Everyone knows you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but it’s a habit that’s hard to break. As humans, we’re biologically designed to make snap judgments about people in an instant— and it was a critical ability in evolutionary times. “Eons ago, this capability was of life-and-death importance,” Pam Belluck of the New York Times explains, “and humans developed the ability to gauge other people within seconds.”
On its simplest level, judging people by appearances “means putting them quickly into impersonal categories, much like deciding whether an animal is a dog or cat.” However, in the modern world, this type of stereotyping tends to play out in negative ways. Whether it be someone not getting hired for an “ethnic” name, the color of their skin, or their religion of choice, we’ve put rules in place to avoid harmful discrimination. Interestingly, this practice is now being applied to reality TV competitions, as well.
The Voice of Holland (the predecessor to The Voice series) was one of the first shows to apply “blind auditions” to a televised talent competition. Essentially, they were trying to remove appearances from the judging mix. Since then, the show’s blind auditions have become a highlight for fans, as well as being one of the most popular parts of the series.
Most recently, one blind audition took the world by storm, being “sneak leaked” onto the internet and achieving viral fame before the episode had even aired!
The video features the O’Donoghue siblings performing a haunting, harmonic rendition of Tracey Chapman’s “Fast Car”.
Katelyn, 21, Liam, 18, and Kasey, 15, were raised on a cattle station in northern Queensland and have been performing together for the past 9 years. The siblings call themselves “Homegrown” and boast a country-soul type of sound.
The group’s first performance was at the Gympie Music Muster’s talent quest, but most recently, they decided to test their skills in the big leagues, auditioning for The Voice Australia.
“We’ve been watching The Voice every year, so it was definitely a dream of ours to get onto the show and show Australia what we can do with our harmonies and music,” Katelyn said.
As the siblings begin their performance, with Katelyn at the center and Liam boasting a guitar, the females’ hauntingly melodic voices flood the stage.
At this point, Liam is only strumming the guitar, but the judges already seem entranced by Homegrown’s style.
“Oh, that’s cool!” Judge Delta Goodrem exclaims. The others nod their heads in agreement.
Finally, Liam begins to sing the second verse.
And the judges’ eyes pop out of their heads!
That’s the fun part about the blind auditions; they didn’t even seem to realize there was a male on stage. I’m not sure why that would be so much more exciting, but maybe there’s just more potential with a male voice in the mix.
Within a second of Liam’s opening, Joe Jonas smashes the buzzer with a smirk.
Soon, the rest of the judges follow suit.
The siblings were no doubt overjoyed by their reception— but even more so since Katelyn was battling a cold at the time!
“The hardest part about being sick was that I didn’t want to let these guys [siblings] down,” she said.
“It’s a really nice feeling to be standing up there with people who are supporting you.”
“We know each other’s strengths,” Kasey added. We know when to stop pushing each other and know when to be understanding.”
See their mesmerizing performance below!
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