'The Voice' eliminee Darby Walker: I was completely surprised to be eliminated to be really, really honest

The Voice eliminated Darby Walker and determined the eleventh season's Top 10 artists during the latest live results show on NBC.


Darby, a 17-year-old from Atlanta, GA, landed in the bottom two with Aaron Gibson, a 25-year-old who currently resides in Kennesaw, GA, based on home viewer votes cast following the prior night's Top 11 performance show.

After both artists sang a survival song, America tweeted via the show's "Instant Save" format to keep Aaron in the competition. They both represented Miley Cyrus' team, which was a tough break for the dedicated and emotionally-attached coach.

During a recent conference call with reporters, Darby talked about her The Voice experience. Below is a portion of what she had to say. Check Reality TV World's The Voice page for more.

I'm sure original music is somewhere in your future. I was wondering what you can tell me about that. What sound can we expect? And was there something you were already working on prior to auditioning for The Voice?


Darby Walker: It's definitely something that's been underway for a while. I can tell everyone to keep expecting music with a lot of messages very much in line with what you guys have been hearing but with more of a Darby twist on it, so everyone keep your ears open.

How you would say your Voice experience will affect the music you'll be releasing in the future?

Darby Walker: That's a good question. I feel like my Voice experience really allowed me to explore the music that I've always wanted to sing and perform, and I really got to get out of the whole Indie box.

So for me, I've always called myself an old soul. That's the music I love, so I really think I'll be taking a lot of those kinds of sounds and putting them in my music. That's something that I've started to do and it's something that I think you can expect to hear from me.

So you were up again for the "Instant Save," and Aaron was in that position last week as well. So what did you think your chances were of staying or going when you were up against him?


Darby Walker: To be honest, that wasn't even something that crossed my mind. In the moment, I was just worried about giving my best performance of my last-chance song and I had no clue what was going to happen. I feel like it could've gone either way.

I know that the East Coast is the people -- they're the ones who get to vote first, so at the end of the day, I knew it was up to them and it was all completely subjective. So yes, honestly, my mind wasn't there when that was happening.

So were you surprised at all that you were eliminated?

Darby Walker: I mean, at the end of the day, I was completely surprised. I wasn't expecting it. I wasn't expecting it to be Aaron and I in the bottom two. I just wasn't expecting that at all to be really, really honest with you. But I will say the universe works in interesting ways and I have complete faith that everything is the way it's supposed to be, and I'm really excited for the future.

You said originally that you were more of an Indie artist and you thrust into the pop-music genre by performing certain songs on The Voice. Did you feel uncomfortable singing such pop songs?


Darby Walker: Overall, I'm so happy with every single song I sang and every performance I sang. Every song that I ended up singing on that show was a song that I wanted to sing. It was something that I believed then. It's something I believe needed to be heard.

So I'm ecstatic that I pushed out of the whole Indie box that everyone was trying to put me in. I'm an Indie alternative artist and I feel like I stayed that way throughout the entire thing. I wasn't just covering songs. I was completely infusing myself into every song that I did. So yes, honestly, looking back at it, I'm so, so happy with every performance I gave.

I had a question about your Twitter. Could you define "revolution" for me? It's clearly something you believe in.

Darby Walker: That's a good one. So for me, this "revolution" that I speak of is something that -- this is something I'm so passionate about, so you'll have to bear with me. Going up on that stage, like I said, it wasn't about being pretty.

This revolution that I was up there fighting for was for everybody out there who wants to be themselves and for everyone else who doesn't want to be labeled and put in a box, and for everyone else who believes in peace and believes that change starts with what we're putting out in the world, and for everyone else who believes that taking risks are good, and being different is something that we need to do.


That's the revolution I'm talking about. I'm not like anyone else out there right now doing this. I believe with everything going on in the world and everything going on in our country, especially when you have things like social media, if you're not putting out and being liked, if you're not being the change then what are you doing?

So if I can do that, that's all I want, and I got to do that with every song that I sang. I got to do that week after week after week, and the following I built up and the songs I've done is unbelievable. I've gotten more of a social media following than anyone else on the show.

I really connected with a lot of the younger people out there, and I think the most beautiful part about this is the fact that my need for change and my need to spread love and light resonates with so many other people out there and this is so much bigger than just The Voice, and this is so much bigger than just song choice and music. This is about coming together as a collective.

I was wondering if you can talk a little bit about your relationship with Miley. How did the two of you work together? Did she pick your songs or did you pick them together? And what about your fashion choices?

Darby Walker: Everything that Miley and I did was completely collaborative. It was her texting me song choices saying, "Hey, what do you think about this?" or, "Hey, just listen to this," and me texting her saying, "You listen to this, what do you think about this?" Style was the same way. I'm someone who I very much know who I am.


The nice thing about Miley is that I really got the freedom to go all out and be 10,000% of what I wanted to be, and I don't know if I would've gotten to do that had I dealt with another coach. It was just really nice to work with someone who believes in everything that I believed in.

We both knew that some of the songs I sang were calculated versus we weren't sure how people would take them. We knew that we weren't sure how people would take me wearing a flower, just a flower in my hair doing my thing.

But at the same time, it was more important to us to put out good art, an art that means something more than just music that everyone can sing along to, if that makes sense. So working with her, it was wonderful. It was super wonderful and I look forward to everything or anything -- if anything comes in the future with her.

Check Reality TV World's The Voice 11 page for more from Darby Walker's post-The Voice interview.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski