'The Voice's Kim Cruse on Finding Her Confidence: 'I Was Too Afraid to Tap Into It'

Kim Cruse is opening up about finding her confidence and coming into her own on The Voice.

On Monday night, the 30-year-old from Woodville, Texas, delivered what might've been her strongest performance yet — a cover of Rihanna's "Love on the Brain." After the show, Cruse caught up with PEOPLE about her moment.

"After I finished that song, I just felt like, 'Finally,'" says the Team Legend contestant. "With all of my other performances, they've been very polished and I spent [so much] time perfecting. Tonight was really the night where I just let loose and really sang it how I felt it in the moment. It felt so good."

And as it turns out, the coaches had that same thought.

Dave Bjerke/NBC via Getty Kim Cruse

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"I feel like your voice — you can kill things and simultaneously bring them back to life. You can do it all. I don't even know what to say to you anymore — congratulations on being born that way," said coach Blake Shelton.

Fellow coach Gwen Stefani added, "First of all, the look on your face when you were done — I can see that you were like, 'I finally got to show the world what God gave me. This incredible gift is so easy for you, it's incredible. I feel like you're underrated on this season in the sense that this performance, everyone now is gonna wake up and be like, 'Why weren't we making a bigger deal about Kim?'"

Throughout the season, the contestant developed newfound confidence with the help of her coach John Legend.

Trae Patton/NBC via Getty Kim Cruse and John Legend

"John is like a safe space to us. For me, I can't wait to go into those rehearsals the next day and hear what John is gonna say about our performance from Monday," she says. "I definitely feel like John has helped bring out the confidence in me that's been there but I was just too afraid to tap into it."

She adds, "Before I came on this show I either sang sitting on a stand or I sang grabbing a microphone stand for dear life. So for me to be up here moving around this stage and just pouring my heart out and being vulnerable — John's pushed that out of me."

The Voice airs Mondays and Tuesdays at 8 p.m. EST on NBC.