Tessanne Chin Opens Up About Retreating From The Limelight After ‘The Voice’

Jamaica’s prized songbird Tessanne Chin sat down with Yendi Phillipps on her YouTube series, the Odyssey last Sunday for a pretty enchanting and candid conversation about her interest in music from childhood to the icon she is now. We got some insight on her experience during The Voice, her obsession with Dancehall music and the reason why we haven’t really heard much from her of late, well apart from her newfound mom status.

After winning season 5 of NBC’s reality TV singing competition, The Voice in 2013, and also making history as the show’s only foreign-born competitor to take home the prize, the anticipation of wanting to see Tessanne’s career reach an all time high was amplified beyond measure from her fellow islanders and fans.

Chin went on to sign with Universal Records, as part of her winnings and subsequently released her major-label debut album, Count On My Love in the summer of 2014. Things didn’t quite materialize how everyone expected however, Tessanne never achieved that big mainstream break and unfortunately went through a very public divorce shortly after.

Fast-forward to today, the now re-wedded 34-year-old mom opened up with Yendi about her personal battles during then. Tessanne said there came a point when she felt so much resentment towards The Voice that she stopped watching the show and particularly the season she appeared in.

“I had a hard time looking back at things to do with The Voice for a very long time… I think it was connected to everything that happened after … which was not what everyone expected, not what I expected, and I just felt like this massive big disappointment, I felt like an absolute failure,” she said.

While Tessanne held her head high, she knew she still had a responsibility to her people and her fans. She would do appearances and concerts when she was called on but ultimately slowed down. So much so that she even stopped writing music. Her epiphany would come eventually, “You have to reckon with what your life is versus what you thought it would be or what you thought your dreams were,” she said as she took Yendi through her road to self-healing and finding happiness again.

On to the fun and games, Tessanne was called out by the former beauty queen on some inside info she received; “I never know you were a connoisseur in the music of the Dancehall” she swirled off her tongue in something like a French accent. “Oh Jesas, is my guilt girl, its my guilty pleasure,” Tessanne responded. It didn’t take Yendi long to pull out some fun music trivia games to test Tessanne’s musical dexterities in the genre.

Watch the full episode of Tessanne on the Odyssey with Yendi to hear more about her journeys in music and insightful life lessons, along with her silly attempt to sing Stylo G’s, Dumpling like Celine Dion and more.