Photo by Trae Patton / NBC
Holly Brand blows away the judges with her rendition of “ Blue Moon of Kentucky ” to make it into the top 20 acts on NBC ’ s “ The Voice .”
Photo by Chris Haston / NBC
Holly Brand performs Faith Hill ’ s “ Mississippi Girl ” to a three-chair turn to make it onto NBC ’ s “ The Voice ” Season 23 .
Brand feels like her time as Miss Mississippi prepared her for the competition on “ The Voice .”
“ I feel like Miss Mississippi definitely trained me and prepared me to succeed on ‘ The Voice ,’ and I am really glad that I did not audition before I did Miss Mississippi because I really am not the same person ,” she said .
Being Miss Mississippi , she said , “ really helped me come out of my shell , helped me really figure out who I was …. it helped me to be confident and comfortable in who I was and what I believe in .
“ It is easy when you get on a stage like ‘ The Voice ’ to want to change and to want to do things how maybe other people think that you should or to look at somebody else and think ‘ oh I should do it like that because that might win ,’” she said . “ That ’ s a lesson I learned with Miss Mississippi to be confident in who you are and what you believe in and be that version , be the best version of yourself that you can be and you will always succeed .”
Brand , who just made it through the Knockout rounds at the time of this interview , is having fun being on Team Kelly .
“ I love Kelly ( Clarkson ). She ’ s everything that you see on TV and more ,” Brand said . “ You really forget that you are talking to a celebrity that is of the status she is because she is just so real . She ’ s hilarious . She also is really encouraging .
“ In my Knockout episode , they showed a little bit of our rehearsal where she was encouraging me to do something that I didn ’ t think I was capable of doing and then I ended up being able to execute it well in my performance . She is that type of coach ,’” Brand said of Clarkson . “ I feel like she probably knew my voice a little
bit better than I did and believed that I was capable of more , but I just didn ’ t see it in myself . That is really awesome to have that in a coach .”
The Meridian community ’ s support has been uplifting to Brand . She has enjoyed the texts , the stops by the store and messages people have posted on a fan page her best friend started on Facebook even though the show ’ s rules prohibit her from responding to the posts .
“ The posts on there are just so sweet , and I love to sit and go through there and read all of them ,” she said . “ Even though I can ’ t respond to them , I like to read them .”
She said the reaction to her performances , so far , have been extremely positive .
“ The reaction I have gotten has been really , really positive and that ’ s really all you can hope for because when you step out and do something like ‘ The Voice ’ you never really know what people are going to think ,” she said .
“ You don ’ t know how people are going to respond to the songs that you sing or what you sound like or what you look like , and everybody has been just so kind and so supportive . I am really glad to have that support system in Meridian .”
Despite the outcome of “ The Voice ,” Brand said she has learned so much from the experience and eventually plans to move to Nashville and pursue a career either in country music or Christian music .
“ I want to be an artist and I want to be a musician . To me , it doesn ’ t really matter how big I make it ,” she said , “ as long as I make my living off of doing music , then that is what I want to do .”
Photo by Miss Mississippi Corporation
Holly Brand wins the talent competition and the crown at the 2021 Miss Mississippi pageant .
12 • MERIDIAN LIFE