The Voice has lots to sing about

As well as new singing talent, the show has upgraded its coaching panel with Joe Jonas making his debut in the big red chair, writes Seanna Cronin

EXPECT to hear something startlingly new on The Voice this year.

After six seasons, the reality singing competition will prove it’s not running out of exciting new talent to showcase when it returns to our screens on Sunday.

Channel 9 has already teased fans with a clip showing YouTube artist Sam Perry, who specialises in live vocal looping.

Viewers will have to wait until his blind audition to see what he does and how it is received by the coaches.

“There are some big voices and people doing things with their voices,” returning coach Kelly Rowland tells The Guide.

“Honestly, the talent is even better than last year ... I have the winner on my team.”

Joining Rowland, Delta Goodrem and Boy George in the big red chairs is new coach Joe Jonas, who rose to fame as one third of pop rock band the Jonas Brothers. He makes his Voice coaching debut in Australia after mentoring US Voice coach Adam Levine’s team last year.

“I got a taste of it working with Adam but one thing I didn’t realise until I was doing it on my own out here is how emotional you get with the artists,” he says. “You get so protective of them.”

Jonas says he found some of the Aussie talent “shocking”.

“Because they’re over here, maybe they don’t realise how good they are,” he says.

“There were some heavy fights that happened during the blinds (between the coaches). I’d say there were two or three artists that everybody wanted.”

Rowland, an original member of RnB group Destiny’s Child, was embraced by the Australian public in her Voice debut last year when she guided 19-year-old Fasika Ayallew to the grand final.

She hopes to inspire her new charges to broaden their horizons and step out of their comfort zones, citing her own experience.

“You always ask them to give it a try – that’s the way I approach music,” she says.

“If I’m in the studio with a new producer and it’s something I’ve never done before, I at least like to give it a try. I learned that with Destiny’s Child, even when we were like ‘I like that song but I’m not in love with it’ we still demoed it. You never know if you’re going to discover a new sound. The first mix of Say My Name was 100 times faster than what everybody heard.”

Jonas describes his coaching style as supportive but honest.

“There are moments when I have to be tough with my artists ... we have really honest conversations,” he says.

“I try to motivate and push them, but I want them to have fun.”