Usher and Michelle Chamuel pictured at the season finale of "The Voice."
AMHERST – Michelle Chamuel is back.
The 27-year-old who became known to millions on “The Voice” said, “I’m very happy to be in my own home.”
Chamuel has been on whirlwind ever since auditioning for the hit NBC show “The Voice” in March and continuing on Team Usher until the finals this week when she was the runner-up to 16-year-old Danielle Bradbery, of Texas.
She has a Twitter following of nearly 98,000 and more than 81,000 likes on Facebook.
What she wants to do now is rest.
“The best thing I would like to do is relax for a while. Get my head on straight.” When she toured with her indie Ann Arbor-based band Ella Riot, she said they would need a decompression period. Chamuel is a former Ann Arbor resident and University of Michigan graduate.
She described the experience on “The Voice” as incredible. “Everyone is so kind and hardworking and talented. It’s really amazing to me.”
Now what she wants to find is what will bring her “complete fulfillment.”
Rolling Stone called her the “geek-chic indie rocker”. While Chamuel laughed at that moniker, she said she wants to remain independent.
Before she went on “The Voice” she had written, performed and produced an album.
“I’m very excited (about it.)” But she’s not sure about releasing it yet.
It’s very different than the songs such as Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” and Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble” she performed on “The Voice.”
She wonders how it would be accepted. "It’s so different, more indie-type” music. “I would have to reintroduce myself again.”
Any decision will come from “my state of fresh perspective.”
She and Usher, her mentor on "The Voice," also have talked about working together.
But she said for the present, she will be home and in the region. “I have a lot of catching up to do personally. I’m going to try to recoup.”
Her friends believe her career is blooming. At a viewing party of her former Woodstar Café colleagues in Northampton friend Andrea Charette said she was confident that Chamuel's star would rise despite her second place finish.
"She's a winner no matter what," she said. "Her career is going to blossom. I'm excited for her."
