Interview: "The Voice"'s Nakia Says "It's Okay to Be Who You Are."

Tuesday night saw NBC's new competitive singing show The Voice kick off the elimination rounds in what has been the most GLBT friendly singing show ever seen on U.S. television. While Fox's American Idol only just this season managed to finally include a gay contestant (if only briefly), The Voice's very first season included four out contestants including 20-year-old Tyler Robinson.

Joining Tyler as the show's other out male contestant is 36-year-old Alabama native Nakia Reynoso who had the guts to perform Cee Lo's "Forget You" in front of the singer himself. Fortunately for Nakia, his gamble paid off and Cee Lo selected Nakia to be on his team of singers. Celebrating with Nakia on last week's show was Robert, his partner of nine years who has supported his partner in his musical ambitions. Now it looks like that support is about to pay off.

Nakia

AfterElton.com caught up with Nakia to talk about his ballsy song choice, NBC's eagerness to feature his partner, his friendship with Tyler and much more!

AfterElton: Congratulation on making it on Cee Lo’s team. How surprised are you for having gotten this far?
Nakia: It’s still pretty shocking. When I watched it back on Tuesday it was definitely something like watching it out of a dream sequence. That whole experience was like an out of body experience from day one, and once I got that microphone in my hand something else just took over. So I didn’t really remember a lot especially the coaches feedback and that entire interaction.

AE: Christina said you were really ballsy to go out there and sang a Cee Lo song. When did you decide to do that and was that a calculated strategy because you wanted to be on his team?
N: Honestly, as soon as I found out that Cee Lo was a coach, I immediately thought I really should do a Cee Lo song. That was definitely something I thought was a risky move but also kind of a no guts no glory kind of move as well. And I also thought I could connect with that song as a singer, so I worked it out a couple different ways, one a lot bluesier which slowed it down and that kind of killed the fun of the song. From then on I thought I’m just going to stick to the original arrangement of the song and I’m just going to sing my ass off and went out there and did what I loved to do, sing.

That being said, Cee Lo was always in my top two. I have to admit that I thought that Christina would be the one [to pick me]. She’s had the most vocal training, she’s an icon, so to me I felt I would be able to connect with her vocally on that level, so again when Cee Lo turned around I was shocked.

But at the same time it’s very validating because it’s his song, the guy is sitting right there hearing me do it and he’s thinking, “Hey, he sang it well enough. I want to work with this guy. I want to give him a shot.” In the show he said, “Let’s see if we can come up with something original for you” and for me that’s the most exciting [part].

Cee Lo

AE: Were you surprised and tempted that Blake Shelton also turned around and you had to pick between the two?
N: I was tempted because Blake is hilarious and he’s got a really good ear for music. He’s a real music fan and if you know anything about his taste in music, it’s actually pretty wide. I was very tempted to go with Blake, but I just felt like he didn’t make a strong enough case for me to be on his team.

I said, “Why should I chose you over Cee Lo?” and that was on him. That was me really giving him a shot. I mean we are doing a show on NBC so dressing me like a peacock is probably not a bad thing.

AE: [laughs] Very very true. I spoke with Tyler yesterday and he said that both you and he have become pretty close.
N: Absolutely. He is one of the most gifted singers that I’ve ever met in my life and on top of that he’s super super fun to hang out with. If I could be anywhere right now, I’d want to be hanging out with Tyler I mean he’s just so much fun. The time we got to spend together during the blind auditions is just something I will treasure for the rest of my life.

AE: Are you surprised that you ended up being such good friends? You’re a guy in his thirties from Alabama and Texas and he’s a 20-year old Mormon, I don’t want to say kid, but he’s quiet a bit younger. Is it kind of an unusual friendship for you?
N: No, not really. I mean I think that one of the most important things I learned from my family since I was a young kid was the importance to just get along with everybody. No matter who they are, where they are from, what color their skins is, any of that, it doesn’t matter.

So I’ve always prided myself to be able to just walk into a room and bring the party and connect with people and have a good time and I felt immediately that Tyler was the same type of person. It’s pretty easy to talk about clothes and which outfits we’re going to wear on the show and do we think we’ll make it any further and all the great songs we’d like to cover.

Just sitting around the piano just singing together and giving each other ideas and performance tips and that kind of stuff is super easy to do with Tyler and honestly, super easy to pretty much do with anyone on the show. I mean I went off to the blind auditions to have a shot and I never in a million years thought that when I got home and watched it on television that those same people that I auditioned with were going to be texting me the whole time saying, “Oh my god you sound great!” Or I’d be texting them, “Tell your kids I miss them.” We really connected and we all really get along really well.

Nakia with partner Robert

AE: Now when I talked to Tyler, I asked him about the fact that he talked about being gay and Mormon on the show, which is obviously really important to him. And you, you brought your partner Robert and introduced him and revealed that you’re gay in a low-key, interesting and positive way. Was that something that was important to you?
N: Well, here’s the thing with me it was never a question of “How should I introduce it?” It’s just more of a question of  “Hey, can I show you the guy that I love that I want to spend the rest of my life with? Does he get to come and be out here with me too? Great!”

It was never about like, “How should I present it?” because for me it’s just normal and that to me was so gratifying to hear the producers of the show say, “When can we get your boyfriend out here?” and “Can he come out for the blind auditions?”

Like, yes, absolutely let’s bring him along, are you kidding? There was never a “Maybe we shouldn’t talk about that” or “How should we introduce it?” None of that, they loved me and they loved Robert and I think the whole world should love Robert because he’s amazing.