Country legend Reba McEntire is now on ‘The Voice’ — and a singer tried out with her biggest hit
A new season of the “The Voice” is here — and with it some new and familiar faces.
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When does ‘The Voice’ Season 24 premiere?
“The Voice” Season 24 premieres Sept. 25 on NBC. The show airs Mondays and Tuesdays at 7 p.m. MDT.
Who are the coaches on ‘The Voice’ 2023?
Niall Horan, formerly of One Direction, returns to “The Voice” for the upcoming season in an effort to claim his second win. Horan won his inaugural season with singer Gina Miles, the Deseret News reported.
Former coaches John Legend and Gwen Stefani will return to their red swivel chairs. And country legend Reba McEntire will mark the season’s only newcomer, taking the place of country star Blake Shelton, who concluded his time as a coach on the show after 23 seasons.
“I’ve been wrestling with this for a while and I’ve decided that it’s time for me to step away from ‘The Voice’ after Season 23,” Shelton said in a statement, per NBC News. “This show has changed my life in every way for the better and it will always feel like home to me.”
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Reba McEntire makes her debut as a ‘Voice’ coach
McEntire’s history with “The Voice” goes back to the beginning, when she served as an adviser for Shelton’s team during the Battle round of Season 1, per the Deseret News.
Shelton previously revealed that McEntire was actually NBC’s first choice for a coach in the country music lane, Taste of Country reported.
McEntire recently told USA Today that her initial hesitation in becoming a “Voice” coach years ago was that she’d be discouraging rising artists when they get eliminated on the show.
“They’re going to win whether they win this competition or not,” she said. “Being in front of this many people, the exposure that they’re getting: Unfathomable. When I got started, there wasn’t anything like this. And you just had to continue singing wherever you could because you never know who’s going to be in the audience.”
McEntire’s mark on the show is already being felt. A sneak peak of the season premiere Monday night shows a contestant singing a rock-infused rendition of the country legend’s hit song “Fancy.”
It’s a bold move to audition for “The Voice” with a song that has a strong association with a coach, but 33-year-old Jordan Rainer said “Fancy” is a song that carries a lot of meaning for her.
“It was written by a strong woman, it was made famous by a strong woman, and it represents lyrically what women do to survive, and I am a woman who has done what I’ve had to do to survive,” the country singer from Atoka, Oklahoma, told all four coaches. “And so I feel that song in every bone in my body.”
The sneak peak reveals that all four coaches turned their chairs for a chance to get Rainer on their team. And while McEntire seems to be the obvious choice, Legend, who called her “an exceptional vocalist,” put up quite a fight.
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“You are a real-deal singer with a great range, great charisma, great stage presence,” he said. “You’re gonna do fantastically on the show.”
Viewers can find out Monday night who Rainer ends up selecting to be her coach.
McEntire has also already committed to the show’s 25th season in the spring, where she will coach alongside Legend, Chance the Rapper and newcomers Dan + Shay, per American Songwriter.
What about the actors strike?
As the Writers Guild of America and major Hollywood studios reach a tentative deal amid a monthslong writers strike, the actors strike is ongoing.
But unscripted reality series like “The Voice” are largely unaffected by the actors strike, Deadline reported.
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“When it comes to reality shows and unscripted television, even if an actor is a SAG-AFTRA member, they can still participate because reality shows and unscripted are under a separate SAG-AFTRA contract,” Marc Malkin, Variety’s senior culture and events editor, told etonline.com. “They are not under the contract that people are striking about right now.”
Shows including “The Masked Singer” and “Dancing With the Stars” also return this week.
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