Gina Miles of Paxton, Illinois Wins Season 23 of NBC’s ‘The Voice’ – NBC Chicago

Season 23 of NBC’s “The Voice” ended Tuesday with a new winner from small town Illinois.

Gina Miles, 19, who grew up about 120 miles south of Chicago in Paxton, Illinois, on coach Niall Horan’s team, beat finalists Grace West and NOIVAS on team Blake, D. Smooth in Team Kelly and the sister trio Sorelle in Team Chance. .

Earlier that night, before the winner was announced, Miles performed “New York State of Mind” alongside Horan.

In a Facebook video interview earlier this year with Bloomington-Normal radio station B104, Miles says she moved from Paxton to Sacramento on her 18th birthday.

“My hometown is the most supportive community I could ask for,” Miles said, after sharing these friends, as well as teachers and classmates at the small Paxton school she attended.

“I’m really happy to hear from all my teachers in particular,” Miles said. “I was shy and quiet at school,” Miles continues, adding that while she was in the choir, she was never the “leader.”

In Sacramento, Miles lives near his aunt, while his father and stepmother stay in Illinois.

“My family is so proud. I just wanted to make my family proud and show them I could do it,” Miles said.

While the victory is the first for new coach Niall Horan, the season is the last for veteran coach Blake Shelton.

Shelton, who has been on the show since its inception in 2011 along with Levine, Christina Aguilera and CeeLo Green, bid farewell with appearances from his past winners and coaches, reports TODAY.com. Gwen Stefani, who met her husband when she was a coach in 2014, also sent a video message explaining how their lives changed during the show and how she found her “soul mate”.

“When I first came on the show, our lives had this parallel destruction, and then the next thing you know, Blake and I started becoming best friends and falling in love,” Stefani says in the clip. “It’s hard for me to even talk about it without getting very emotional.”