The judges playfully teased Russell for appearing quiet and shy. “I think there’s a reason why I think I am a little timid and I think it is ‘cause I want to own my voice and I wanna own it,” she explained. “That’s why I wanna challenge myself and come out here and really step in and be like ‘Okay, come on Emmy’”

Later, Patsy Lynn, Russell’s mother and a country singer herself from the duo The Lynns in the 1990s, responded to her daughter’s nervousness. “She just wanted to do this honestly [and say] ‘this is who I am and this is what I do and this is my heart,’” she explained. “I think that when you come from a musical family, the shadow is so big. How do I fill those shoes? Well the deal is, you don’t. You make your own shadow.”