Emily Ann Robertsis quite the musical chameleon.
From singing sweetly about her grandfather’s church on her 2022 song “The Building” to delivering a sassy tale about a scorned woman on her current single “He Set Her Off,” the season 9 runner-up of NBC’sThe Voicealways seems to keep her fans guessing as to what character she will play next.
“There are many sides of Emily Ann Roberts,” the 24-year-old tells PEOPLE while waiting at the airport to embark on a Bible study tour in Israel. “You just never know.”
It’s this sassy attitude that was on display back in 2019, when Roberts walked into the writing room and the beginnings of “He Set Her Off” began to materialize.
“I was saying how there are all these songs about women losing it on their men, but you know, we’re notborncrazy,” Roberts says with a laugh of the foundation of the song she co-wrote alongside Seth Mosley and Parker Welling. “There is a series of events thatmusthappen for us to go off like that. And I think that little scary fire lives in all of us.”
Emily Ann Roberts.Summer Simmons
Specifically, “He Set Her Off” speaks of the small-town girl whose ‘little scary fire’ erupts on her man after finding him “in her bed with that blonde.”
“It was so fun to craft this story about this woman who had it all together, but her man did her wrong and she snapped,” says Roberts. “But yeah, the womanmustget away with it. In real life, we can’t always tell how the ending is going to go, but this is storytelling, and this is songwriting so we can bend the rules.”
Roberts says it’s these sorts of songs that always seem to light a fire under the female contingent of her fans at her live show, and she certainly knows why.
Emily Ann Roberts.John Shearer
Roberts lets out a sly little laugh about the fictional storyline of her latest single, which has already erupted over social media, garnering over six million between TikTok and Instagram Reels. But it’s important to remember that in real life, Roberts is completely and totally in love withher husband of two years, Chris Sasser.
“Chris loves my crazy songs,” she explains of her husband. “I don’t know why, but some of the craziest, goofiest, outlandish songs are his favorites. He has been so excited for ‘He Set Her Off,’ which is hilarious. It’s literally about a woman burning the house down and it should scare him, but I guess he trusts me.”
It’s a trust that Roberts not only feels on a daily basis alongside her husband, but also a trust that she established way back in 2015 with herVoicecoachBlake Shelton. And now that the news is out that thiswill be Shelton’s last seasonon the singing competition show, Roberts admits that she’s a little sad.
“It won’t be the same without him,” the Tennessee native says. “I’ll tell you what, whoever comes next has got some big, big shoes to fill because there will be no replacing him. There will be somebody who will come in and I’m sure they’ll do a fine job. But there will never be another Blake on that show.”
Nevertheless, as Shelton’s friend, Roberts says she is excited for all the future holds for the hitmaker of songs such as “God Gave Me You” and “God’s Country.”
“I know he has given so much of his time to this show,” she says. “I don’t think people realize, even aside from being entertaining for the viewer, how much he really cares about the artists. I really hope that somebody else will care that much as well.”
source: people.com
