Entertainment Weekly (June 19th 2013)

Blake Shelton: Danielle Bradbery is the most important artist to walk across the 'Voice' stage

It was all smiles from Team Blake’s season 4 champion last night at The Voice.

Danielle Bradbery had several dreams come true, winning the competition — and sharing a duet with one of her favorite artists.

“I’ve always wanted to perform with Hunter Hayes and he was so sweet and down to earth, it was just a blast up there with him,” Bradbery told EW after the show.

She said she hopes to work with Shelton on her album, practice her songwriting and take whatever comes at her.

“I definitely would love to have Blake included in everything. The music, I want to make my own song and… Oh man I’m just so excited for whatever comes.”

The 16-year-old Texan amateur proved that The Voice is really all about the voice. Her powerful vocals won America’s heart, and the hearts of coach Blake Shelton and host Carson Daly.

“She’s never changed throughout this competition,” Shelton told EW after the show. “She’s always remained Danielle. She’s a 16-year-old girl. I hope that everybody gets a chance to meet her someday because you’ll know the same things that I know — that her concerns right now are now that this is over, ‘Can I go back and hang out with my friends for a week and have summer together,’ you know what I mean? That’s how real of a human being she is and that’s what I love about her the most.”

Shelton said he had no idea how the show would end, and although he has (wrongly) predicted the outcome of previous seasons, he was impressed with the talent of this season and could not call a decisive winner.

“Last night Miranda and I were sitting around after everybody performed… And we watched the episode back and both of us looked at each other and said I have no clue what’s going to happen. And then to even further that, we woke up this morning and looked at iTunes and it was like three of them were that close, I mean it was two, three and four I think on iTunes and I said I can’t call this, it’s unbelievable how tight it is.”

A surprise birthday gift for Blake, this is his third win. But he insists it isn’t about him.

“Even to take myself out of the equation — Danielle Bradbery, and I’ve said this on the show, I think might be the most important artist to ever walk across The Voice stage because we’ve seen some artists come and go who’ve had record deals before, who have done some things before. Danielle Bradbery may be the first person we’ve actually discovered here on this show.”

Carson Daly said he was thrilled with the potential of such a young artist and the amount of success she is sure to find.

“The real question is: What do you think successful is? Is somebody successful when they sell a million records? Tell that to Norah Jones, who won a Grammy, who hasn’t. There are different views of success. We think an artist could pop from The Voice. This great talent may not be commercially huge but is very successful.”

Before we start to measure Bradbery’s success, she wants to take some time to celebrate with friends and family and “embrace the moment while it’s here.”