The Voice
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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.
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“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.
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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.
The Voice announced that country icon Reba McEntire will serve as the Mega Mentor for the upcoming 23rd season of the show when it returns on NBC on March 6. McEntire will be on hand to join new coaches Chance the Rapper and Niall Horan as well as returning chair turners Kelly Clarkson and Blake Shelton, who is making his final spin on the series as the only original cast member after a 12-year run.
McEntire and the coaches will mentor the acts who make it through the Battle Rounds as the teams prepare for the Knockouts that begin on April 17. McEntire was a Battle Advisor to Shelton’s team during season one, which makes her return for Blake’s final curtain even more poignant.
A release announcing McEntire’s return also noted that the show will add some important changes to the format that will make the competition even more fierce this time around. Starting on March 27, the new “Playoff Pass” will let both artists in a battle advance, with one “Pass” winner snagging a big advantage when they skip the Knockout Rounds and automatically advance to the Playoffs.
Each coach will have one Playoff Pass and one steal during this round, with seven artists from each team advancing — six to compete in the Knockout rounds and one Pass artist. During the Knockouts, artists will be paired against each other and pick their own songs to perform individually while their competitors wait and watch from the sidelines. The coaches will then choose the winner, with the artist not selected available to return via a steal; each coach has only one steal during this round as five artists per team advance.
Finally, during the return of the playoff rounds beginning on May 1, the 20 remaining acts will face off as each coach has to pick two to advance to the live semifinals. This season’s live shows will kick off on May 15. The season 23 premiere of The Voice airs on NBC on March 6 at 8 p.m. ET.
Kelly Clarkson invited Niall Horan to the set of her eponymous talk show on Wednesday (Feb. 22) to tease his debut alongside her as a coach on The Voice.
Naturally, the two artists had plenty to chat about, especially considering that the both got their respective starts on other reality singing competitions. “So your big break was obviously on X Factor and I came up on [American] Idol. You came up with a group, which I think is cool,” Clarkson pointed out as the audience erupted into screams at the mention of One Direction.
“But no, I was very lonely off the top,” she continued. “And I think that must’ve been cool. Like, that you had buddies to lean on.”
The host then asked Horan whether he and his former bandmates — Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik — still lean on one another. The former One Direction-er responded, “Yeah, especially on the show we were so lucky. ‘Cause you would see all the other artists melting all the time over everything. We were just 16, 17, 18, 19, whatever we were. … It was so fun. I’d do it again. That’s why I’m doing The Voice.” (“Of course, we speak constantly,” he added later, without going into specifics about his relationships with each member of the group.)
Hilariously, Clarkson also revealed during their chat that she was initially very mistaken on a key aspect of 1D history: She was certain the quintet actually won their season on the U.K. version of The X Factor way back in 2009.
“I thought One Direction won,” she confessed. “I mean, ’cause you did, in life! Like, you actually came in third and I was like, ‘What?!’ ‘Cause I didn’t watch, I just knew that’s where you came from, but, like, congratulations, you killed it, my friend.”
Nowadays, Horan is readying the release of his third solo album, The Show, and many fans have theorized that the record may or may not contain a duet with Styles.
Watch more of Clarkson and Horan’s interview — including the latter’s pitch-perfect imitation of fellow coach Blake Shelton — below.
Kelly Clarkson brought a special guest to help open the Thursday (Feb. 16) episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show: Corey Ward of The Voice.
To kick off the “Kellyoke” duet, the superstar and her former protégé harmonized on “Falling Slowly” from John Carney’s 2007 musical film Once. “I don’t know you but I want you all the more for that,” Ward crooned, strumming an acoustic guitar before Clarkson joined him in singing the chorus: “Take this sinking boat and point it home/ We’ve still got time/ Raise your hopeful voice, you have a choice/ You’ve made it now/ Falling slowly, sing your melody/ I’ll sing along.”
Ward was part of Team Kelly back in 2021 during Season 20, where he was eliminated in the Live Semifinal round before Cam Anthony eventually took the trophy for Blake Shelton’s team. Some of his most memorable performances on The Voice include his audition with Robyn’s “Dancing On My Own” as well as covers of Clarkson’s “Already Gone,” Lewis Capaldi’s “Bruises” and “Iris” by the Goo Goo Dolls.
Later in the show, Clarkson interviewed Ward about his time on the reality singing competition, his mom’s cancer diagnosis — which led him to initially audition for Season 19 — as well as his new single “Close to Love.”
In recent days, the original American Idol winner has also covered everything from Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again,” Adele’s “Set Fire to the Rain,” Mark Morrison’s “Return of the Mack,” Camille Yarbrough’s Fatboy Slim-sampling “Take Yo’ Praise” and more.
Watch Clarkson and Ward duet on “Falling Slowly” below.
The Voice could have had a very different vibe if producers had gotten their first choice of judges to fill one of the iconic red spinning chairs. In an interview with ET Online country legend Reba McEntire was asked who she thought would make a good replacement for soon-to-depart OG coach Blake Shelton, revealing that it could have been her they were looking to re-cast.
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McEntire reminded ET that she was originally offered a role on the reality singing series before it debuted in 2011, with producers then offering the gig to Shelton, who will end his 12-year-run with the show after Season 23, which premieres on NBC on March 6. “Who could fill Blake’s shoes?” McEntire asked with a smile according to ET.
“I got [a look at] the Holland version of The Voice. They sent it to me and I said, ‘I can’t see me doing that,’” she said of her feelings after seeing the original version of the show that has spawned a global franchise. “Because, you know, I’m a gypsy at heart,” McEntire, 67, said, noting that she’s not sure she could be committed to one project for so long and stay in one place.
Whoever does permanently fill Blake’s shoes has their work cut out for them, McEntire said. “To fill Blake’s chair? Wow. That’s gonna be tough,” she predicted. “He did a great job and kudos to him.” McEntire didn’t totally blow producers off, though, agreeing to serve as a mentor to Team Blake during the show’s premiere 2011 season and returning again in 2015.
The upcoming season of The Voice will feature new coaches Niall Horan and Chance the Rapper joining Shelton and returning cast member Kelly Clarkson.
For now,
Blake Shelton is leaving The Voice, but that doesn’t mean that he’s going to be soft on his fellow coaches. On Wednesday (Jan. 25), NBC released the first season 23 promo of The Voice, which sees the country star reflecting on it being his last on the show, and competing with his fellow coaches, both new and old.
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The trailer kicks off with Shelton telling a contestant, “This is my last season as a coach on The Voice after 23 seasons.” Kelly Clarkson, who is making her return to the show, chimes in and adds for the country singer, “He’s so tired.” Shelton points to his fellow coaches, which now includes first timers Chance the Rapper and former One Direction member Niall Horan, and adds, “I am tired of this.”
Shelton also recognized Horan as a formidable force this season, telling the audience and contestants that “Niall is already stealing my incredible artistic expression.”
In a separate clip, the “Heartbreak Weather” singer cheekily tells the nine-time Grammy nominee, “I feel like a young you.” Shelton’s response? “I can see it now.”
Before the promo concludes, the country singer let the audience and coaches know one crucial thing: “I just want everyone to know that there is one king of The Voice. Only one.”
And he’s not wrong — season 22 of The Voice saw Shelton earn his ninth overall win after Bryce Leatherwood was crowned champion.
Season 23 of The Voice is scheduled to premiere on NBC March 6. Watch the promo for the new season above.
NBC’s The Voice just wrapped its 22nd season, which saw Camila Cabello joining the panel as a coach for her first season. In the upcoming season, Niall Horan and Chance the Rapper are set to sit in the spinning red chairs for the first time.
Over the reality singing competition’s history, Blake 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 seasons.
When The Voice premiered as NBC’s answer to FOX’s juggernaut American Idol, the inaugural cast of coaches consisted of Christina Aguilera, Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine, Shelton, and CeeLo Green. (Shelton is the only coach to have stayed on the rotating panel since the beginning of the hit show.)
Apart from Shelton’s supreme reign as king of The Voice, a plethora of star-studded musicians have appeared as coaches to try their hand at the crown including Ariana Grande, Shakira, Pharrell, Gwen Stefani, Alicia Keys, Miley Cyrus, Usher, Jennifer Hudson, Kelly Clarkson, John Legend and Nick Jonas.
Below is a complete list of which coach won at the end of each season.