The Boot (April 26th 2011)
Blake Shelton listens for talent on ‘The Voice’
Blake Shelton returns to prime-time television tonight (April 26) with the premiere of NBC's 'The Voice.' He joins a diverse group of coaches, including Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green and Adam Levine of Maroon 5, who each try to recruit the best singers for their team, with one catch: Blake and the others do not know what the singers look like, so they have to base their decision on talent alone.
"I love how the show starts," Blake tells The Boot. "It starts with people who are truly talented, nothing more than they're truly great singers. We have no knowledge, nothing else do we know about these people other than they're great singers. If they're really, really good and we think it's something that we can figure out a way to do something with them to help them, then we want them to be on our team. Only when we make the decision that we want to work with them, then we get to see them."
Obviously, the show is built around the contestants' voices but Blake says it's the element of surprise that sets it apart from other talent competitions.
“Sometimes you turn around, and what you thought was a cute little girl singing a Colbie Caillat song might be an overweight man from Chicago," says the singer. "You never know what you're going to see once you turn around. I love that about it, because it makes you realize that no matter what somebody looks like, they still may be really talented. For some reason in the music industry, so much is made over looks and with videos and things like that. As an artist -- and I can speak for the other three artist coaches on the show -- that's why we were interested in this. Because we buy records of music that we just love. I buy posters and calendars of artists that I think are hot. [laughs] So, this brings that element back to the music industry."
'The Voice,' based on Holland's top-rated vocal talent competition show, is a three-tiered competition, the first of which is the blind auditions. Each coach is trying to build an eight-person team, so when the celebs hear a voice they like, they can press a button to turn around to see the contestant. If only one coach turns, that aspiring singer is automatically on his/her team. However, if more than one artist turns their chair around, the celebrities have to persuade (which may lead to lying or cheating) the contestant to choose their team.
Once the teams have been compiled, the work truly begins for the coaches as they prepare the hopefuls for a possible professional career. The celebrities will then reduce their team down to four with vocal competitions.
The third, and final, phase of the show will feature live performances. Viewers will be able to choose their favorite to be crowned 'The Voice,' who goes on to win a recording contract with Universal Music Group.
Blake has really upped his TV quotient in the past couple of years with numerous appearances on late night's 'Chelsea Lately,' his performance and Male Vocalist win at last fall's Country Music Association Awards, his co-hosting stint at this month's Academy of Country Music Awards, honoring his bride-to-be, Miranda Lambert, on last week's 'Girls' Night Out: Superstar Women of Country' TV special, and yet another singing competition, 2007's 'Clash of the Choirs.'
He acknowledges, however, that he has never achieved more recognition than with the numerous commercials NBC has been airing over the past few months for the new show. "I don't know any other show that I've ever seen that many commercials for, ever," says Blake. "I don't know the politics of what's going on with the network. If nothing else, just being on those commercials has been the biggest thing that's ever happened to me."
'The Voice' features a collaborative performance by all of the coaches on the Gnarls Barkley hit, 'Crazy,' with tonight's premiere (April 26) at 9:00 PM ET on NBC.