Sebastian relives 'The Voice' audition

• Sebastian

Hebron native Gwen Sebastian performed on NBC’s singing competition show, “The Voice,” where she chose to join “Team Blake,” coached by country music star Blake Shelton.

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Gwen Sebastian is still riding an adrenaline rush from her audition on NBC’s “The Voice.” The Hebron native’s performance aired Monday, but was recorded months ago.

“To be honest with you, right now, I’m still about as excited as that day it happened,” Sebastian said Tuesday during a phone interview from her Nashville, Tenn., home. “I relived it again last night. It’s almost as if it happened twice.”

She got the attention of three celebrity judges singing Sugarland’s “Stay” and is now on Blake Shelton’s team.

“This is the biggest thing that’s ever happened to me — absolutely the biggest thing,” Gwen said. “I love performing and I’ll sing in front of two people or now it’s in front of millions.”

During the show, Shelton called Gwen “a great country vocalist.”

“You have every quality,” he said. “You are tender in the right places and you are powerful in the right places, and it matches the lyrics. I just think you really know what you are doing. You have a great sound and you’re developed.”

Gwen has put off her dream of having children for music, she said.

“I’ve come to the point where if I don’t continue with music and don’t continue to try, I’m probably going to regret that,” she said. “Ultimately, I would like to have a family and continue to sing and share my music.”

She and family members had to keep quiet about the audition until it aired and continue to be tight-lipped about what’s to come.

“We all had to sign papers saying we couldn’t disclose anything to anybody,” said Debbie Sebastian, Gwen’s mother. “It was something to be so excited about, but yet we couldn’t say hardly a thing.”

Gwen said, “It was like a release,” when the auditioned aired.

Since then, she has thousands of new followers on Twitter and has been overwhelmed with phone calls and texts, Gwen said.

“We have lots of relatives across the United States,” Debbie said. “Everybody’s connecting now again.”

Gwen grew up on a farm near Hebron and said her parents are her biggest mentors.

“Of course, they’re my parents and so they’re going to be mentors in my life, you know, in general,” she said. “As far as music goes, that’s who I first played with and that’s where I learned it all from.”

Gwen has been singing and performing since she was young and was in a band called Wyld Stallions in high school, former band mate Chris Tibor said.

“It’s exciting to see … a hometown girl have some success out there in the big music business,” Tibor said. “It’s in both of our blood, I guess, so I kind of figured she’d probably go on to do something with it.”

Gwen is a recording artist for Flying Island Entertainment. During her break from “The Voice,” she has continued writing music.

“I’ll still be doing my shows and stuff like that and playing until the next event with ‘The Voice,’” she said. “I’m not exactly sure the time span on it with everything that’s happening, but hopefully we’ll have a new single that we’ll be able to get out to the radio very soon.”

She is unsure when she will appear again on the show.

“You have to watch the show to find out what happens,” Gwen said.

She and her family are grateful for the support they have had with the audition.

“I would love to say thank you to everybody that’s been behind me and especially my North Dakota friends and family,” Gwen said.

Tags: gwen sebastian, the voice, blake shelton, news, singing, nbc