SING AND A PRAYER!
THE FOUR COACHES ARE ALL HOPING THEY’VE BACKED A WINNER, AS THE LIVE SHOWS BEGIN…
The competition is really heating up on The Voice UK this week, as we reach the first live semi-final! The four coaches – Sir Tom Jones, Olly Murs, will.i.am and Anne-Marie – are all hoping one of their acts will triumph, with Olly looking for his third win on the bounce. So, what do the others have to do to stop the pop star from getting the hat-trick?
“Step on his foot!” grins Sir Tom. “I have to threaten him!”
“Olly really wants to win again,” chuckles will.i.am. “In fact, he enjoys it more than the singers!”
“I’ve had two great – and, I would say, deserving – winners,” admits Olly. “But I don’t think it’s down to whether I coach them, or anyone else coaches them. So, it’s anyone’s game! Sir Tom has got a great team this year. It always seems to be me and Tom in the final two!”
We think the other two coaches could well have something to say about that! As the only judge to have been on all 10 series of The Voice UK, will.i.am is looking for his first win since 2014, while newcomer Anne-Marie is also keen to bag the champ on her very first try…
“I do feel that my team is so good,” she enthuses. “I just wish I didn’t have to send the five home first, as
I wanted all of them to be in the semi-finals!”
That’s been a problem faced by all four mentors: the agony of having to send home some amazing talent…
“There’s so much diversity on my team,” shares will.i.am. “Opera, soul, rap – and they’re all really freaking awesome! So, which way am I supposed to go? Am I meant to compare an opera singer to a rapper, or a soul powerhouse? It’s hard!”
“You feel really bad for the people who are sent home,” agrees Anne-Marie. “We’ve grown so attached to them – and they’re all brilliant.”
Each coach will start the semi-finals with six acts, then split them into two groups of
THERE’S SO MUCH DIVERSITY, AND THEY’RE ALL AWESOME!”
WILL.I.AM
three. Those three acts will perform and their coach will pick one from each group to take forward. And each of the coaches feels that this year’s champion is on their team…
“I think we’re all really confident at this point in the competition,” cheers Olly.
Win or lose, competing is an opportunity that these gifted singers will never forget – and 80-year-old Sir Tom is humbled to offer the younger generation the wisdom of his years.
“I love doing this show,” he beams. “People often come up to me and say, ‘I’m a singer, what do you think?’, and I say, ‘Well, I haven’t heard you sing!’ But I will always try to give my advice. In fact, that’s been an ongoing thing throughout my life. What I love doing on The Voice is to give people as much of my knowledge as I can…”