“I’m so nervous every time for song choices, but there’s one song that I play a lot and I think it’s so well written—I wish I wrote it. It’s just from top to bottom spectacular. I have a crazy arrangement for it, so I hope that’s where we go.” The finalists aren’t allowed to reveal their song choices, but they will be singing two: one will be an up-tempo ballad and the other will be a duet with their coaches. Morgan’s coach, of course, is Camila Cabello. Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC “The duet that Camila pitched me, I’m like, ‘Whoo! It’s going to be a challenge, but let’s do it!’” We will find out on Monday night what the two song choices are, but, hopefully, they will have the same impact as her emotional performance of Lady Gaga’s “Always Remember Us This Way” did in the semifinals, which she dedicated to her cousin Mac, who died of glioblastoma at 33 years of age. Morgan’s parents were in the audience for the semifinals. Her mother, Karen, had tears in her eyes and her father, Dan, had his hand on his heart, which she could see see from her position behind the piano on the stage. Furthermore, was the fact that she was the closing act for the night and it all added up to a night even more emotional than normal. “Mac, my cousin, died three years ago on Dec. 9, so it’s a tough time of year for us,” Morgan said after the performance. “It’s sad for our family to have brain cancer in our genetics. [Her grandfather also died from brain cancer.] The message was, ultimately for my family, but cancer affects us all, and we have to focus on the positive, which is all the good memories and that makes me emotional. Honestly, I was shaking for a while even coming back to my hotel.” Astute observers of Morgan’s performance will notice that in the last 10 seconds or so of “Always Remember Us This Way,” it appeared that she wasn’t going to be able to finish the song. “My throat closed like you’re about to cry because I saw my mom’s face,” she explained. “It’s your life flashing, all your past flashing, and it’s a grateful cry. It’s just you miss people that left a hole in your life. It changed our family for the rest of our lives. We had some good times, and you just miss those people. That’s what it really is. It’s that good cry of how grateful we were to have him a part of our lives.” In previous conversations with Morgan, she’s discussed the fact that she considers herself a country/soul singer. That said, the songs she has chosen to perform on The Voice haven’t necessarily been country songs, but songs that she’s put her own spin on. “This is why I absolutely love Camila because she has 100 percent backed me,” Morgan said when asked if she feels it’s essential to do a country song for the finale. “It’s always about finding a really, really, well-written song. A well-written song can stand on its own legs with an acoustic guitar or a piano, and then arrangement comes afterwards. If it can’t stand on its own lyrically, melodically, then it isn’t a good song. It’s not about all the bells and whistles. It’s about the furniture in the room and you can’t lose it in the verses. It has to be good from top to bottom. I am glad that Camila really, really backs me on that.” Whether she wins The Voice or not on Tuesday night, it’s obvious that someone in Nashville should want to sign her to their record label, and her plan for her album is the same one she employed on The Voice. She wants her album more than anything to sound like her and contain well-written tunes. “I want the songs to be undeniably well written and I want it to sound like me with the arrangement lending itself to the lyric and what the message of the song is about first and foremost,” she said. “We let that be the foundation and then you build around it. Sometimes I think people just do too much. Everyone’s trying to be something that’s new and different. I think the opposite. Let the story stand for what it stands for. That’s a lot of times where I’m kind of trying to push it back. Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC “Through this process, I’ve learned I do really appreciate the message in the story and the art of storytelling. That has been so vividly clear throughout this. I’ve obviously been raised in a way through Nashville of you’ve got to start a song. I’m really glad that that’s been my journey on The Voice, but it’s been my journey in Nashville, too, so it’s honestly lining up.” The final night of performances of Season 22 of The Voice will air Monday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC. The finale with the announcement of the winner airs Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Next, Make Your Voice Heard! How To Vote on The Voice Season 22
