Can Blake Shelton’s Jersey Girl Win “The Voice”? [VIDEO]

As we have seen American Idol and Dancing With The Stars struggle to match their last season's success (and come up short), The Voice continues to be the shining star of the NBC lineup.  One story developing as the show kicked off the live shows last night involves one Jersey Girl and her attempt to get her singing career back for one more shot toward success.

Jessica Poland came on The Voice for a 2nd chance at her singing dreams.  Like in many competitions a good back-story can help your chances, and this 24-yr-old has got one.

Jessica is a born and bred Jersey Girl from Wall Township - an area in southern Monmouth County not far from the beaches, and known back in the day for Wall Stadium (a short track speedway where numerous NASCAR stars got their early starts).  Jessica was adopted, met her birth mother at 13,  battled back from a rare disease called condylar resorption (this caused hers jaws to literally begin breaking apart when she was just 16) by having two of her ribs extracted and used to rebuild her face, and managed to do the one thing she thought she would not be able to do in life - sing!

You may be following Jessica on The Voice and may not even realize it, because she goes by her stage name Charlotte Sometimes.  People who followed the Warped Tour a few years back may know this name - back in 2008 she was a part of the tour and the CD compilation that came out around the tour.  Charlotte Sometimes toured while in support of her major label debut CD for Geffen Records ("Waves and The Both of Us"), which did not sell as well as expected.

Dropped from Geffen, 2 CD releases on her own, the next step was The Voice, and her impact was huge in the Blind Audition as she got all 4 judges (Cee-Lo, Christina, Adam Levine, and Blake Shelton) to turn their chairs around with her performance of "Apologize" (her audition has had about 2 Million hits on YouTube).

Her moment on NBC has seen her choose Blake to mentor her and compete to her moment last night in the Top-24.  Blake has dubbed her as someone that "definitely has a shot at winning".  Many have been voting on Charlotte's recent performance on Entertainment Weekly's website, and rated her 5th among the 12 performers last night.  She should make it to the Top-12 based on her take of "Misery Business" (judge for yourself)

If you have not followed The Voice this season, you are missing the NBC show that has seen viewership up 36 percent over last season.  This number has benefited from a second season premiere that directly followed the Super Bowl, but even with that episode discounted viewership is still up by 22 percent.  The show is for real, the format is fresh, and one of Jersey's own has all the ingredients to take the $100,000 prize and a 2nd chance at a recording contract.

Blake had the runner-up on the 1st season of The Voice (Dia Frampton), and he is determined to get a winner!  Go Charlotte Go!

Watch the next 12 compete tonight on The Voice (9pm on NBC).