Mobile’s Anna McElroy Goes From ‘Idol’ Letdown to Three-Chair Buzz on ‘The Voice’ Ahead of Cut Week
Mobile native Anna McElroy earned three chair turns and high praise on ‘The Voice’ after being little more than a sight gag on ‘American Idol.’ She credits years of unnoticed beach gigs for preparing her.
MOBILE, Ala. — Whatever else this season of “The Voice” produces, it has given viewers a real look at a Mobile singer that “American Idol” barely showed them.
Anna McElroy, 26, has been one of the season’s most-praised contestants. Her blind audition of Maren Morris’ “80s Mercedes” turned three chairs, with Riley Green, Kelly Clarkson and Queen Latifah competing for her and Adam Levine saying he had missed out.
Then came a battle-round performance that drew even bigger reactions. Queen Latifah called her “a beast.” Levine praised her ability to hit an “amazing” low register, and Green called it “shocking.” Clarkson, whom McElroy picked as her coach, said she has a “solid shot” at winning.
The next test arrives quickly. “Cut Week” airs at 8 p.m. Central on Monday, Nov. 2, when viewers will learn whether McElroy gets a free pass from Clarkson or has to fight her way forward. The two-hour episode will be available for streaming the next day.
The ‘Idol’ experience
The contrast with her last turn on national television is sharp. In 2025, McElroy earned a golden ticket to the Hollywood round of “American Idol.” Not every contestant gets screen time, and some go home before viewers ever hear them sing. McElroy’s most visible moment was in a gag montage of contestants pandering to the judges, where she was glimpsed delivering a tray of cocktails.
She said she came away with real friendships and valuable experience, but the lack of recognition stung.
“Putting yourself out there and then not really getting airtime or any recognition that you were even there was just kind of like, not a great feeling,” she said.
It would have been easy to walk away from reality TV after that, and she admits she wasn’t sure she wanted to try again. At the last minute, she decided she had nothing to lose.
“I gotta try, just keep putting myself out there and taking opportunities when they come. And I’m so glad that I did. It’s been the best experience,” she said.
From Spring Hill to the beach bars
That persistence has deep roots. McElroy grew up singing at Spring Hill Baptist Church, and she said she showed signs of “the music bug” when she was just 3 or 4 years old. Her parents, Will and Melissa McElroy, have old home videos documenting it.
She started playing guitar around age 6 and got more serious as a tween. By about 16, she was playing gigs at venues from Mobile to Orange Beach.
Anyone who has spent time on the Gulf Coast knows what that work can look like. Restaurants and other spots catering to beach visitors offer enough gigs that a diligent musician can make a living, and that has helped support a strong population of local songwriters and performers. It also means a lot of nights playing cover songs for people more focused on their fried shrimp than on the music.
McElroy looks back on those nights with gratitude.
“I have a lot of gratitude for the fact that I did take all those years to really just play those gigs, and have nobody pay attention to you,” she said. “It’s so awkward, but it’s fun. You know, it builds character and it builds a little more confidence in yourself.”
Making mistakes in small rooms, she said, taught her to recover quickly.
“I think that I feel like it was really educational to be able to just force myself to play the bad notes and sing the wrong things and figure it out,” she said.
A thousand miles a week, then Nashville
Those lessons became more important when she headed for the city she had long had her sights on. In the period leading up to 2020, McElroy was attending college in Tuscaloosa while driving to Nashville “almost like every other day” so she could chase the career she actually wanted.
“Finally in 2020, I was tired of driving over a thousand miles a week,” she said. “So I just packed my bags and moved in with my cousin and really just honed in on the songwriting.”
Nashville has been both a dream and a challenge. The talent level is sky-high, which can be inspiring and daunting at the same time, and audiences in an industry town are sometimes there to evaluate an artist’s commercial potential rather than simply listen.
She said she has loved living there and doesn’t let much get to her, but that playing for a room of evaluators can be stressful. There have been times, she said, when she’s gotten in her own head about being a small fish in a big sea.
Her faith has helped her keep perspective.
“At the end of the day, I think God gave me a talent and a gift, and he brought me here for a reason,” she said. “You’re supposed to go through some trials and tribulations in life.”
She tries to remember that each setback may be leading to the next opportunity and that she might bring something to the table that others can’t.
Choosing Clarkson
“The Voice” has made that outlook easier to hold on to. McElroy said the production staff has been supportive and encouraging, particularly when contestants start to doubt themselves.
“When you get in your head, everybody on the production side was just like, ‘You’re here for a reason. You deserve this,’” she said. “You could really tell that they weren’t just there to do their job, that they actually really cared about everybody.”
Clarkson, she said, was the coach she most wanted all along. She had admired Clarkson’s energy from watching the show and wanted to learn from her as a vocalist.
“She was definitely my first choice. So when she turned around, I was ecstatic. I was like, ‘Let’s go,’” McElroy said.
Working with her has lived up to the hope, she said, describing Clarkson as genuine and warm, and “almost like you’ve known her for your whole life.”
A strong Lower Alabama run
McElroy’s run also continues a good stretch for the region on the show. Another Mobile-area singer, Alexia Jayy, won last season, so a McElroy victory would make it two in a row for Lower Alabama. Grand Bay’s Joe Henley has also advanced this season, winning a battle round on Riley Green’s team.
A new chapter
Whatever happens during Cut Week, McElroy is already thinking about what she wants to do next. She hasn’t released music in a few years, but she said she has been writing steadily and has a batch of songs she believes will show a different side of her.
“I hope that it just maybe opens up a couple more doors and that people also find a way to connect with the songs that I’ve been writing, that I really love,” she said. “So I’m kind of just entering into a new chapter, and I hope that everybody is down for the ride.”
Connecting with people, she said, is the most rewarding part of being an artist. After a decade of playing to whoever happened to be in the room, a national audience is now listening.
How to watch
- What: “The Voice” Cut Week
- When: Monday, Nov. 2, at 8 p.m. Central; two hours
- Streaming: Available the next day
