About ten years ago, a teenager from Knoxville, Tennessee, walked onto the stage of NBC’s “The Voice” and kept on going until the very last night. Emily Ann Roberts was 16. She sang on the team of country star Blake Shelton, her coach that season, and she finished runner-up on Season 9.
A lot of singers fade after a show like that. Emily kept working.
Now she’s up for New Artist of the Year at the 60th CMA Awards, which air Wednesday, Nov 18, at 8 PM ET on ABC and Disney+. She almost didn’t believe it was coming. When the nominees were read on Sept 10, she was watching from her tour bus. Before her name came up, she said, “I don’t think it’s gonna be this year.”
It was.
If you never saw her back then, this clip of 16-year-old Emily singing “I Hope You Dance” on “The Voice” shows the voice that got her all the way to the finale.
A 16-year-old Emily Ann Roberts sings “I Hope You Dance” on “The Voice”
These days Emily has a second following, too. She and her husband, Chris Sasser, run “Sasser House,” a social channel about their home, their garden, canning and crochet. It has brought her plenty of new fans who may never have watched a singing show in their lives.
But one song she put out this year is all about her father.
It’s called “Things You Didn’t Know,” and it’s her tribute to her dad. She wrote it at a songwriting retreat with Trent Willmon, Michael Farren and Laura Veltz. When she talked about it to AntiMusic in May, she talked about the way he lived.
“He hasn’t had an easy life, but he never let the hard times define him,” Emily said.
That’s the line. He never let the hard times define him.
She didn’t spell out what those hard times were, and she doesn’t need to. Plenty of readers grew up with a dad like that, a man who carried his troubles quietly and still showed up every day.
She also said what he gave her. “He modeled hard work, how to be a friend, and introduced me to all his favorite records,” she said. And the part that sums it up best: “He taught me so many things, but I know I learned the most just by watching how he lived.”
This is the song she wrote for him, and it’s worth listening with that line in mind.
The song Emily Ann Roberts wrote for her dad
Emily shared a sweet little family moment, too. Before Emily played The Listening Room with country singer Vince Gill, her mom and dad came to town. “My parents had breakfast with us because they had traveled in from East Tennessee,” she said.
So on Nov 18, when the New Artist category comes up, there’s a good chance two proud parents from East Tennessee will be watching closely. Their girl has come a long way from that “Voice” stage. And her dad now has a whole song that tells him how she sees him.