“The Voice” started their 25th season on Feb. 26 with a duo for the first time, Dan+Shay sharing a seat as one coach, who were previously mentors in Season 20.
The show first premiered on April 26, 2011 with coaches Blake Shelton, Christina Aguilera, CeeLo Green and Adam Levine, according to US Weekly Magazine. Now, the seats are filled by Chance the Rapper, Reba McEntire, the duo and John Legend.
The show was created by NBC as a singing competition after hearing that Simon Cowell left Fox’s “American Idol,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. NBC didn’t know the format of the show yet, but they thought it would be a great experience for a music fan.
The show is a competition where four well-known singers act as coaches and listen to artists’ voices, aged 13 and older, and pick who they want on their team. If they like their voice, they hit a button on their chair that says “I want you.” This process is called blind auditions.
Once the teams are formed, each coach puts two of their team members on the stage to sing the same song. Whoever performs better moves on to the next round. Then there are knockouts. To prepare for this high pressure battle, the coaches bring in a mega mentor to help the artists. For this season, the mega mentor has not been determined yet.
One mega mentor was Taylor Swift, who was a knockout advisor in the seventh and seventeenth seasons as the key advisor for Kelly Clarkson, according to NBC Insider. Another was Charlie Puth in Season 11 for Alicia Keys, 16 for Adam Levine and 22 for Camila Cabello. Finally, Usher was the key advisor in Season 19. Usher has also coached in the fourth and sixth season.
After the knockouts, survivors sing against each other in the playoffs to get to the live shows, according to NBC. The coaches pick three artists to advance where they will be broadcasted in front of a television audience. The audience will vote on their favorite artist to save them from elimination. The artist with the lowest votes will be eligible for an instant save where they perform a different song to prove themselves. If they don’t get the instant save, they are eliminated.
After the live broadcast performances, the audience will vote on their favorite artist again, NBC said. The artists with the lowest votes will be sent home. In the end, the artist with the most votes will be crowned “The Voice” and will receive $100,000 and a record deal with Universal Music Group as the grand prize. The youngest winner was Brynn Cartelli at age 15 in Season 14, and the oldest winner was Todd Tilghman at age 42 in Season 18.
One highlight performance in the show’s history was pop trio “Girl Named Tom” in Season 21. Their blind audition was “Helplessly Hoping” by Crosby, Stills and Nash, according to “The Voice”’s Youtube page. They worked with Kelly Clarkson to continue to the final competition where they won, becoming the first trio to win “The Voice” with one of their original songs, “One More Christmas.”
After the win, one of the members, Caleb Liechty, said they were speechless.
“It’s been amazing, the outpouring of love from the fans,” Leichty said. “That’s something we’re going to take with us forever.”
Another highlight performance was 33-year-old Jordan Rainer’s blind audition of “Fancy” by Bobbie Gentry, one of McEntire’s favorites on Season 24, according to “The Voice”’s Youtube page. After the performance, McEntire became her coach. Rainer remained in the competition until she lost to the instant save in the live broadcast.
After Rainer’s last performance, McEntire praised her for her singing, according to The Oklahoman.
“You are a force of nature…and we see a different side of you everytime you come onto the stage,” McEntire said in an article by the Oklahoman. “You’re great. America, come on now.”
So far, there are four episodes of this season, where they are currently in blind auditions. Anyone can watch it on NBC or stream on Peacock. May the best artist win.