Lexington’s singing sister trio ‘Sorelle’ shine on ‘The Voice’ stage

Editor’s Note

On April 24, Sorelle competed against singer Tiana Goss from Los Angeles, performing “Blame It On the Boogie” by The Jackson 5. The sisters were chosen by their coach Chance the Rapper to advance to the playoffs, which start on May 1.

LEXINGTON — The Heichel sisters have always been comfortable on stage. 

From musical performances at Lexington High School to pageants at the Renaissance Theatre and VidCon conventions in Los Angeles, sisters Madi, Ana and Bella have never shied away from the spotlight. 

“I’m very much an introvert in real life, but when I’m on stage, I can get in people’s faces and sing my heart out,” said 22-year-old Madi Heichel. “It’s very different, I feel more comfortable on a stage than I do walking around in everyday life.” 

This fearlessness serves them well as they perform on perhaps their biggest stage yet. The sisters are currently contestants on the 23rd season of “The Voice,” the popular singing reality show on NBC. 

Competing under their trio title of “Sorelle,” the sisters earned a spot on the show during the premiere episode on March 6.

After their blind audition, where the decisions from the coaches are based solely on voice and not looks, they chose to work with Chance the Rapper as their coach. 

On Monday, the trio won their battles competition, where coaches pit two of their own team members against each other to sing the same song.

Sorelle performed with (and competed against) Mannaseh Samone, a 23-year-old from Dallas, Texas.

As the winner of the battle, the Lexington sisters now advance to the knockout stage, which begins April 17. The coach then used his one “playoff pass,” new to the show this year, to advance Samone directly into the live show portion of the competition.

Their time on The Voice — and hopefully, the next part of their careers — officially began with the turn of a red chair. But it was a long journey to get to that stage. 

Performing was always in the cards for the Heichel sisters. 

All three began professional voice training at a very young age. Singing begins the moment their feet hit the floor in the morning. They care for their instruments by drinking hot tea with lemon, and going through at least 30 minutes of vocal warm-ups each day. 

“I remember doing a presentation my freshman year of high school about what I wanted to be, and it was a musician,” Madi said. “And I remember everybody in the classroom looking at me like ‘Yeah, okay.’ The only person who didn’t say that was the teacher.” 

Now both in their 20s, Madi and Ana had their fair share of fame before The Voice. They first made a name for themselves performing the national anthem at a Cleveland Cavaliers game. Each were crowned Miss Ohio’s Outstanding Teen in 2016 and 2018, respectively. 

But their first taste of internet stardom came with Vine, a video-sharing app famous for its six-second loops. The two amassed nearly 42,000 followers on Vine before the app met its demise in January 2018. 

After that, it wasn’t long before another video-sharing app came onto the scene: TikTok. By the end of 2018, TikTok became the most-downloaded app in the United States, and never looked back. It now has more than 1.5 billion active monthly users. 

Before they became a trio, Madi and Ana were introduced to Kara DioGuardi, a songwriter and producer who served as a judge on American Idol for its eighth and ninth seasons.

Her advice to the budding singers was, if you want to make music your life, you have to start building a fan base early on — and with that, their social media career was born. 

Now, more than 3.2 million users follow the Heichel sisters on TikTok, with Bella officially joining the group in 2019. They earned those followers by consistently filming and posting videos every single day. 

“It’s what we enjoy to do and it’s what we want to do, and I feel like we kind of owe it to the people that follow us to check in with them every day,” Madi said. “We’ve grown up with a lot of these people, they’ve been following us since we were 10 and 12 years old.” 

But to be clear, the Heichel sisters do not want to be social media influencers. They want to be musicians, who happen to be on social media. Music has always been the career choice, with iPhones and social media apps as the vehicle to achieve that success. 

“When we were younger and starting on Vine, you saw a ton of people skyrocketing,” said 20-year-old Ana. “But because we were so little, those opportunities didn’t come for us. Even when we started on TikTok, other people were becoming giant social media influencers, but we really just wanted to focus on music.” 

With millions of followers on TikTok and seven original songs written and released, the Heichel sisters believe now is the perfect time for them to find their big break. 

“I feel like we’ve grown exponentially in who we are as women,” Ana said. “We’ve really found who we are as people, especially as a group together. This is a perfect time for us to be on The Voice and the perfect time for us to be singing as a trio together.” 

This isn’t the first singing reality television show the Heichel sisters have been a part of. 

As a duo, Madi and Ana auditioned for America’s Got Talent shortly after being noticed for their national anthem performance. In 2019, all three sisters made it to the semifinals on Nickelodeon’s short-lived competition show, “America’s Most Musical Family.” 

And, in a full-circle moment, the sisters recently realized they had auditioned for The Voice once before. But this is the time that counts. 

It took a family vote to agree that 15-year-old Bella was ready and willing to perform on national television. After that, it was all about song selection. Queen’s “Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy” was the ultimate choice for the blind audition on The Voice.

“Queen was a big inspiration to us growing up, we were constantly listening to their harmonies and the way they layer their vocals,” Madi said. “As musicians, that’s something we want to incorporate into our music, and I feel like this process has helped us realize our sound even more, and realize what we love about music is creating this piece of art.” 

Sorelle was chosen for the taped blind auditions from nearly 40,000 submissions across the country. They had the support, they had the song. Then it came down to the performance. 

“I thought I was gonna be sick before walking on. In the video you can see my hand is shaking,” Bella said. “You can hear it in my voice, too.” 

The room surrounding the stage is completely black, save for four red chairs that hold the names of the four judges for this season of The Voice: Kelly Clarkson, Chance the Rapper, Niall Horan, and Blake Shelton.  

“As entertainers, when you’re performing and all you see is backs turned to you, it’s unsettling,” Ana said.

Before the show, the sisters guessed they might receive chair-turns from either Kelly Clarkson (a fellow female artist) or Niall Horan (a former member of the boy band One Direction and who understands group dynamics).

They were shocked when they were chosen by the exact opposite judges. 

But when Chance the Rapper led the trio through a nerve-wracking impromptu performance after their audition, they knew the choice was clear. 

“We didn’t think much about Chance, but once we chose him and started thinking about it after the fact, you have to remember he’s a writer, a composer. A singer. A rapper. A director and producer. He’s so creative in every way, shape and form,” Ana said.

“So that was pretty cool to recognize, especially when he asked us to sing with him and do something cool on stage.” 

The sisters described Chance as a kind, warm person who made them feel at ease. They also enjoyed being coached by him in the battle round against  Samone. 

Were they ever intimidated working with major music celebrities?

“Something that helps is knowing they’re fighting for you,” Madi said. “It feels surreal at the moment, but what you see right in front of you is they’re people, too. They want to work together, they want to create something beautiful, and it makes them more real.” 

Bella added, “But I’m in love with Blake Shelton. Like genuinely love him. Blake Shelton is my husband. I think he’s perfection.” 

The name “Sorelle” (pronounced sore-ELL-a) means “sister” in Italian, a nod to the Heichel family heritage.

It’s fitting, since family plays such a huge part in their lives. Their dad is Sorelle’s self-proclaimed biggest fan — and he has no problem proclaiming it to everyone else, too. 

“He does it everywhere,” Madi said. “We go to Kroger and now that we’ve been on The Voice, he’ll let us walk a little ahead and start saying, ‘Weren’t you guys on The Voice?'” 

Ana said, “It’s awful.”

The fate of Sorelle on The Voice has already been decided…kind of. Every episode of the show up until the live performances has already been filmed. The next performance for Sorelle comes in the knockout round, and they already know how it ends. They just can’t tell anyone. 

Instead, they are resigned to watching each episode as it airs, usually surrounded by family and friends. The premiere episode prompted more than a few tears from their dad. 

“It’s nice to know they’re proud of us and to feel the support from them, because a lot of people in this industry don’t necessarily get that support from their families,” Madi said.

“To be sitting on the couch and turn around and see the support from everybody standing in the room is something I personally will always be grateful for.” 

Regardless of how far the sisters make it on the show, they know they want to keep focused on making music. Their dreams are not unlike any aspiring musician: Perform at Madison Square Garden. Win a Grammy. Become the sister version of the Jonas Brothers. 

“The Voice definitely helped me gain confidence in my voice and us as a trio, so that’s a big thing I’ve taken from this experience,” Bella said. 

There is no doubt The Voice will play a part in any future success for Sorelle. The premiere episode, where they made their first appearance, had a national audience of 6.3 million viewers.  

“This is an amazing platform and an amazing opportunity because now people know who you are,” Ana said. “That gives you a little bit of a leg up in the music industry, writers and producers will see you and they could want to work with you more because of that exposure.” 

“Sometimes that is a little scary to think about, what life might look like at the end of this journey,” Madi added. “But it’s more exciting because it’s what we’ve worked for our entire lives. We’re ready for it.” 

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