Ruby Leigh Initially Thought of Her Audition for 'The Voice' as a Joke

Ruby Leigh

On Monday night’s Top 12 performances on The Voice, Reba McEntire’s 16-year-old yodeler Ruby Leigh tackled a Reba song with her performance of “You Lie.”

“You blew it out of the water,” her coach complimented her, wiping tears from her eyes. “That was spectacular. The way you can hold a note is so powerful. Gwen [Stefani] and I are bawling!”

In an exclusive interview with Parade, Ruby explained that she had this song on her list, but it was Reba who made the final decision for her to sing it.

“She was telling me that it's actually the hardest song she sings, so for her to pick it for me, telling me that she thinks I could do it well, is quite incredible,” Ruby continued. “So, I was very happy with my song. It shows off a lot of different parts of my vocal range. The crowd was amazing and seeing Reba and Gwen cry, it's just like ‘Wow!’ you don't expect that. And Reba coming over and giving me encouraging words and telling me that I did a great job and slayed that song, it was amazing.”

What makes it even more remarkable is that the 16-year-old self-taught singer from Foley, Missouri, first auditioned for The Voice as a joke. Her sister had signed her up as a joke, and Ruby went into it as a prank.

“I auditioned with a bunch of rock songs dressed up like super country,” she says. “I made it through a bunch of the rounds and then I remember near the end, the producers were like, ‘We feel you have a great country voice, would you mind singing some country songs?’ I was, ‘That's actually my genre.’”

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So, Ruby moved from her rock songs to country tunes and made it through. It was at that point that she thought, “’Maybe I should take this seriously.’ Then I got the call that they're going to fly me out. Ever since then I'm like, ‘Wow! This is a reality. This isn't just something that I did as a joke thinking it was funny. I’m here now.’”

Ruby attributes part of her reluctance to take her audition seriously to the fact that coming from such a small town, achieving something like appearing on The Voice doesn’t seem like a possibility.

“You don't see yourself doing it,” she continues. “Then when you're doing it, it's like, ‘This is what I want to do forever.’ I started singing when I was 9. I've been playing shows for a long time, for about seven years, and I played my thousandth show here recently. Coming from such a small town, it's so crazy that I'm here in California on a huge TV show in the Top 12. It doesn't seem real. I'm still getting used to the fact that I'm here.”

Tonight Ruby, along with her 11 fellow artists, will learn which nine of them will go through to the semifinals when The Voice airs at 9 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.

Next, See All the Exciting Four-Chair Turns for The Voice Season 24