Music has been a passion of Eva Ullman’s since she can remember, and that love is now on a national stage as she is a contestant on NBC’s “The Voice” where she is a member of country star Blake Shelton’s team.
It has been a process that began more than a year ago when she initially to part in virtual auditions for the show.
After the audition, the Ponte Vedra native received a call that she was selected to be on the next season in February 2022 and she has been enjoying the wild ride she has been on ever since.
“I didn’t think I would make it this far, but here I am,” Ullman chuckled. “I did not see my life going this way. It is by far the coolest thing I’ve ever done.”
She is currently living in Boston and is preparing to graduate in May as a senior at Northeastern University.
According to Ullman, it was her roommate that prompted her to tryout for the show in the first place.
Not only was she selected as one of 106 artists out of the hundreds of thousands that auditioned, but she has continued that momentum, but is now competing as one of 56 contestants in the battle round portion of the competition.
However, performing in front of others is nothing new for Ullman, but now she is doing it on the largest stage.
“My parents say that I used to do shows for them when I was really young,” Ullman said. “But it was fifth grade when I really started to realize my talent. My friends and I had this idea to have a girl group, so we held fake tryouts on the playground. They all said I was actually really good.”
After that experience, she went home and asked her parents if she could start taking singing lessons and she has been continually developing her talent in the years that followed.
Ullman eventually became president of the a cappella group at Ponte Vedra High School and she hopes to pursue a career in the music industry after college.
“My dream is to be a song writer, but either way I want to be around that world,” Ullman said.
According to Ullman, song writing is where she feels the most comfortable, and she enjoys when she is able to create a song that others can connect with as well.
“I’ve had songs that just come to me in the moment, and it comes together in 10 minutes, and others where I have to sit there for weeks and think about it,” Ullman said. “My No. 1 goal as a song writer is to make people feel something when they listen to my music.”
The emotion she demonstrates when singing has resonated with the judges on “The Voice” and is a major reason why country music star Blake Shelton chose her to be part of his team and why she has made it this far.
She said that John Legend told her that she put on a “star performance,” during the battle round.
Although it took her a while to find the style that suits her, she believes she has found it and describes her music as pop with an influence of R&B.
According to Ullman, competing on “The Voice” does not only require being a good singer, but also to be strong mentally.
“Doing the battle rounds is a lot of pressure, but I’ve definitely built up a lot of confidence,” Ullman said. “I get really nervous before a performance, but once the song starts I get so locked in that I don’t even remember my whole performance at times looking back. I really do feel at home when I’m on stage.”
She hopes to continue the ride she is on for as long as she can through the knockout rounds and live performance shows. The show is televised Mondays and Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on NBC.
Ullman’s music can be found on Spotify @evaullman and she is active on Instagram and TikTok @the_eva_diva.
