The Voice
Page: 13
Harry Styles is so hot right now. Like, smoldering, earth-torching hot. The former One Direction singer had the top single on the planet last year with “As It Was,” lifted from his hit third album Harry’s House, which bagged Grammy Awards, Brit Awards and No. 1s, pretty much everywhere.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Oh, and he’s currently playing stadiums across the globe, and starring in feature films. That kind of hot.
Laura Littleton captured a little bit of that heat when she stepped onto The Voice stage on Monday night (March 13) for the Blind Auditions. A native of Dickson, Tennessee, Littleton, a “country girl through and through,” took that early solo Styles song “Sign Of The Times,” added some country tones and immediately won the hearts of three judges.
When Kelly Clarkson used her block on country star Blake Shelton, it was game on.
As the performance wrapped, Clarkson praised the contestant’s energy. “I feel like you match mine,” she enthused. She also admitted she ought to have blocked Niall Horan instead, seeing as, you know, he played with Harry in 1D and, just maybe, Littleton is a Directioner.
Kelly lifted her sales pitch. “I feel like you’re gonna attract people from different genres. You just have all these cool, like, connections vocally. I was like, ‘this is like Dolly meets Florence and the Machine.’”
Horan took the mic and paid tribute to the “super unique” style of her voice, with its “natural shakes.” And, yes, he was into her song choice.
Littleton had a big decision to make. Go country, or go with a member of 1D?
In the end, she chose Horan.
Watch below.
Blake Shelton is saying goodbye to The Voice after the current 23rd season, but his former fellow coach Adam Levine seems to be the only one who isn’t sad about it.
“It’s about time,” Levine joked to Entertainment Tonight at the Vanity Fair Oscars After-Party on Sunday night (March 12). The musicians’ sat together in The Voice‘s spinning red chairs as coaches for 16 seasons before the Maroon 5 frontman left the show in 2019.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Shelton announced his departure from The Voice back in October. “This show has changed my life in every way for the better and it will always feel like home to me,” he wrote in a statement posted to social media. “It’s been a hell of a ride over these 12 years of chair turns and I want to thank everyone at The Voice from NBC, every producer, the writers, musicians, crew and catering people, you are the best. It takes a lot of work, passion, and adult beverages (Ha!) to pull off a live show twice a week.”
As coach, Shelton remains the statistically best coach in terms of winning seasons — having crowned a champ from his team in nine of the show’s 22 completed seasons.
The country superstar, who has been on The Voice since it premiered in 2011, recently sat down with his fellow season 23 coaches Kelly Clarkson, Niall Horan and Chance the Rapper to reflect on why he has decided to leave the show. “I think I was close to calling it a day right when COVID hit and then, because of COVID, I didn’t want to walk away from the show and leave everybody in a bind,” Shelton revealed. “I mean, this show changed my life. I’ll stay until the world kind of gets back to normal.”
Chance the Rapper stopped by Kelly Clarkson‘s talk show on Monday (March 13) to chat about his first season competing against her on The Voice.
Wearing a denim bomber jacket with a faux-fur collar and one of his signature ball caps, the rapper appeared more than confident about the team he’s assembled for season 23 of the NBC reality series. “Do I think I’m gonna win The Voice? I’m pretty sure I’m gonna win,” he told Clarkson. “Yeah! You know I’m gonna win The Voice. … Yeah, my team’s fire.”
Chance brings a producer’s mentality to the coaching panel, which Clarkson admitted was a source of intimidation for her. “I will say, that’s been my favorite part, watching you,” the original American Idol winner told him. “Because I don’t know if I’ve ever really done it with a full-on producer before. You know what I’m saying? You’re a rapper, a singer and a producer.
“And it was interesting to do the Blinds with you ’cause I was threatened,” she continued. “‘Cause I was like, ‘Oh wait, what? I can’t do that, like, what he just did.’ It was cool. You were, like, producing during the Blinds, like, that was part of your pitch.”
So far, Chance has added sister trio Sorelle, Idol favorite NOIVAS and R&B crooner Magnus to his freshman team to compete against Clarkson, Blake Shelton and fellow newbie Niall Horan. Season 23 of The Voice continues this week with another round of Blind Auditions on NBC.
Watch Chance and Kelly go back and forth about their coaching strategies below.
Jimmy Fallon has what it takes. The late-night host crashed the The Voice to play an epic prank on coaches Blake Shelton, Kelly Clarkson, Niall Horan and Chance the Rapper on the Tuesday (March 7) episode by pretending to blind audition for them — and only one of them didn’t turn around.
The audition begins with the four coaches waiting expectantly as an anonymous contestant takes the stage, backs turned to maintain the long-running NBC singing competition’s trademark fully blind auditions. As the singer — who only the crowd can see is the famous face of The Tonight Show — begins to belt out Michael McDonald’s “I Keep Forgettin’ (Every Time You’re Near)” with a comically forced rasp, Clarkson, Horan and Chance exchange confused looks while Shelton listens skeptically.
It’s the “Stronger” singer who becomes the first coach to take a chance on the faux hopeful, followed shortly by Horan and Chance also hitting their red buttons. Each of them bursts into laughter upon turning around to find that it’s actually Fallon singing.
Shelton, however, remains unmoved. That is, until the Saturday Night Live alum walks offstage and presses the country star’s button for him. “You broke the rules!” Shelton jokingly scolds him, grinning when he sees Fallon’s face.
“I’m across the parking lot doing our show That’s My Jam,” Fallon says once the jig is up, before saluting Shelton specifically. The “God’s Country” singer recently announced that this season of The Voice will be his last, after nine wins and more than a decade of coaching contestants on the show.
“I had to come over and say ‘hey,’ buddy,” Fallon said. “Twenty-three seasons, congratulations.”
Before heading out, Fallon pledged his allegiance to Team Kelly. “I’m on Kelly’s team!” he said. “Thank you for turning around.”
Watch Jimmy Fallon prank The Voice coaches above.
No blind audition is the same. And precisely no singer on NBC’s The Voice has made an arrival quite like Kala Banham.
The 24-year-old Windermere, Florida native stepped onto the Voice stage Tuesday night (March 7), for a rendition of “Both Sides Now,” a song that appeared on Joni Mitchell’s 1969 album Clouds.
Banham kept her vocals in a velvety pocket, finding the emotional connection while never showing off.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Kelly Clarkson and Niall Horan turned together, only the former One Direction singer was fast enough to trigger a block on the U.S. country artist.
Another new additional to the panel, Chance the Rapper, turned, leaving Blake Shelton the odd one out.
There were tears of joy from Banham’s folks, who were watching on, feeling the vibe, and Clarkson blasted the non-plussed Shelton with multiple volleys of “what are you doing?”
“What a perfect song,” enthused Clarkson. “You showed dynamic, to see you emote like that, you really felt the message and the words mean something to you. We would have been beautiful together. I’m going to steal you, mark my words.”
Horan praised her “impeccable” song choice, and her ability to show tenderness in the softer moments. “I haven’t got a singer like you on my team.” Then he stepped up his sales pitch.
“You are unbelievable,” the 1D singer said. “You’ve got such a storytelling voice, so sweet so beautiful. And the song choices that are available for you is huge.”
After learning some of her story, Chance praised Banham for having the “most unique voice that we’ve heard so far” which, he notes, is coupled with the “most control and range.”
Shelton offered his 5 cents (he wasn’t familiar with the song), and it was over to Banham to make the tough choice. Ultimately, she joined Team Niall.
Does Horan possesses the luck of the Irish? We’ll have to wait and see.
Watch the performance below.
Kelly Clarkson was reunited with her 2019 The Voice team member, Jej Vinson, when the singer returned for season 23 — this time in a group.
The trio, called Sheer Element, took the stage for the blind auditions on Tuesday (March 7), where they delivered a sleek rendition of Silk Sonic’s “Leave the Door Open,” complete with flawless three-part harmonies.
Their impressive performances got chair turns from Chance the Rapper, Niall Horan and Kelly Clarkson, whose jaw dropped when she saw her former team member Vinson. “What the hell!” she screamed upon seeing him.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
“He was Team Kelly on another season. He is incredible, that is insane,” Clarkson explained to her fellow coaches, before later telling the Sheer Element, “You’re incredible and I already love Jej’s voice. You’re so incredibly tight and you know your vibe. You’re not picking a coach to teach you anything about that. You’re picking a coach for song selection, and that’s really key.”
Horan also chimed in, noting that he turned his chair because the group’s performance “made me feel,” before adding that he has some experience in a group as a former member as One Direction. “I’ve been in a group. My favorite acts of all time are The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Boyz II Men. I feel that we could work very well together,” Horan shared.
Chance the Rapper also gave his pitch for the trio, sharing, “I can tell that you guys have done this together for a while because it sounds so tight. As an overall presentation, it was just insane.”
He continued, “I also produce music for a few different groups, and I think I could see exactly where you guys could go with your style, aesthetic and with the three of you guys as a group. So, if you want to win, come get down with Team Chance.”
Watch the full performance below, and be sure to tune into The Voice tonight (March 7) at 8 p.m. ET on NBC to see who Sheer Element chose as their coach.
The Voice is officially back for season 23. With the show’s Monday (March 6) premiere, the competitive blind auditions have commenced, which saw new coach Niall Horan use a few unusual tactics to get contestant Ross Clayton to join his team.
Clayton took to The Voice stage to perform Keith Urban’s 2016 track “Blue Ain’t Your Color.”
“Blue looks good on the sky/ Looks good on that neon buzzin’ on the wall/ But darling, it don’t match your eyes/ I’m tellin’ you/ You don’t need that guy/ It’s so black and white/ He’s stealin’ your thunder/ Baby, blue ain’t your color,” the Oklahoma native passionately sang, which prompted a four-chair turn from all the coaches.
While Blake Shelton, Kelly Clarkson and Chance the Rapper had already had luck securing contestants, Horan was the only coach left out, so he resorted to a series of interesting measures to secure Clayton as a team member.
After Clarkson and Chance briefly pleaded their cases to Clatyon, Horan switched things up a bit. “Ross, these two have spoken. I need a little privacy,” the former One Direction member said before pressing the button to turn the chair of each of the coaches to face away from the stage.
“Your voice is absolutely incredible. You gave that country tone to your voice, but to me, I was hearing so much soul. I came up onto a show like this when I was 16 years old and I get to point at fans of mine in this room. It’s fans of mine that would really love to take you under their wing,” Horan said, then got down on his knees to beg. “I’m telling you, please. Please … forget about whatever any of them said. I don’t wanna hear any more crap. [Shelton] was about to go, ‘This is my last season on this show, it’ll be an honor and a privilege.’ So Ross, please join me!”
Shelton, naturally, had a tough act to follow. “If I was pitching myself, I would have to talk about the fact that Ross would like to get out and do gigs and I happen to have venues he can do that in, and one of them in Oklahoma.”
But after a tough sell — and thundering cheers from the crowd — Clayton went with his gut feeling and joined Horan’s team. “Niall, let’s go,” Clayton said, launching the beginning of their coach-mentor relationship.
Watch the moment unfold in a clip from The Voice in the video above.
Kelly Clarkson, Blake Shelton, Niall Horan and Chance the Rapper joined forces to tackle a cover of Frankie Valli’s “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” that was shared Thursday (March 2).
Seated in a circle in gilded velvet chairs, the four coaches of The Voice each took turns singing lines from the 1967 classic. “You’re just too good to be true/ Can’t take my eyes off of you,” Chance crooned, reminding fans that he’s just as good a singer as a rapper before tossing the mic to Horan, who contiued, “You’ll be like heaven to touch/ I wanna hold you so much” on the opening verse.
The former One Direction singer also shared the video to his social media accounts, captioning the clip, “Very glad we got to do this together ! Hope you enjoy.”
The two newcomers join OG coach Shelton and returning vet Clarkson for the reality competition’s 23rd go-around. The season will also mark the country star’s final turn in his trusty spinning chair after serving as a coach since the series’ debut in April 2011. Since then, he’s competed against 17 other superstars — from pal Adam Levine and original coaches Christina Aguilera and CeeLo Green, to more recent additions such as Nick Jonas, Ariana Grande and Camila Cabello — and taken home the trophy a record nine times, including with season 22 champ Bryce Leatherwood.
Most notably, though, Shelton also met his now wife Gwen Stefani on the set of the NBC show when the “Hollaback Girl” singer joined the rotating panel of coaches in season seven.
Season 23 of The Voice is set to premiere on Monday (March 6) with the first round of blind auditions. Watch Chance, Horan, Clarkson and Shelton harmonize their way through “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” below.
Blake Shelton is entering his final season of The Voice, and he’s doing it with good humor. During the country singer’s Monday night (Feb. 27) appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, he opened up about stepping away from the long-running singing competition, and how the show has affected his touring — but not without cracking a joke first.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
“Kelly [Clarkson] finally got me fired. I wanted to announce that here,” he laughed of his fellow coach, who also has her eponymous talk show on the same network. “NBC stands for Nothing But Clarkson.”
As for the impact the show has had on his work as a musician? “I don’t tour that much anymore. Part of the reason is because we produce so much work on The Voice,” Shelton revealed. “It’s two seasons a year every year, and so it’s kinda limited me on how much I can tour. I’ve never been one of those guys that just hits the road for a long time anyway, but we only do, like, 18 tour dates a year.”
And as for the eight-time Grammy nominee’s relationship with Voice host Carson Daly? “Somebody asked me earlier, they go, ‘Is Carson upset that you’re leaving The Voice?’” the country star shared. “And I go, ‘Carson is upset about everything all the time anyways.’ He is the grumpiest guy.” (Shelton won’t have to miss Daly much; the two star opposite each other in Barmageddon.)
In a separate interview with TODAY earlier on Monday, Shelton revealed that he initially intended to leave The Voice in 2020. “I think I was close to calling it a day right when COVID hit,” he explained. “And then, because of COVID, I didn’t want to walk away from the show and leave everybody in a bind. I mean, this show changed my life. I’ll stay here until the world kind of gets back to normal again.”
When Shelton takes his final bow on season 23 of The Voice — which kicks off March 6 — Niall Horan and Chance the Rapper will join as coaches. Clarkson will continue to sit in one of the red chairs.
Watch Shelton discuss The Voice with Kimmel in the video above.
Blake Shelton is gearing up to sit in the spinning red chairs on NBC’s The Voice for the last time, as he’s set to leave the popular singing competition series after the upcoming season, which will premiere on March 6.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
The country superstar, who has been on The Voice since it premiered in 2011, sat down with his fellow season 23 coaches Kelly Clarkson, Niall Horan and Chance the Rapper on Monday (Feb. 27) to reflect on why he has decided to leave the show.
“I think I was close to calling it a day right when COVID hit and then, because of COVID, I didn’t want to walk away from the show and leave everybody in a bind,” Shelton revealed. “I mean, this show changed my life. I’ll stay until the world kind of gets back to normal.”
When asked what it would take for him to stay, the “God’s Country” singer teased, “I’d like for Kelly to not be on the show anymore. I’d say there’s too much Kelly Clarkson on television in general.”
On how the show impacted his life, Shelton gushed, “I met my wife [Gwen Stefani] on this show. It has changed my life in every way it possibly can, from a personal standpoint and obviously from a career standpoint. I actually read people say that the only star The Voice ever found was Blake Shelton.”
When the show’s host and producer Carson Daly reacted to that last sentence, Shelton doubled down with another joke. “It is what it is, America,” he said with a laugh.
Shelton announced his departure from The Voice back in October. “This show has changed my life in every way for the better and it will always feel like home to me,” he wrote in a statement posted to social media. “It’s been a hell of a ride over these 12 years of chair turns and I want to thank everyone at The Voice from NBC, every producer, the writers, musicians, crew and catering people, you are the best. It takes a lot of work, passion, and adult beverages (Ha!) to pull off a live show twice a week.”
The singer concluded his statement by thanking the contestants and the fans. “It would not happen without you,” he wrote.
As coach, the “Boys ‘Round Here” singer remains the statistically best coach in terms of winning seasons — having crowned a champ from his team in nine of the show’s 22 seasons.