Less than 24 hours after being named the winner of the third season of `` The Voice , '' Cassadee Pope is still catching her breath . `` I do n't think it 's really settled in yet , '' she tells Rolling Stone . `` It 's just unreal . I ca n't believe it . I have n't had a chance to sit down and soak it up . But it 's just crazy . I 'm very excited . '' In addition to winning the show , Pope , 23 , is still coming to grips with the fact that she sang `` I 'm With You , '' one of her `` all-time favorite songs , '' with its original vocalist , Avril Lavigne . Pope has long admired the Canadian singer . `` She 's always had that thing about her that always spoke to me , which is being who she is and not apologizing for it , '' explains Pope . `` That 's something that I have trouble with , honestly . I do care about what people think about me sometimes , and sometimes it affects me in a negative way . Her music has always been there to remind me to not care what other people think and be myself . '' Cassadee Pope wins season three of `` The Voice '' Pope -- a native of West Palm Beach , Florida , and the former lead singer of the Warped Tour vets Hey Monday -- admits she was hesitant at first to audition for `` The Voice . '' Last year , while still a member of her band , Pope turned down an offer to audition for Season Two . But after moving to Los Angeles to try her hand at a solo career , struggling to pay the bills and exhausting all her contacts in the music business , Pope says she was forced to reconsider her options when The Voice came calling again . `` I almost passed on it again , '' she admits . `` I do n't know why . . . just being in the band world , you tend to get a little proud . A part of me just did n't want to do this show because I wanted to do it from the ground up . I really wanted to do it the old-fashioned way , which is kind of impossible nowadays -- especially when everyone thinks you 're going to sound exactly like your band and no one 's interested . '' 'The Voice : ' Rolling Stones complete coverage . Not surprisingly , Pope has no regrets now . `` Doing the show was , I think , the best career decision I 've ever made , '' she says . `` It got people to really take a second to listen . It 's not going to be Hey Monday ; it 's going to be something entirely different . '' That 's not to say Pope did n't have second thoughts throughout the season . The singer admits she was taken aback when many on the Internet protested that her previous music-industry experience put her at an unfair advantage in the competition . `` When I came into [ the show ] , I got a lot of that and it was discouraging , '' she says . `` But I had to just prove myself and try to prove people wrong . I thought it was kind of crazy to think that someone like me -- who 's been working towards this my whole life , since I was four years old , and then toured in bands and did all that , and really has been working hard -- does n't deserve it as much as someone else next to me who 's never done it before . I feel like if you have the heart and the passion for it , you deserve it . '' 'The Voice : ' Season three awards . Pope evolved significantly as a singer on The Voice , shedding her pop-punk roots and embracing country music , the genre of choice for mentor Blake Shelton . In fact , the singer 's standout moment of the season was her performance of the Shelton ballad `` Over You , '' which became the sole song on the show this season to top the iTunes charts . While initially dismissive of the genre , Pope says now that she sees many similarities between it and her more familiar pop-rock . `` Country music tell stories , '' she says . `` That 's something that I can relate to . '' Having secured a record contract with Universal Republic in her victory , Pope will soon hit the studio to record her debut solo album . `` [ It will be ] a little bit more of a Nineties , early 2000s feel , '' she says . `` Pop-rock but with a little bit of a country twist on it . There 's a lot of things to work out and I know that it 's going to take some meetings to figure it out . But I would love to do pop-rock/country [ album ] so I 'm able to cover all the bases . '' See original story at RollingStone.com .
' Pope is still catching her breath after winning ` ` The Voice '' She says she was very hesitant to even audition for the show . She will soon hit the studio to record her debut solo album .