Jacquie Lee is back in the spotlight for this season of American Idol. Photo: Disney/Eric McCandless
Colts Neck’s own Jacquie Lee, a Top 30 finalist on American Idol this season, says she found songwriting to be a happy place while growing up in a Jersey-Italian household that always seemed to be listening to music.
Lee, who in 2013 made it to second place on The Voice, is back in the singing spotlight on this season of American Idol. Having wowed the judges with her rendition of Annie Lennox’s “I Put a Spell on You,” Lee made it through Hollywood Week in Nashville and is appearing in the Top 30 in tonight’s episode, filmed in Hawaii. She will competing alongside fellow Jersey native Jake Thistle, also in the Top 30.
“I decided to go on American Idol for my inner child,” Lee tells New Jersey Monthly. “I’m just excited to be able to be on this platform.”
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Lee says her family’s love for music ignited her passion for making it, citing her father’s Nicolette Larson CDs and Jersey artists like Lauryn Hill. Once, seeing Hill perform for MTV Unplugged, Lee says something in her soul “caught on fire,” she recalls. “I thought, That is an artist that is so authentic and just says what she needs to say.”
When she was 15, Lee auditioned for season five of The Voice, where she sang Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black.” Her electrifying performance secured her a spot on Christina Aguilera’s team for the season, and she eventually placed runner-up to winner Tessanne Chin.
“Starting young has helped me find my voice and what I want to contribute into the world as an artist,” says Lee. “There were a lot of learning curves, and definitely moments that could have broken me, especially starting as a teenage girl.”
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After The Voice, Lee was signed to a label while she was still in high school and began touring. By the time all of her friends began going off to college, she was still following music. She struggled with industry pressures. “I was still searching for myself and who I was as an artist,” she recalls. “I felt like I was being pushed very fast in a certain direction, and…like I was getting boxed in before I knew who I was.” She came to realize that she wouldn’t pursue music if she couldn’t have “freedom of expression.”
After moving to Los Angeles and learning to navigate the industry as a young woman, Lee began to produce and mixmusic for herself rather than the pop circuit. She has since released four EPs, which draw influence from her favorite genres, including soul, jazz and indie rock.
“The beautiful part about being an artist is you get to shed so many layers of skin,” she says. “And it is really painful, but it’s also really cool, because you’re constantly growing and evolving into a better version of yourself.”
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Lee’s newest endeavor? Uploading singing videos to YouTube, shot in one take as a way of capturing raw, real performances. The first video features an original song, “You’ve Got Time.”
“Just keep an eye on me,” Lee says. “You never know what’s coming around the corner for me.”
The pair will be in conversation at NJPAC later this month about Senator Booker’s new book, Stand.
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