Emma Jacob grew up in Costa Mesa, California, and as a child, she enjoyed listening to Aretha Franklin and Patsy Cline. She took vocal lessons from the legendary Seth Riggs - she once ran into Ray Charles at a lesson - and earned a spot as first soprano in the Pacific Symphony Children's Choir. At age 11, she sang an Aretha song, "You're All I Need to Get By," on Showtime at the Apollo and received a standing ovation. The family was living in Colfax, California when Emma and her parents took over the ownership of a local theatre owned by her grandfather. Music producer Paul Worley heard her perform there and encouraged her to move to Nashville. Worley also pitched a song that would become the teenager's first single, "What If We Fly," included on her debut album, "Breaking All the Rules", in 2008. Her new EP is entitled "Strong Like Me" and she'll share a couple of the songs from it on the show. About choosing Country Music as her genre to sing, Emma explains: "The thing I love about Country so much is that it tells a story. With Pop, you get a basic idea, but pretty much a Country song is a movie in a three-minute song."