'The Voice' artist Kristen Merlin: I wanted to run off stage and cry in a corner when my mic went dead

The Voice contestant Kristen Merlin's microphone incident apparently shook her up more than she let on during Monday night's Top 12 performance show on NBC. 


Towards the end of her performance of Sugarland's "Stay," Merlin's microphone briefly went out and a staffer had to run onstage and switch it for her. However, the "Team Shakira" member didn't show any fear or hesitation and continued to sing the song beautifully.

"I was totally in my own head going, 'Oh my God, what do I do?' [But I thought], 'Just keep singing -- don't stop.' It was so nerve-racking, and honestly, I just wanted to run off and cry in a corner," Merlin told the Today show.

But Merlin kept back the tears and stayed strong because she said she wasn't going to mess up such an amazing opportunity.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance. For me, rocking a show, I don't think I'd ever really stop. I'm always in life just always going, always trying, never giving up, and I think that kind of just proved it," Merlin explained.


"I was excited that I got to sing that last note of the song, because I would have been crushed to think I didn't get to complete it."

Although she recovered from the glitch so smoothly, Merlin admitted she's still worried the incident may negatively affect America's vote.

"It makes me nervous," said Merlin, whose "battle" rounds weren't featured on The Voice other than being part of quick montages.

"Because I haven't had a whole lot of face time up until this point, so I wanted to have America see who I am, what I can do and show off some vocals -- a different side of them anyways. Hey, they got to hear some of it."

The Voice's sixth-season coaches already expressed how impressed they were with Merlin's stage presence during that 25-second mishap last night, but they reiterated those comments to Today.


"I was right there, side stage, and we were all looking at the monitor like, 'Is it out?' Sometimes it can go out in the house, but it doesn't mean it's out in TV land," host Carson Daly said. "By the time I got my mic to take to her, the song was [almost] over."

"She never broke stride; She just kept on. I could hear her in the room even though her microphone wasn't working -- I could hear her singing," Blake Shelton explained.

"It was an awful thing to happen on live television. It's one of the worst things that can happen, and you kind of get the measure of a person in how they react to something like that. I couldn't believe it."

At first, Adam Levine was "sad, confused and bummed" for Merlin, but then he was "amazed" by her poise.

"To me that's the ultimate test," Levine told Today.


Despite Merlin's worries, fellow The Voice artist T.J. Wilkins doesn't think the microphone problem will hurt her votes.

"I think if it did affect her votes, it would affect them positively," said Wilkins, who is on Usher's team. "Because she was so courageous in continuing on. Kristen is such a soldier, and I love her dearly because she kept on going."






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski