Annie Mulry, senior communications major and music minor, said she would audition for “The Voice” again in a heartbeat. The Orion sat down with her for a Q&A; about her experience, her song choice and her undeniable passion for music.

The Orion:
What was the most exciting part about that experience?

Mulry: Well, you know what was funny? The build-up of this was really, really fun and getting called to go and getting to go to LA was amazing, but for me the actual audition was so eye-opening and made me realize how much I would love to keep doing this.

Because it was really… I mean, I’ve never done anything like this, you know? I’ve done American Idol, I’ve done things here and there, but they were the open calls. So I had never been that far and advanced, and that was what was so cool about this. Honestly, walking in there was probably the most exciting part for me. It was cool. It was really cool.

The Orion: Did you sing in front of producers? If so, how many?

Mulry:

I want to say there were three people sitting
down; a camera man, a sound guy and then another girl. The lights were really bright and they wanted me to
look at the camera. They didn’t want me to look at them.


The Orion: What was it like singing in front of all those people?

Mulry: That was probably one of the things that threw me off a little bit. You have to stare into this camera. There’s this “X” mark at the bottom that you had to stand in front of, and then while I was singing, the guy was pointing at the camera. So if he ever noticed that I was looking down at them, they would be like, look back and point at the camera.

And I think there were screens in front of them that we were getting played on. I think we were getting played in a screen in front of them, and they probably wanted to see what we looked like on TV. So yeah, there was a lot going on in my head, to be honest, while I was doing it.

The Orion: What did the producers say to you?

Mulry: You originally go in with three songs and so you kind of have in your head. “Oh, I’m going to hopefully sing these three songs.” For me, I sang my first song. I got to go all the way through it, and then the woman that was sitting there said, “Thank you so much for singing for us today but we’re good.”
I was like, okay! I said, “Okay, thank you so much,” and I walked out. And that was it.

The Orion: You only sang one song? What song was it?

Mulry: I sang “Counting Stars” by OneRepublic. There were popular songs that you could hear being sung, people practicing, and that was one. “Wrecking Ball” was one and that was my second song. So if I could go back now, I probably would’ve done my third song “Pour Some Sugar On Me” by Def Leppard. I would’ve done that first.

The Orion: You are a music minor. Has music been just a hobby or something that you plan on pursuing after college?

Mulry: You know what? I’ve been very off and on about that, but after I did this I was just like, “I have to do this.” Like, I wish I had more experience going into it because I know that’s what I needed. I should be auditioning for things constantly and getting that rejection because the more and more I do it, the better and better I’ll get.

And I’d love to pursue music, and even if I don’t end up singing — I mean, I’ll always sing — I would love to tie in communications and music together. Just working in the entertainment industry, I think, would be really fun because that’s what I love.

The Orion:

What did this experience teach you? As a person?
As a singer?


Mulry: As a person, I think what it taught me was it’s so good to put yourself out there, because I think in life in general, regardless of this audition, you’re going to get knocked down, and you’re going to get told “no” probably more times then you are going to get told “yes.” So I think it was a really good learning experience for me in the sense of just learning how to handle rejection.

As far as a singer, it kind of goes hand in hand, because singing can be a very vulnerable thing when you put yourself out there. And the music industry is so tough. It’s yep, no, hit-or-miss, whatever it may be. So yeah, I think overall just putting myself out there, taking the chance, being told “no,” but still wanting to do it, you know what I mean? Because I woke up the next morning and I was just, I want to do it again. I wanted to go do it again.

Nicole Santos can be reached at [email protected] or Iam_NicoleS on Twitter.