tv. It's hard to process that until I got off the stage. That's when I freak out!

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Did the battle round make you nervous? "No Air" was a very good song choice for both you and Jonathas and it didn't seem like, going in, one you had a distinct advantage over the other.
A. Ashley: Oh yeah definitely! We were on equal playing field. "No Air" made me really nervous. Starting off the song, I was just nervous to do it. It felt like Jonathas was so strong. The thing about him is that he's a performer, he knows how to work the stage. I think that comes with his experience but I'm very awkward on stage. It's something that I practice so that I don't look kind of stiff. He's got that naturally so I was really nervous. Just the fact that you're battling against someone on your team, it's a very weird feeling because you become friends with everyone. You want to win but you're like, "I don't wanna be rude!"

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Going into the live shows, are you nervous that the fact that you didn't get a lot of air time in the early episodes could put you at a disadvantage?
A. Ashley: It does kind of put me at a disadvantage. Now with the live shows, it depends on pretty much all on audience votes. I want people to vote for me! I feel like if my full audition would've been shown, I would've gotten more recognition or fans earlier. Fortunately, the battle was shown so I've been working off of that and trying to get some people on my side. On NBC.com, I have my blog and videos and pictures. Also, on Twitter, I always try and respond to everyone that I can. That's a nice personal way to keep in touch.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: What do you want to say to your fans?
A. Ashley: I would just like to say thank you very much. It's really cool to get to speak to you guys. If you have questions or you just wanna know what's going on or show some love, I'm always here.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Can you describe what it's like to go from sitting home and watching The Voice on tv to now being part of the show?
A. Ashley: It's surreal! From sitting at home and watching season 1 to being on season 2 and I feel like this season is so much bigger! I'm really

happy to be on season 2. It's really cool!

The Voice airs Mondays at 8/7c on NBC.

(Image courtesy of NBC)

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