NBC Morgan Myles performs on season 22 of "The Voice"
Morgan Myles is flying high on the current season of “The Voice,” as the one remaining member on Camila Cabello’s team and a clear fan-favorite. The country singer has been hoping for this level of national recognition and exposure for years, but she says facing personal tragedies, and even taking on responsibility for two children who lost their beloved mother, has put her professional challenges in perspective.
Myles Opens Up About Her Guardianship
To supplement her income as she was getting her start in the music industry, Myles worked as a nanny for a decade to two children whose mom, Amy, had the debilitating disease ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The ALS Association defines the condition as a “progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.”
Myles told The Boot in 2020 that, over the years, she and the family became so close they were practically inseparable. This comforted Amy, who asked Myles to become the children’s legal guardian as her condition worsened, just in case anything ever happened to their dad, too.
Amy died of the disease in August 2012, and Myles remained a guiding force in the kids’ lives and her parents became like another set of grandparents to them. In 2016, she named her first EP “Miss Morgan Myles” because that’s what Amy’s kids called her.
Myles said, “I’m very proud of them. They’ve been through so much.”
As challenging as it was getting noticed in the music industry, Myles said caring for Amy and her kids put everything into perspective.
“It was like God giving me another huge perspective of balance with the music industry, because every day, seeing Amy deteriorate, it was really hard,” she said.
“Eventually, she lost her voice which was so devastating,” Myles wrote in a Q&A for the Grubs & Grooves blog in 2017. “At this time, it was so hard to write about anything but the difficult situation we were facing every day. I ended up writing a song called ‘Goodbye Lullaby,’ which breaks down how she wanted to say goodbye to her children, but she could physically no longer.”
“She cried when I played it for her,” Myles continued, “but they were tears of gratitude. I sang that song for her funeral and it holds a dear place in all of our hearts. It’s more than a song.”
Myles can be seen performing the song in a 2013 YouTube video.
Mom Who Died of ALS Inspired Morgan Myles to Keep Pursuing Her Dreams
NBCMorgan Myles with coach Camila Cabello during season 22 of “The Voice”
Though it’s been a long road of ups and downs, Morgan told Taste of Country that caring for Amy and her kids inspired her to never give up on her dreams.
She revealed, “Their mom was the one person to say ‘Please, never give up your dream. I’m 45 and I never wrote that book I wanted to write.’ It’s been such a journey, and it allows me to do what I wanted to do.”
When she competes on “The Voice” tonight — December 5, 2022 — Myles hopes to be voted into the Top 5. During an Instagram Live session earlier in the day with a friend, she said the production crew had told her it would be her hardest night in the competition, because going from the Top 8 to the Top 5 is really difficult.
“Tonight is the hardest round, apparently, of the whole thing and I was like ‘Are you kidding me? Like don’t tell me that! Like, more pressure?'”
“Everybody’s performance looks insane,” she continued. “All the musical production is elevated, the stage is elevated, I mean it’s wild.”
“The Voice” Top 8 live performances air on NBC tonight, December 5, at 8 pm Eastern with voting to kick off right after the show. Results will be announced on December 6 at 9 pm Eastern.