When Cherry Hill native Natalia Albertini stepped onto NBC’s The Voice stage this fall, she had one goal; to make just one celebrity judge spin their chair.
“I just kept saying, I just want one chair,” she recalls. “There are people you’d love to have, but all I wanted was one person to turn because that meant I’d be on the show.”
That turn came almost immediately – from none other than legendary rapper and producer Snoop Dogg, one of the show’s newest celebrity coaches. “I saw it happen out of the corner of my eye, but I had to keep going,” says Albertini, who acknowledged the moment with a little wave and big smile, without skipping a beat.
In that instant, she earned her place on Season 28 of the long-running competition, joining Snoop’s team and realizing a childhood dream.
“I started this when I was 9,” she says. “It’s so crazy to think about now. So many people audition. Only a few actually get to do this. I feel lucky it was my turn.”
She decided not to ask for advice from friends who’d been through The Voice before, knowing she needed to experience it herself. “You have to figure it out on your own,” she says. “That’s the only way you get stronger. You just have to be you.”
Albertini, now 25, grew up in Cherry Hill in a family where music was always in the air. Her parents met when her dad fronted a techno band, and her mom danced in his videos.
Her dad later set music aside to work at Westmont Party, the family’s longtime Haddon Twp. business, while encouraging his daughter to run with her dreams.
“They were always the reason I could chase this,” she says. “They worked opposite schedules just so I could get to lessons and shows.”
Albertini graduated from Camden Catholic High School, where she performed in every musical she could. After earning a degree in vocal performance and music business from Berklee College of Music in Boston, she returned to South Jersey 2 years ago to build a life onstage – waitressing, nannying and singing at weddings with the Sid Miller Dance Band.
Between gigs, she continued to send out audition tapes, including regular submissions to The Voice.
“I auditioned so many times,” she says. “People think it happens overnight, but it’s years of trying, hearing no, and trying again.”
Some singers might see all those “no’s” as reasons to give up. Albertini didn’t. “Every ‘no’ just made me want to keep going,” she says. “There’s really no final ‘no.’”
That persistence paid off.
After joining Team Snoop, she was in the thick of the dream, quickly learning that performing on national TV was unlike anything she’d done before.
“It’s difficult,” she says. “People don’t realize just how long the process is. We’d be on camera all day and then go back to the hotel and still practice. But I came out of the show feeling like my best self. I was authentic through the whole experience.”
That spirit carried into the Battle Rounds, where she faced fellow contestant Yoshihanaa – a powerhouse R&B singer from Florida – in a duet of Aretha Franklin’s classic “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.”
Their performance brought the celebrity coaches to their feet. During rehearsal, pop superstar Lizzo, serving as a guest coach that week, threw a shoe across the stage and shouted, “When 2 divas come together and diva out, I live!” At the live performance, Snoop wiped away tears. “My left eye won’t stop crying, but it’s tears of joy,” he said.
When it came time to choose, Snoop named Yoshihanaa the winner. But moments later hit his one “Save” button to keep Albertini on his team. “That performance was so strong and so heartfelt,” Snoop said. “She was too good to be on somebody else’s team and too good to go home.”
Michael Bublé agreed, telling the panel that he admired her control and discipline and that, had it been his call, “today’s Battle would have been won by Natalia.”
For Albertini, hearing that kind of praise – and watching Snoop press the Save – was surreal. “He easily could have said, ‘We’ve had enough of Natalia,’ but he didn’t,” she says. “He wanted to keep me going. That meant everything.”
Her time in the spotlight continued into the Knockout Round, where she performed Stevie Wonder’s “I Wish.” Although Snoop ultimately chose her teammate to move forward, Albertini says she has no regrets.
“I picked that song because I wanted to show my fun side,” she says. “I sang, I danced, and I was authentic.”
Looking back, she says The Voice taught her lessons she couldn’t have learned anywhere else. “You learn how to perform under pressure, how to be filmed, how to take direction – but you also learn who you are,” she says. “I went into that show a different person than I came out of it. I went in scared. I was nervous. I was all the above, and I came out my best self.”
Now she’s channeling that momentum into what comes next – writing and recording new songs, collaborating with friends she made on The Voice and preparing to visit them in Nashville. “I’m getting my demos ready,” she says. “The work doesn’t stop just because the show is over. If anything, it’s just beginning.”
Rooted in South Jersey but open to wherever this moment leads, Albertini says there was never a backup plan.
“This is the only thing I’ve ever wanted,” she adds. “That’s why it’s going to work – because it has to.”
