A former contestant on “The Voice” has put her music career on hold to return to nursing so she can help COVID-19 patients.

Felicia Temple’s recording of “Rise Up” is played during every shift change at Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck.

“It’s actually been lifting people’s spirits, so I’m glad that I can help in some musical capacity,” Temple says.

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Temple returned to her job at Holy Name after leaving last year to pursue music full time. She was on tour in Europe when the pandemic forced concerts to be canceled, so she returned home to Teaneck.

“You never lose that feeling of wanting to help people,” she says.

 

Temple cares for patients in the COVID-19 ICU. She has also lost her own loved ones to the virus.

“In the past two weeks I’ve lost two aunts and literally 10 minutes before this phone call, I found out I also lost my uncle,” Temple says. “Two of them didn’t even make it to the hospital. They died at home of COVID.”

Temple says that nursing was such a big part of her life that she once filmed a music video inside of Holy Name.

With no way of knowing when music venues will be able to reopen, Temple says that she plans to keep working as a nurse and record music in her home studio.