Reality TV

The Voice’s Julee-Anne Bell on her emotional moment with Guy Sebastian and why her blindness doesn’t hold her back

''I will never forget it.''
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Julee-Anne Bell has dedicated her whole life to music, and her appearance on The Voice comes after years of hard work and sacrifice.

She is also unique because she is completely blind, which added extra depth to her performance.

Speaking with TV WEEK, the singing teacher explains that her blindness doesn’t inhibit her freedom or ability to achieve her dreams.

“I’m completely blind. I’ve been blind since birth, but that hasn’t stopped me from doing all the things that I want to do except for driving a car which is probably the only thing I can’t do that I want to,” she reveals.

However, she did feel some pressure and nerves regarding her audition because she believed that she couldn’t mentally prepare like other contestants because her experience watching the show is different.

“I was quite nervous because I really did consider myself to be at a disadvantage because everybody else auditioning for the voice had been watching for years and been able to kind of get a sense of what the set looks like and what the auditionees did.

“You know how far they walked in and did they have to climb steps and did they have to go through doors and what did they do,” she explains.

“And I actually felt quite a disadvantage because when I watched programs like that with people, that really wasn’t the stuff that we talked about because it was just never something I really needed to know.”

“I’m completely blind. I’ve been blind since birth, but that hasn’t stopped me.”

(Credit: Instagram)

Julee-Anne didn’t need to worry because her audition resulted in a tender moment between her and judge Guy Sebastian.

Beguiled by her voice, Guy decided to join her on stage for a song, leaving The Voice’s audience in awe.

The soloist and choir member reveals how she felt in the moment and why she wishes she could have anticipated the life-changing duet.

“When Guy was standing there next to me, I just tried to sort of drink in every aspect of, you know, how it felt to have been standing there and how it sounded and everything and so it was just, it was such a special thing,” she says.

“And I will never forget it. I only wish that I got to sing with him again in a circumstance where we could rehearse and really, really do something amazing.”

The singer also has her own teaching business.

(Credit: Instagram)

Julee-Anne Bell’s journey to The Voice stage hasn’t been easy because in 2011, she was a victim of the disastrous floods that submerged the western suburbs of Brisbane.

The singer recalls the devastating loss of her home’s bottom story, which she and her family and to save themselves because the council didn’t register their location as a food risk.

“We just had to do it all ourselves because we just weren’t even registered as being an area that’s going to flood.

“I just tried to sort of drink in every aspect of, you know, how it felt.”

(Credit: Instagram)

“We got some stuff out, but not a lot of stuff we lost our family photos. We lost a lot of stuff. And it was a, it was really frightening because I just had never encountered anything like this I really didn’t know,” remembers Julee-Anne.

Luckily, because her family had taken out flood insurance, they were able to get back on their feet after some time.

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