On Tuesday evening, singer Maelyn Jarmon was crowned the winner of NBC’s The Voice Season 16. There were a few things that set the 26-year-old Texas native apart from the season’s three other finalists. She was the only female remaining, she was not a country artist, and she made it through the competition with only half of her hearing.
Jarmon is completely deaf in one ear, but she has never allowed it to ruin her passion for singing. In fact, she told Hollywood Life earlier this week that her deafness was actually an advantage on The Voice .
“I have always considered [being deaf] a super power since I was young,” the singer said. “It was never discussed as a disability throughout my house and it was never really talked about much at all.”
When Jarmon was only 2-years-old, she had tubes inserted into her ears to help treat chronic ear infections. However, the tubes damaged her ears. She was left with no hearing in her right ear and 80 percent in her left ear.
As contestants on The Voice , Jarmon and her competitors had to wear in-ear monitors for their performances. The in-ears allow singers to better hear the music. Jarmon had never used these devices prior to The Voice , so she was a bit shocked when they stopped working halfway through one of her performances last week.
“I couldn’t hear anything anymore,” she said of the incident.
However, Jarmon was able to power through because she did have experience singing without hearing the music.
“That has happened to me a lot of times before the show because sometimes I can’t hear and will go based off of feeling, so I was able to do that in that moment [last week] because of practice with that in the past,” Jarmon continued. “So yeah, [being deaf] has sometimes been an issue, but most times it’s an advantage, oddly enough.”
As The Inquisitr previously reported, Jarmon made it to the Top 4 as the last remaining artist on newcomer coach John Legend’s team. She competed in the finale against three of longtime coach Blake Shelton’s team members — Gyth Rigdon, Dexter Roberts, and Andrew Sevener.
Coaches Adam Levine and Kelly Clarkson were eliminated in the Top 8 results last week. Following Jarmon’s performance on Monday evening, Levine predicted that she would be the winner.
Likewise, Legend stated that the Top 4 was full of talented artists this season, but Jarmon deserved to take home the win, according to People .
