Erin Martin hopes Cee Lo Green “can help me be as fabulous as he is”

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Ex-model Erin Martin is competing on “The Voice.”

Updated: March 16, 2012 8:14AM

Former model and Chicago musician Erin Martin is used to getting attention for her looks, but it was her “unique” vocals that got the judges’ chairs spinning during blind auditions Monday on “The Voice.”

Dressed like an “Egyptian warrior princess,” the Wicker Park singer-songwriter purred her smoky, Macy Gray-ish rendition of “Hey There Delilah” by Lombard’s Plain White T’s.

When Cee Lo Green spun around and got a look at the leggy Martin, 27, it was difficult to tell what he wanted more: to have her on his team or to chain her to a pipe in his basement.

“You are a wonderful creature of a woman,” said Cee Lo, who bit his finger in delight. “Your voice is so strange and unique and bizarre. I love it. Quite naturally, you belong to me. Don’t you agree?”

Indeed she did, much to the disappointment of judge Blake Shelton, who also wanted Martin on his team.

Martin’s manager prodded her to try out for the NBC show during the singing competition’s Chicago auditions.

“I’m a girl who came from busking on the streets of Chicago — if it weren’t snowing outside, I’d be out there right now just because it’s fun,” Martin told reporters Tuesday. “To go from sitting with a guitar in a coffee shop or on the streets of Chicago to a big stage with just a mike in your hand, it’s kind of a scary feeling. … Walking on stage, I was having a mini panic attack.”

Martin has opened for De La Soul at Milwaukee’s Summerfest and has a few songs for sale on iTunes. She’s had showcases for major record labels, but so far that big break has been elusive.

“Labels aren’t really developing people now,” Martin said. “They want someone with a huge fan base.”

She’s hoping to get that, courtesy of Cee Lo’s coaching. “He can help me be as fabulous as he is,” she said. “I mean, I am already. But he’s got to teach me the way.”

Lori Rackl