The four-time Emmy Award-winning "The Voice" returns with the strongest vocalists from across the country invited to compete in the blockbuster vocal competition show's new season.
Superstar singer-songwriter Kelly Clarkson makes her debut as a coach this season, with Season 12-winning coach and musical icon Alicia Keys taking a red chair alongside the show's returning coaches, Adam Levine and Blake Shelton, and host Carson Daly.
The show's innovative format features five stages of competition: the first begins with the blind auditions, then the battle rounds, knockouts, playoffs and, finally, the live performance shows.
During the blind auditions, the decisions from the musician coaches are based solely on voice and not on looks. The coaches hear the artists perform, but they don't get to see them - thanks to rotating chairs. If a coach is impressed by the artist's voice, he or she pushes a button to select the artist for his or her team. At this point, the coach's chair will swivel so that he or she can face the artist he or she has selected. If more than one coach pushes his or her button, the power then shifts to the artists to choose which coach they want to work with. If no coach pushes a button, the artist is eliminated from the competition.
Once the teams are set, the battle is on.
The coaches dedicate themselves to developing their teams of artists, giving them advice and sharing the secrets of their success, along with help from their celebrity advisers. During the battle rounds, the coaches pit two of their own team members against each other to sing the same song together in front of a studio audience. After the vocal battle, the coach must choose which of his or her singers will advance to the next round of competition, while the losing artist is available to be stolen by another coach. Each coach has two steals available during the battle rounds.
At the end of the battle rounds, only the strongest members of each coach's roster remain and proceed to the knockout rounds. Here, the artists will be paired against a teammate once more, but this time they will select their own songs to perform individually while their direct competitor watches and waits. They are vying for their coach's confidence and decision to take them to the final and crucial round before the live shows, the playoffs.
One superstar universal adviser will be on hand to work with all of the coaches and their teams as they prepare the artists for this challenge. But the coaches alone will choose the winner and the artist not selected will be available to be stolen by another coach.
Each coach has one steal available during the knockout rounds.
In the playoff rounds, the Top 20 artists will compete to secure a spot in the live shows. Artists will perform and the coaches will then select three of their five artists to complete their roster and move on to the final phase of the competition - the live shows.
In the final live performance phase of the competition, the Top 12 artists will compete each week against each other during a live broadcast. The television audience will vote to save their favorite artists. Three artists with the lowest number of votes will be eligible for the instant save. These artists will each perform a new song that represents why they should earn the save. America will then have the opportunity to save their favorite performer by tweeting out #VoiceSave along with the artist's name. The singers with the lowest number of votes will be sent home each week. In the end, one will be named "The Voice" and will receive the grand prize of a recording contract.
"The Voice" is a presentation of MGM Television, Talpa Media USA Inc. and Warner Horizon Unscripted & Alternative Television. The series was created by John de Mol, who serves as executive producer along with Mark Burnett, Audrey Morrissey, Lee Metzger, Chad Hines, Amanda Zucker, Kyra Thompson and Stijn Bakkers.
CREDITS
Day and Time
Mondays and Tuesdays 8/7c
Host
Carson Daly
Coaches
Kelly Clarkson, Alicia Keys, Adam Levine, Blake Shelton
Executive Producers
John de Mol, Mark Burnett, Audrey Morrissey, Lee Metzger, Chad Hines, Amanda Zucker, Kyra Thompson, Stijn Bakkers
Developed By
John de Mol
Director
Alan Carter
Segment Director
Alex Van Wagner
Co-Executive Producer
Teddy Valenti
Supervising Producers
Anthea Bhargava, Keith Dinielli, May Johnson, Clyde Lieberman, Kyley Tucker
Senior Producers
Ashley Baumann, Brittany Martin Porter, Bart Kimball
Producers
Carson Daly, Amanda Borden, Dan Paschen, Tod Schellinger, Jared Wyso
Supervising Casting Producer
Michelle McNulty
Supervising Digital Producer
Amanda Horning
Consulting Producer
Melissa Wong
Production Designer
Anton Goss
Off-Stage Production Designer
James Connelly
Lighting Designer
Oscar Dominguez
Origination
Los Angeles, California
Produced By
MGM Television, Talpa Media USA Inc., Warner Horizon Unscripted & Alternative Television
Format By
Talpa Content, B.V.
Brynn Cartelli, winner of “The Voice,” with her coach, pop star Kelly Clarkson. (Trae Patton/NBC)
Kelly Clarkson was a brand-new coach on “The Voice” this year — but that didn’t stop her from making a bold proclamation in the very first episode of the season in February, when she made a bid for contestant Brynn Cartelli.
“I can win with you,” Clarkson said to Cartelli, the teenage pop-soul phenom who stunned everyone in the blind audition by belting out Labrinth and Emeli Sandé’s “Beneath Your Beautiful.”
Blake Shelton also wanted Cartelli on his team, and the two coaches started bickering. (Shelton: “Kelly has absolutely no experience on this show whatsoever.” Clarkson: “I had enough experience that he had me mentor his team on the second season!”) Eventually, Cartelli chose Clarkson, one of her idols growing up.
It paid off in a big way, as Clarkson proved prophetic: On Tuesday night, Cartelli, a high school freshman from Massachusetts, was crowned champion of “The Voice” Season 14, winning $100,000 and a recording contract with Universal Music Group. As the show’s youngest winner ever, she triumphed over country singer Spensha Baker, soul powerhouse Kyla Jade and folk rocker Britton Buchanan, who was the runner-up.
From left: Kyla Jade, Spensha Baker, Brynn Cartelli and Britton Buchanan await the results from host Carson Daly. (Tyler Golden/NBC)
As the judges gushed repeatedly throughout the season, Cartelli’s voice is wildly impressive for a 15-year-old, not to mention her poise and confidence on stage. Clarkson dubbed her everything from “a unicorn” to “an anomaly,” while Alicia Keys said she has “a maturity that’s way beyond [her] years.” Yet during the two-night finale this week, it appears Cartelli could actually be a game-changer for the singing competition — because she has a real shot at becoming the show’s first mainstream star.
Before you roll your eyes, yes, we know — the same thing has been predicted about contestants in the past, and it hasn’t happened. For all the success of “The Voice,” still one of the country’s most-watched TV shows, the most common criticism is that it hasn’t produced an actual superstar. While some contestants have found music careers after the show, particularly in Nashville, plenty struggle. And no one has come near the level of … well, Clarkson, who rocketed to stardom after winning the first season of “American Idol” in 2002.
Anyway, here’s why we think Cartelli could be different than past “Voice” winners: Her coronation song, “Walk My Way” sounds like a track that could easily become a 2018 song of the summer contender, and it’s dropping at the perfect time.
Since the seventh season, nearly all the final four contestants are required to sing an original song in the finale, which will serve as their first single if they win. There have been several quality tunes, such as Season 7 winner Craig Wayne Boyd’s “My Baby’s Got a Smile on Her Face,” which briefly topped the country charts; Season 8 winner Sawyer Fredericks’s “Please,” written by Ray LaMontagne; and Chris Blue’s “Money On You,” produced by Tinashe Sibanda, who has written for Maroon 5 and Rita Ora.
However, none of these were breakout hits, and that leads us to Cartelli’s song. “Walk My Way” was written by Julia Michaels, Justin Tranter and Nick Monson. Michaels, who performed with Cartelli on the finale and was a “Voice” mentor this season, is one of pop music’s most prominent rising artists. Tranter is an extremely successful songwriter for acts from Britney Spears to Selena Gomez, and Monson is known for producing Lady Gaga. Those credentials alone give the song a boost, plus the fact it is unbelievably catchy. Sure, the track might not be your style, but the chorus will almost certainly get stuck in your head. (Particularly the studio version.)
“‘Walk My Way’ is something you would hear on the radio right now,” Cartelli explained Monday night after she sang it for the first time. “Just knowing that this is something current, this is something that people are going to be able to jam out to with their friends – it makes me pumped up to sing it.”
After the finale, “Walk My Way” was at No. 1 on iTunes, next to Buchanan’s “Where You Come From”; a very meaningful tune that the 19-year-old runner-up wrote himself, although not as likely to catch on at radio.
So it will be telling to see if Cartelli can break through. All the stars seemed to be aligned, and Clarkson said she’s already heard from people in the industry who want to work with Cartelli. In the past, Adam Levine has been critical of record labels who drop the ball with talented “Voice” winners — but as Cartelli leaves the show armed with Clarkson’s support and a potential hit song, she just may have the best chance of anyone so far.
Read more:
A former contestant from ‘The Voice’ spills how the NBC singing show really operates
‘The Voice’ is becoming a battle of Kelly Clarkson vs. Blake Shelton — for country singers
How Chloe Kohanski won ‘The Voice’ Season 13, despite a big mistake by Miley Cyrus
