Former MVHS Student Featured on National TV Show “I See Your Voice”

Kaylee Johnson-Bradley is a name known to Mt. Vernon’s 2020 graduating class by all 344 graduating students. But, Kaylee is also known by thousands by another name: Journalism Student. She is known this way because she was featured on the internationally-acclaimed TV show “I Can See Your Voice,” where she sang in front of a host of judges and a contestant. 

The premise of the game Kaylee was in is simple: a contestant guesses which of two presented singers is the bad singer based off of a lip synced song. The contestant chooses who they think is the bad singer, and then gets a cash prize accordingly when the person is revealed through a second song to be a good or bad singer.

On season two, episode three, Kaylee, known as Journalism Student on the show, appeared as part of the final lip-sync pairing on the show. Kaylee sang “Dangerous Woman” by Arriana Grande initially, while Star Athlete initially lip-synced “Diamonds” by Rhianna. The panel included Kelly Osborne, Brian Austin Green, Kelly Rowland, Adrienne Houghton, and Cheryl Hines, who deliberated for several minutes before the contestant used a feature called “the golden mic” to talk to J.B. Smoove, who gave his opinion, leading to the contestant thinking that Jurnalism Student was the bad singer. 

The contestant eliminated her, which meant that she got to go up onstage and show her voice. She sang “If I Were A Boy” by Beyoncé. Both songs performed were clearly trained for, with clear notes and sustains that show the effort put into them, and the impressive range only further wowed several of the judges, who had been split almost 50-50 on who was the good singer. On the show, after she finished singing, the judges asked a few questions, one being why she wanted to do the show. During that question, she mentioned hoping that it would help jump-start her singing career. 

And, luckily for her, it did. “The show definitely helped [jump-start my career],” Kaylee mentioned. “I’ve gotten a lot more followers on Tik Tok, a lot more followers on Instagram, and I’ve had lots of people reach out to me and tell me how amazing my performance was.” 

However, singing is not the only thing Kaylee does. She is actually a journalism student, going to Butler, where she is currently majoring in both Journalism and Communicative Sciences and Disorders. “What I’m hoping for is using one of my two majors and having that as a full-time career and then doing singing as a hobby,” she said. “To have gigs around the city […] and then if something comes out of the singing career, where I can support myself with music, then I will do that as a career instead.”

The show itself, though, according to Kaylee, was the best part of it. “It was a once in a lifetime opportunity,” she said. “I was so blessed to be able to go.” 

She mentioned that all the producers and staff that she worked with on the show were great, and that it was a wonderful trip, getting to not only go to Los Angeles to film it, but also being able to be on Hollywood sets and see all of the behind-the-scenes things that go into creating shows,

However, there was one thing that she was particularly looking forward to. “The whole experience was wonderful, but I think my best experience was probably performing on stage, in front of the judges,” she stated. “Kelly Rowland is an icon of mine, so I was so excited I got to perform in front of her, and then she was cheering me on.”

And she even attributes a lot of her success to being in the Mt. Vernon School system. “If I didn’t go to Mt. Vernon,” she said, “I don’t think I ever would have had the career I have now. I started out in the 6th grade talent show, shout out to Mr. Falkenburg, and throughout his talent shows I got better at stage performing and working vocally, and after middle school I went into high school and Mrs. Davis’s theater program. That was phenomenal, that really helped with moving onstage and building that confidence to perform.” 

She went on, stating, “It helped vocally as well; so, without being at Mt. Vernon specifically, I don’t think I would have the singing career I do now.”

And now she is even giving back to the same shows that helped her in middle school, as she is going to be one of the judges for this year’s Mount Vernon Middle School talent show. “I’m excited to come back,” she said, citing that she was happy to be able to be a judge on something that helped her so exponentially.

Either way, though, the show itself seemed to be a great success for Kaylee that has only helped her opportunities grow. “Everything was like a dream,” she said. “It was phenomenal, and the whole experience was better than I had even hoped.”