Morgan Myles brought all the feels with her Voice semifinals performance.
During the live show on Monday night, the 35-year-old Nashville singer performed an emotional rendition of Lady Gaga's ballad "Always Remember Us This Way" from A Star Is Born in dedication to her late cousin Mac who died of glioblastoma (an aggressive form of brain cancer) at the age of 33 in December 2019.
"We were thick as thieves, me and Mac," Myles told PEOPLE over Zoom after her performance. "So it just was a lot, you know? When you lose people like that, it changes the dynamic of your family forever, and it's a struggle. It still burns that hole in our hearts."
Myles — who is on coach Camila Cabello's team — said that she chose to perform "Always Remember Us This Way" in honor of Mac since it "so beautifully describes what I hope our family focuses on: the good times."
Despite the heavy subject matter, Myles impressively kept her composure until the end of the performance. She credited being able to do so considering she had already sang at her cousin's funeral three years ago.
"That was probably good practice," she said. "I remember staring at the stained glass in the church, just being like, 'I am in another world. I'm just gonna sing and get through it.'"
Prior to The Voice, Myles released her album Therapy in 2020, and she said Mac is "laced" all throughout the songs on it.
"I must have written 70 songs in five-and-a-half months about Mac," she said. "There's a song called 'I Believe' on my record, and I wrote that the day he went into end-of-life [care]. I was a mess. It was like, 'Okay, everybody, here we go. It's gonna get worse from here.' You know? 'I 'Believe' is just a really special song, and he fought the good fight."
With her Voice performance — which left her mom visibly in tears in the audience — and her music, Myles said she hopes people will feel less "alone."
"I ultimately just wanna be a vessel," she said. "I feel like God gave me a gift and that it's for me to deliver that feeling that we're not alone in the struggles of life. I want people to feel like they can get through [anything]."
The Voice airs Mondays and Tuesdays at 8 p.m. EST on NBC.
