A local artist will have the chance to share the spotlight with a contestant from “The Voice.”
Melanie Martinez, who was on season three of “The Voice,” will be performing at High Dive on Dec. 13, and local talent Kelsi Candelaria was picked to open the event.
The show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets will be $12 in advance and $14 at the door.
Candelaria, 20, a local musician with an associate degree in musical theater, said she used to watch “The Voice,” and Martinez was her favorite contestant.
Candelaria said she will probably perform her song “Valentine,” which went viral on YouTube with about 52,000 views.
Candelaria has performed more than 70 shows since she was 16 and said she incorporates new music at every performance.
“Being on stage, I feel like I get to be the truest version of myself. It’s like a safe place,” she said.
The booking agent picked Candelaria to perform with Martinez because of their similar music and fashion tastes.
It is hard to build a fan base in a college town because people constantly move in and out of the city, Candelaria said, but this also helps spread music.
With so much talent going unnoticed, Candelaria said she wants to enrich Gainesville’s culture and bring more attention to the music scene.
“You have a lot of talented people coming in and out of Gainesville,” she said. “There’s this thing growing under the surface. And it disappoints me that more people don’t know about it. I want Gainesville to be known for music.”
Megan Hill, 21-year-old Santa Fe College student, wrote in an email it is important that artists be appreciated.
Hill said she is a fan of both Candelaria and Martinez’s music and expects to leave the show with goosebumps.
“I’ve watched Melanie Martinez’s videos on YouTube before she was ever on ‘The Voice,’ and I absolutely love Kelsi Candelaria,” Hill said.
A version of this story ran on page 4 on 12/2/2013 under the headline "Gainesville artist to team up with ‘The Voice’ contestant"
