ST. LOUIS - The Top 12 are battling it out on NBC's the Voice but the singer representing St. Louis this season wasn't on stage. Last week, Tish Haynes Keys was eliminated.
"The first thing I thought to myself is like 'Tish, exit gracefully,'" she said. "It's not even so that I'm sad that I feel like I lost or anything like that. It's kind of the feeling that it's reality. I'm back to cooking, back to washing clothes and stuff like that."
Tish grew up in University City. Last summer, she said she was more than 40,000 people auditioning for the show.
Tish made it to the Blind Auditions, Battle Rounds, Knockout Rounds and the Playoffs. After spending months away from home, with just a few visits back to St. Louis in between, Tish made it to the Top 24.
"If it's any person to make it to the end of this show, I think it's going to be Christiana Danielle," Tish said as she watched the show for the first time since she was cut.
Tish said when she was on the show, her days were planned. Stylists picked out her outfits and touched up her hair. Although she’s back to reality, she took some of the glam home to St. Louis, including dresses she wore during competitions, and In-Ear, which is an earpiece celebrity singers use to hear the music on stage. Tish also brought her journal. Her coach, Kelly Clarkson, signed it.
But the Voice didn't just leave her with material things. Tish says the show also gave her friendship with the other singers.
"I talk to D.R. King pretty much every day," she said.
The show gave her a lot of new fans, too. Two songs she sang on the Voice have more than one million YouTube views. Sweet Thing, which she sang as a duet with Rayshun LaMarr, made it to number eight on the iTunes R&B Charts.
Her success on the show is already leading to new opportunities.
"Thankfully, I have already started getting calls," Tish said. "I have music that I had shelved. I'm going back to the studio next week. I'm doing a 'thank you' concert. That will be coming up soon. This show did not stop anything. It just put the fire up under me."
Tish says the purpose of her upcoming concert is to thank her fans. She plans to do the show in June and will announce details closer to the date.
