In 2013, Tinika Wyatt ed a video to YouTube that would change her life forever. How it would change her life wouldn’t be known for 12 more years.
The East County resident, who now works in health care and as a marriage and family pastor at a San Diego church, had driven to Los Angeles to try out for “The Voice” at an open casting call. There, she saw thousands of people in lines and re only having about 30 seconds to make an impact with an audition.
Nothing came of it.
Dejected, she wrote an a cappella song and posted it on YouTube, asking then-judges Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera, CeeLo Green and Blake Shelton what it would take to make it onto the show.
Nothing came of that either.
Wyatt — a lifelong singer, especially of Gospel music — continued performing wherever she got the opportunity, singing at church, on tour with Ron Brown and Company and even recording background vocals for CeCe Winans.
“I actually had put ‘The Voice’ behind me,” Wyatt told the Union-Tribune in April. “It was an old dream that I thought was dead, actually.”
One of these performances made it into a video that was seen by a casting director for “The Voice.” In 2024, Wyatt got her invite.
With her four kids grown and out of the house, 50-year-old Wyatt looked around at her life — a great life, by her estimate — and decided it was time to take a leap of faith.
Last summer, she went through the application process and made it to a blind audition, arguably the most well-known aspect of the show.
“I believe that the best days are yet to come, and I think that this is part of it,” she said in her introduction clip on an episode that aired on NBC in February. “It is never too late to be who you’ve always wanted to be.”
The package also showed scenes of local sites, including Wyatt posing by the San Diego Bay.
Her journey so far on Season 27 of the series has not been straightforward. On “The Voice,” contestants perform for judges — this season it’s John Legend, Michael Bublé, Kelsea Ballerini and Adam Levine — who have their backs turned to the stage. Without seeing them, they listen and decide whether to push a button to turn their chair around and claim a singer for their teams of 12.
Each judge’s team then competes in various rounds to win the show for themselves and for the judge. There are also options for blocks, steals and saves.
Wyatt describers her performance style as in the genres of Gospel and R&B and her sound as a “soulful, raspy, alto.”
“I’m a ionate singer,” Wyatt said. “It’s really important for me for people to feel what I’m saying and not just hear it. I really sing to move people, to create emotion, to evoke deep thought and feeling.”
For the blind audition, she performed “Sorry Not Sorry,” by Demi Lovato.
She did not receive immediate approval from the judges, though they were generally complimentary.
“I bet you if you’d picked another song, that gave a little more range, I’d have had more to go on,” Bublé said.
“We were all close,” Levine said.
Then the video from 2013 paid off. Wyatt shared that she tried out for the show years ago and that she came up with a song about the audition process that was posted on YouTube. Levine, the Maroon 5 singer who quit judging the show after Season 16 but returned for Season 27, asked her to sing it for the judges. The song included the lyrics, “But Adam, would you please / just turn your chair for me?”
Bam. Levine hit the button, inviting her to Team Adam.
“I think the reason why I even mentioned it was because, hey, Adam is back,” Wyatt said. “To me, it just seems really kismet. Like it was supposed to happen this way. A really cool moment.”
She added that she thinks it all happened exactly how it was supposed to and that the near-elimination inspired an added level of fight in her to continue.
“There was a wrestling in me this entire time of, ‘Should I pursue this?’ I’m risking disappointment, embarrassment, all of these things. I’m the oldest person in the competition — most of these folks here are the age of my kids. It’s just new territory altogether. Primarily I sing Gospel, so (I’m) singing things that are not in my wheelhouse or genre — there was a lot of risk. I think, at a certain point, I had to show my stuff. I had to figure out for myself, ‘How bad do I want this?’”
Next came the Battle round, which pits contestants on the same teams against each other to finalize a remaining eight positions. Wyatt competed with and against Conor James, singing a duet of “How Deep is Your Love” by the Bee Gees in an episode that aired on March 24.
Ballerini said it might have been her favorite battle of the day. Bublé said the performance made him feel the Holy Spirit. Legend expressed appreciation that Wyatt wasn’t let go during the blind auditions.
“I love the story of you being here, Tinika, because you were just so radiant, so brilliant, so powerful and just lit up the stage, and we would have missed out on that,” Legend said. “You just made a great case for yourself staying on the show.”
Levine called Wyatt a “world-class singer” but chose James to continue on his team, leaving San Diego’s contestant on the stage to be eliminated.
No surprise, Wyatt says the process has been an emotional roller coaster, and that she approached it with a lot of prayer.
“It was déjà vu. I was like, here I go again on the chopping block,” Wyatt said. “But I did have this strong sense that I’m supposed to be here. With that sense, I’m like, ‘I don’t want to go home early. I don’t want to go home yet. I have more to give.”
But once again, Wyatt was saved, this time by Ballerini.
“Tininka adds a level of soul to Team Kelsea that I’m very excited about,” Ballerini said.
On to the Knockout round, Wyatt got to take the stage as a solo artist, singing “Best of My Love,” by The Emotions in an episode that aired on March 31. In this round, contestants compete again against one other person to go for one of five remaining spots on the team.
This time, Wyatt found an easy victory.
“Tinika’s performance was flawless,” Ballerini said. “She’s connected to herself — that strength, that womanhood. And I want to make sure that everyone gets a chance to really see that.”
San Diegans can tune in next to see Wyatt in the playoff part of the competition. Here, only two artists on each team survive to advance to the live shows.
If she makes it, Wyatt, now 51, will be heading to Hollywood in the next few weeks to perform live. If she doesn’t make it, she’ll keep performing and singing Gospel music, including her newly released single, “Don’t Be Afraid.”
“The Voice” airs on Mondays at 8 p.m. on NBC. Episodes can also be streamed on Peacock.
