Singer Shakira will leave NBC's 'The Voice' after season

Pop singer Shakira will leave NBC's television singing competition program "The Voice" after only one season as a judge in order to spend more time with her family.
The Colombian singer told entertainment news outlet "Access Hollywood" after Tuesday's episode of "The Voice" that she wanted to spend more time with her infant child and finish up a new album.
"Not for next season," Shakira, 36, said when asked if she was coming back.
"I was really struggling with the fact that I had to leave my nest with my little baby," she added. "So now I need to stay with him for a little bit and also work on my next album. You never know, maybe (I will be back) for the future seasons."
Singer Christina Aguilera is expected to rejoin the show's panel of four judges in the fall after a one-season hiatus.
Shakira and R&B singer Usher were added as judges this season, replacing Aguilera and singer Cee Lo Green, who had been on the panel along with country singer Blake Shelton and Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine since "The Voice" began in 2011.
The "Hips Don't Lie" singer gave birth to son Milan in January, the first child for her and her partner, Spanish soccer player Gerard Pique.
"The Voice," which averages an audience of 14 million viewers for its two weekly episodes, will finish its current season on June 18.

The Voice - Season 4 - First Look Preview

via rickey.org

“The Voice” Season 4: Cee-Lo and Christina Out; Usher and Shakira In

They’ll be a new pair of faces perched in the big red chairs when The Voice returns for a fourth season of star-searching in 2013: Shakira and Usher have been tapped to replace Christina Aguilera and Cee-Lo Green as mentors on the NBC singing series — at least that’s what Us Weekly is reporting.

 

Earlier this month, Aguilera revealed her plans to leave the competition to spend time promoting her new album, Lotus. Green is working with NBC on developing a new show of his own.

Original Voice coaches Adam Levine and Blake Shelton are expected to remain with the show, which recently began its third season.

Any thoughts on the new appointments?

via popcrunch.com

 

'The Voice' Announces New Twists in Season 3

 

"The Voice" will stiffen the competition, both among the coaches and among the contestants, in its upcoming third season. During a news conference in Malibu, California on Sunday, August 12, executive producer Mark Burnett, who was joined by Christina Aguilera, Blake Shelton, Adam Levine and Cee-Lo Green and host Carson Daly, announced some new twists in the next installment of the singing competition.

One of them is that the show will let coaches "steal" the proteges of other coaches during the battle rounds. This way, the contestant who is about to be sent home can get a second chance if another coach sees the potential to polish the aspiring singer better.

The reality series also adds a "knockout round," in which the number of contestants on each coach's team will be cut from 10 to just 5. Accordingly, there will only be 20 talents performing on stage when the show enters its live performance round.

"The Voice" season 3 will premiere Monday, September 10 at 8 P.M. on NBC. Billie Joe Armstrong, Michael Buble, Mary J. Blige and Rob Thomas have been tapped as the advisers for Xtina's, Blake's, Adam's and Cee-Lo's teams respectively.

 

© AceShowbiz.com

The Singing Battle Continues: 'Duets' Judges and 'X Factor' Sound Off on Rival Shows

For a long time, there was one major singing competition show: American Idol. Then last summer, NBC's The Voice joined the U.S. screen with relative success and later in the fall, Idol's Simon Cowell attempted to bring his British franchise The X Factor stateside. This year Idol and The Voice went head to head, inspiring comparisons and an inevitable rivalry for the top spot in the reality singing genre. With ABC joining the popular category with its new show Duets (premiering tonight) and Cowell rebooting X Factor with new judges Britney Spears and Demi Lovato for its second season, the competition amongst the competition shows is getting heated - and the new judges on the block aren't afraid to defend their latest crop of shows.

Duets' John Legend on The X Factor:
For one of the newest celebrities to join the singing competition game (Legend replaced Lionel Richie two weeks prior to production), John Legend seems to have a lot of confidence in his show and some not-so-nice things to say about The X Factor and its judges Spears and Lovato. The smooth crooner told E! Online, "It's interesting when people, you know, are judging singing competitions when they aren't really singers."

Though Legend seemed to be passing some negative judgment on the new judges, his fellow celebrity mentors had kinder words to share - Kelly Clarkson said she's "a big fan of both of them," and Robin Thicke said he's confident "they'll do nothing but make the show a lot more fun to watch."

The X Factor's Simon Cowell on The Voice:
Boosted from the hype surrounding his two new female judges, Simon Cowell was not shy about sharing his thoughts on competitor The Voice. After hearing the show was "all about the voice," Cowell's first thought was, "Why isn't this on radio?" Cowell told Radio 4's Today Show. "Then suddenly I'm watching it a week or two weeks ago and it's the same as The X Factor. They've got dancers behind them, graphics, lights. Same show." And according to Cowell, "If you try and rip somebody off, it always looks like a bad copy."

America's Got Talent's Howard Stern on The X Factor:
Though not a singing competition, America's Got Talent did gain a new judge this season in radio personality Howard Stern, who also felt compelled to share his opinion on Spears joining The X Factor. "As far as any real criticism, I think Simon and L.A. Reid will be doing that. I think Britney is going to stand there and eat a lollipop and wear a sexy outfit," Stern told Access Hollywood. "I don't anticipate great opinions out of her."

Stern then went on to include American Idol's Jennifer Lopez in his criticism, saying, "I think she's going to sit there like J. Lo and [say], 'Oh, you're wonderful. You're terrific. Do you think I could get a perfume endorsement out of this?'" Nevertheless, Stern said he'll still be watching The X Factor this fall - "to see what kind of train wreck [Britney] is."

Kelly Clarkson on the superiority of Duets:
Though not on the offensive like Legend, Clarkson did have some thoughts on how Duets differs from its competitors. "You could take everyone who has won Idol or The Voice and you'd find maybe three who could harmonize," the pop singer told New York Daily News on the difficulty of being on Duets. "It's an art to know when to shine and when to pull back." Clarkson also claimed her show was harder for its celebrities than other shows, saying, "It's a lot more work than people have to do on Idol or The Voice!"

Watch the Duets promo below, where the Superstars boast their contestants will be "more than just a voice." With all this talk comparing rival singing shows, do you think Duets or Cowell's rebooted X Factor will live up to their words? Only time (and ratings) will tell.

Eliminated Contestant Bashes 'The Voice' and Cee-Lo

via aceshowbiz.com

Erin Martin, one of the eliminated contestants on Tuesday, April 10 show of "The Voice", was actually glad that she is off the hook. Martin, who performed Elton John's "Your Song" on the "last chance performance" round, believed that she gave a "fabulous performance" but the competition show and her coach are to be blamed for her exit.

"Oh my God, I'm so glad to be over this competition. Yes, I'm over it," Martin told Access Hollywood. "[For] the blind audition I gave a fabulous performance, and for my last song I gave a fabulous performance, and for both of those songs I chose my song and the chips - not the chips, but like, the control was in my hands of the song and like, you know, how I sang it. When I gave that creative control over, it kind of just didn't really go so well."

Martin's coach, Cee-Lo Green chose to save Cheesa and send home her and Tony Vincent. "I think it was a good lesson for Cee Lo in this particular instance that, you know, when you come across a voice like mine, you have to really nurture it and he wasn't the right person to do that," she said. "No offense to him, it just, he wasn't... I'm the right person to nurture my voice."

Dunno about the voice but definitely Erin doesn't have it to win it! I saw her performance and judging from that she could barely hit every note of that ballad. Obviously the nuances she puts to the song are only to mask her lack of capability to carry it. Sorry Erin stick to modelling instead! Stop bashing Cee-Lo Green.

The TV Column: ‘The Voice’ rises. Here’s what we heard.

via washingtonpost.com

Though you can hardly swing a dead cat in any of the top-10 TV markets in the country without hitting a promo for NBC’s new singing competition series “The Voice,” most TV critics are not getting a chance to see the show in advance of Tuesday night’s unveiling. But NBC held a screening Monday afternoon for fan boys and girls at its digs in Burbank.

The network’s new programming chief, Bob Greenblatt, stopped by briefly but had nothing to say to the crowd. Paul Telegdy, NBC’s head of reality programming, however, kicked things off by telling them that Mark Burnett would not show up, as promised, because he was “stuck in post-production in Santa Monica” and that this very first episode we were about to see had been delivered to the network at 9 o’clock Monday morning.
“We may have a surprise in the middle of it,” Telegdy hinted.

The show kicks off with host Carson Daly blah, blah, blahing about how this show, unlike any other, puts vocal ability first. Though NBC insists in its press material that Daly, who also hosts the network’s “Last Call With Carson Daly,” became “the entertainment icon that he is today” when he became host of MTV’s “Total Request Live” lo these many years ago, today on this tape he’s more Brian Dunkleman than Ryan Seacrest.
The show then explains the rules. Ever have someone try to teach you how to play mah-jongg? It’s kinda like that.

As best we can tell, four celebrity singers will pick wannabes to be on the “teams” they’ll “coach,” only then they have to kill off those team members they deem weakest — like a nature documentary where the mother eats her young, but only the really lame ones. Then, at some point, viewers take over and a winner is eventually chosen. Anyway, it’s a huge hit in the Netherlands, whence it sprang. If more than one celeb mentor picks a singer, he or she gets to pick which team they want to go with.

Christina Aguilera: My New Man Is "Very Lovely"

Christina Aguilera: My New Man Is "Very Lovely"

Credit: Michael Rozman/Warner Bros

Tuesday – April 26, 2011 – 9:45am

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Onward and upward for Christina Aguilera.

Although late 2010 and early 2011 were mired in difficulties -- her divorce from Jordan Bratman, her National Anthem flub, her near-fall at the Grammys and her public drunkenness arrest -- the songstress has plenty to be optimistic about.

For starters, she's still got beau Matthew Rutler at her side. Briefly chatting about her man on Tuesday's Ellen DeGeneres Show, Aguilera, 30, noted, "There is someone very lovely in my life. Yes."

VIDEO: Ooops! Christina flubs the National Anthem!

The singer -- now a musical coach on NBC's The Voice -- agreed with DeGeneres that divorce is "hard."

"It definitely is hard."

And Aguilera is able to laugh about her embarrassing gaffe at the Super Bowl in February. "I had been singing that song my entire life! I was the youngest anthem singer in my hometown of Pittsburgh, PA. I sang for the Steelers when I was.... 7 or 8 years old!"

PHOTOS: Christina's hair over the years

So what went wrong? "I took in the moment a little bit too much. Shoot me for appreciating the moment but here I am at the "Super bowl"...singing for a team and in front of the world...And then it was like, oh. That night I knew, I just made myself a Trivial Pursuit question...In 2011 what female singer, ya know, flubbed the lyrics. It's just insane. But I have a really good laugh about it and you get over things."

PHOTOS: Look back on her marriage to Jordan

Adds the mother to son Max, 3: "You get back up again and you just prove to yourself and to everyone you that much stronger."

Kristin Cavallari Is Engaged!

via usmagazine.com