'Rising Star' recap: Voting saves 5 contestants

FAIRFAX, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The third round of auditions for "Rising Star" saw five more contestants voted through for the competition. Two of Sunday's performers are from Southern California.

Gabrielle Nicole of Ohio knocked it out of the park performing a song from "Funny Girl."

"I had so many people back home that were supporting me," Nicole said. "I just want to thank all of them for everything, like this means so much to me."

Half of this week's contestants move on in the competition after making the wall rise with their performances.

"I felt as though I couldn't breathe for a couple of seconds, and then I just took a deep breath and finished the song," contestant Dana Williams said.

"I wanted this for so long and to have this opportunity is just unreal, and then for it to go forward is just insane," contestant Audrey Kate Geiger said.

Karen Hornsby of Florida also made it through. She had the night's most emotional story, and you only heard part of it.

"My husband had cancer as well, right in the middle of my daughter having cancer, and I was in a car automobile accident that almost took my life," Hornsby said. "My car caught on fire, just a lot of stuff has happened over the years."

And on this show, for all of the contestants, a lot more will happen in the coming weeks.

"America weeded out who they didn't like, and now it's the best of this group going head-to-head," host Josh Groban said. "It will still involve the wall and it will still be up to America's vote, but they're going to be going right against each other. It is going to get a little bit brutal."

"It gets even harder as we get into these duals," music expert Ludacris said. "There are certain people who have very little mentoring that is needed, then there are some that are going to take a lot more mentoring. So at the end of the day, it's about who has more heart."

The people moving forward already feel a sense of victory whether they get the "Rising Star" title or not.

"Keep singing. Keep doing what you wanna do because you could end up here on 'Rising Star,'" contestant Morgan Higgins said.

The "Rising Star" one-hour dual rounds begin next week.