IT really shouldn’t have happened. But on Monday, November 25 when Tessanne Chin rocked The Voice with No Doubt’s Underneath It All, Jamaicans watching across the globe were pleased with her delivery of the reggae number.

When she launched into Lady Saw’s segment of the recording, the audience in the Universal Studios in California went wild, and those who had no clue about Chin’s diversity watched wide-eyed and O-mouthed.

“That song wasn’t even supposed to be done,” Chin revealed at yesterday’s Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange. “We had a completely different song.”

Chin said she had started rehearsing Adam Lambert’s Whataya Want From Me when her coach, Adam Levine, intervened, telling the production crew to stop filming, even though she was doing a good job with the song.

She said that during that wait to resume the rehearsal, she suggested the No Doubt song. Levine was ecstatic.

“He was like, Oh my God, that’s the best idea you’ve had,” Chin related, adding that the band had to then learn the song.

“It kinda held up production a little, but it just goes to show how much they are there for you, basically,” Chin said.

“They didn’t complain, they said ‘Okay, we have to get her this song’, so thank God it was cleared, because every song that we sing there had to be cleared,” the eventual winner of the NBC talent contest said.

“So it was like divine intervention at that point and I’m so glad it happened. I was very happy when I got the chance to do that song.”

Chin made the revelation in response to the Observer’s query as to which of the songs she performed throughout the competition was her favourite.

“I can’t choose one because there were favourite moments in different songs, and one of them was definitely when I got to do Underneath It All because I felt like I got to have fun and I got to show my culture,” she said.

Chin said her coach knew how important it was for her and for him to solidify her as a vocalist first, and she appreciated that because she “didn’t want to be put in a box” that dictated that because she’s Jamaican she had to sing reggae every week.

“That was actually a debate that went on behind the scenes with the producers,” she revealed, explaining that some wanted her to sing reggae, while others asked why would they want to do that to her, given that she had this platform to show that she can do everything.