Maelyn Jarmon is on cloud nine – pastel-colored clouds, to be exact.
The Texas native, 26, was named the Season 16 champ of “The Voice” during Tuesday’s finale, giving John Legend his first win as a coach.
Meeting pop star Taylor Swift was the cherry on top.
“She literally just posted about me on Instagram and I’m freaking out!” Jarmon told USA TODAY Wednesday, referring to a picture of the two singers that Swift shared with her 118 million followers. (No big deal!)
“A huge congratulations to @maelynmusic!! Meeting you made my day,” Swift captioned a duck-face selfie of the pair on Instagram after her finale performance of “Me!” with Brendon Urie.
And, it’s safe to say Swift made Jarmon’s entire week: “She was such a dream and she was excited to meet me. I’m like, ‘What! Are you kidding me?'”
‘The Voice’ finale: Maelyn Jarmon wins Season 16, handing John Legend his first win as a coach
The moment was just one of many as Jarmon celebrated winning the NBC singing competition after successfully taking down Team Blake Shelton’s Gyth Rigdon, Dexter Roberts and Andrew Sevener.
“I was absolutely intimidated. That was a lot of country boys to go up against,” Jarmon says. Despite being the most streamed “Voice” artist on Apple Music two weeks in a row, she says she had “zero expectations” coming into the finale.
Jarmon first caught the coaches’ eyes during her Blind Audition, as the first four-chair-turn of the season, where she revealed that she is deaf in one ear. Instead of looking at her hearing impairment as a weakness, the “Voice” champ believes it’s her “little superpower” that helped her win the competition.
“People consider it a disability… but it is something that makes you unique and different,” she says. “It’s all about your mindset. If you choose to not make it a disability you can actually make it an advantage.”
That’s exactly what Jarmon did with her flawless pitch and uncanny ability to inject raw emotion into her songs. “I sing off the way I feel and what I’m hearing in the vibrations,” she says.
Jarmon lost hearing in her right ear at age 2 following multiple reconstructive surgeries after tubes meant to treat recurring ear infections damaged her eardrum. She only has 80% hearing in her left ear.
“I had a long time to adjust to it, but oddly enough it helps me hear music in a very different way, and I feel music as much as I hear it,” she said. “Yes, there are struggles with it, but … it makes success that much sweeter.”
As for the family dinner Legend promised Jarmon during a press conference after the finale? “Now that it’s over… we will definitely talk about getting together. I’m just so happy that we’ve gotten to work together already that whatever else happens is just gravy,” she says.
Hopefully Legend’s cookbook author wife, Chrissy Teigen, will whip up some turkey to go with that gravy.
‘The Voice’ finale: Chrissy Teigen strikes back at fans who accused her of spoiling result
