Lindsey Pavao’s amazing run on NBC’s “The Voice” came to a heartbreaking end Tuesday night.

After all of the rehearsals and all of the choreography and all of the preparation and make-up that went into preparing for each and every week of the hit show, it came down to Pavao standing next to teammate and opera singer Chris Mann.

There was no band. There were no dancers.

And after coach Christina Aguilera doled out an equal 50-50 split on the points she was to award each of them based on their performance, who would advance to the show’s finale the following week would be a decision the American public would make.

They chose Mann by a slight margin – giving him a 104 to 96 edge over the Sierra High alum and Sacramento area bartender.

This might be the time to stop and talk about how great Pavao should feel about making it as far as she did. She ended up in the final eight contestants and getting exposure that she likely would have never gotten on her own.

But as anybody that has ever been so close to a goal they literally wrap their hands around it only to see it snatched away can tell you, there’s no immediate solace in that.

It hurts.

On the flipside, Pavao knows that she had the backing of at least one entire city and had become the indie darling of a show built on modern popular music.

She never compromised her style. And the song that she sang in what would be her last, coffeehouse style performance had every hipster in America firing up their iPhones and iPads to cast their vote and download the track.

There’s some solace to be had in that.

It isn’t every day you go from being a bartender at Pinky’s in Nicolaus – a Sutter County haunt just off the Garden Highway – to being one of the top trending artists on iTunes in a matter of weeks.

Some artists wait their entire lives to get that sort of exposure and never even come close.

And that’s some solace to be had in that.

Truthfully, Pavao was just as good as anybody else on that show. I could see a configuration that could have put her into the finals but the heartbreak would have been even greater having sniffed the record contract that was guaranteed to the winner.

But the most important nugget of knowledge that she can take from Tuesday night came not from her diva coach – and I use diva in the traditional sense, which is to describe an outstanding female singer – but from the coach that sparred with her mentor all season long.

Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine told his team just before splitting the last two that they’ve both basically made it as they’ve gotten the exposure and everybody knows who they are and the sky is basically the limit.

And I don’t see how that doesn’t apply to Pavao as well.

I don’t know about the ins and outs of the music business in Hollywood. I don’t think I want to know – I knew a group of guys that got signed to a label only to see the band essentially dissolve over the coming years.

But for somebody that appears as levelheaded and accepting as Pavao does, playing the game to achieve her goals should be a seamless transition.

“Thank you for everything – you made my dreams come true,” a tearful Pavao said after hugging her coach on television for the last time.

Actually Lindsey, it was you that made your dreams come true. I’m sure Christina helped and I’m sure that working with a modern R&B legend was an experience like no other.

But you invested the time, picked the songs and pulled off the performances that won over not just the coaches but also the American people. Not a whole lot of folks can say that they accomplished that.

So thank you. Thank you for turning people who would never have watched The Voice into fans to spur on water-cooler talk and grocery store chats – renewing a sense of hometown pride among some of them.

Thank you for keeping your own unique style intact throughout the experience.

And thank you for stunning everybody with your voice.

In the end that’s what it was all about.

And you nailed it. Again and again and again.

There’s definitely solace to be had in that.