NBC hosted a premiere for The Voice Season 4 in Los Angeles on Wednesday night, and pretty much everyone from the past three seasons joined the coaches on the red carpet. Scroll down to see pictures of familiar faces, from coaches Blake Shelton and Usher to Dia Frampton, Terry McDermott and Pip, just to name a few!
We’re just shy of a month from a brand-new season of NBC’s The Voice, and only about two months removed from America crowning Team Blake’s Cassadee Pope the winner of the show’s third cycle. What’s been happening with the show and its artists since Cassadee won the title?
As has been heavily publicized, Season 4 will be the first with new coaches Shakira and Usher, who were introduced in the fall. You can read some of their early thoughts on joining The Voice here. This may also be the only season for the new arrivals, as previous coaches Christina Aguilera and Cee Lo Green – who are on a break this time around – have expressed interest in returning for Season 5 this fall. However, it’s worth noting that nothing has been finalized yet beyond Season 4.
The guest mentors this year will be Hillary Scott of Lady Antebellum (Team Adam), Sheryl Crow (Team Blake), Joel Madden (Team Shakira) and Pharrell Williams (Team Usher).
Season 3 winner Cassadee Pope officially signed her recording deal with Universal and has been hard at work writing and recording ever since, according to her Facebook. Universal released a CD version of her Voice performances here. Cassadee posted a video update on her progress here.
Runner-up Terry McDermott hasn’t slowed down since leaving the show, either. In fact, he recently released a new single “Pictures” via SoundCloud, which he co-wrote with Dave Burman. His performance of “Baby, I Love Your Way” with Peter Frampton from the Voice finale was retroactively released on iTunes here.
Here’s a short list of major developments with other Voice artists, past and present.
Team Adam: Season 3′s Amanda Brown appears on the soundtrack to the recent Universal release Identity Thief, starring Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy. Her teammate Bryan Keith brought some new music to his live show at the Gramercy Theater; you can watch the video here. Season 2′s Pip released his EP No Formalities; you can get it here. Tony Lucca is hard at work on his new album, and performing some new originals on the road, like “Reckless Love.” Kim Yarbrough is preparing for the release of her single “Brand New Day” (here’s a teaser video), guested on CBS’s Vegas, appears in the March 6 episode of TNT’s Southland, and her Nickelodeon project has been ordered to series. Katrina Parker is working on new music of her own after the successful funding of her Kickstarter project. Season 1′s Tim Mahoney released his next CD, Shine Through, which includes his Voice-related tune “Hey Adam Levine.” Casey Weston has a new album on the way; you can pre-order it here and stay tuned for an upcoming interview.
Team Blake: Season 3′s Suzanna Choffel released her new single “Guardians.” Season 2′s winner, Jermaine Paul, postponed the release of his post-show album Finally until sometime later this year; you can pre-order it at Amazon, although there’s no specific street date listed there. Season 2 alum Jordis Unga is in the home stretch of putting together her new album, and also won a Grammy this year for her work on Jimmy Cliff’s Rebirth, which took the trophy for Best Reggae Album. Erin Willett has recently posted a new cover.
Team Cee Lo: Season 3′s MacKenzie Bourg has dropped his debut single. Season 1′s Nakia is releasing his next EP, Drown In The Crimson Tide, and is playing a few tour dates in his home state of Texas. His battle round partner Tje Austin put out his new CD, Dreamin’ Big. Also, Paste Magazine wants to help you make your own Cee Lo Green.
Team Christina: Season 3′s Devyn DeLoera released a music video with Ready Revolution that you can find here, along with several covers on her Facebook page. She has new music coming your way on March 4. The busiest Voice alum by far is Season 2′s Chris Mann, who recently taped Chris Mann in Concert for PBS to be aired in March. Also next month, Chris will be announcing tour dates, one of which is New York’s Highline Ballroom. Lindsey Pavao put out her new single “No Revelation.” Moses Stone released new music; you can find “Beautiful Nightmare” here.
Season 4 of The Voice begins March 25. For the latest on all things related to NBC’s hit singing competition, you can visit Big Red Chairs.
(c)2013 Brittany Frederick. Appears at Starpulse and Examiner with permission. All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted.
Thursday is shaping up to be a big day for The Voice fans, as either new music or news about new music is emerging. Here’s what I know so far, and this post will be updated as more develops.
And here’s a new cover video from Team Adam’s Karla Davis:
From The Grove, July 25, 2012. CR: Brittany Frederick/@bigredchairs
Welcome to Big Red Chairs, the blog for all of your The Voice needs…this week, season three is in full swing while a number of your favorite artists are making moves. It’s been a busy two weeks! Read on…
Show News: Emmy Nominations and New Mentors for Season 3
If you didn’t already hear the news, The Voice has an impressive four Emmy nominations, including one for Best Reality Competition Series! Congrats to everyone behind the scenes at the show whose work is getting some well-deserved recognition.
Now that they’re taping the third season, mentors have begun to be revealed for Season 3. Team Adam welcomes Mary J. Blige, while Team Blake boasts Michael Buble, Team Cee Lo is partnering up with Rob Thomas (Matchbox 20), and Team Christina has Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day). No word yet on if the show will keep its “two mentors per coach” from Season 2, but these sure are some interesting names!
Tickets for Season 3 battle rounds (August 3-5 and August 10-12) are now available by clicking here.
Tour News: The Voice Takes Over The Grove in LA, Tony Vincent in NYC, Nathan Parrett’s Spring Awakening Arrives
If you were on either coast over the past two weeks, you were in for something special. Here in Los Angeles, four of The Voice‘s finalists performed at The Grove LA – season one runner-up Dia Frampton, and season three’s Tony Lucca, Chris Mann and Juliet Simms. Each finalist got three songs each, and played favorites from the show as well as some original material. It was a great night for Voice fans, as all four sounded positively fantastic.
It was the capper to a busy period for Tony, who performed at San Diego Comic-Con earlier this month and is about ready to head out on tour. He has so much going on, I had to give him his own post! Click here to read my full interview with Tony from The Grove about his future plans and which Voice alumni he’ll be sharing the stage with.
Dia performed REM’s “Losing My Religion,” the song “Trapeze” off her album Red, and of course, “Heartless.” She remains one of the sweetest people in the music business, with a truly unique sound to her voice. Juliet brought her brother Tommy, who is also a part of her band Automatic Love Letter, with her to perform the song “Pillows,” before bringing her awesome growl to “Roxanne” and “It’s A Man’s World.” It’s clear that she has great vocal pipes, that she can continue to growl like that time and again.
Closing the night was Chris, who belted out “You Raise Me Up” and the always-popular “Viva la Vida” before giving fans a pleasant surprise: an early performance of his upcoming single “Roads.” Mann fans, when you get to hear this, you’re in for a treat. This may be Chris’s best song yet. I could really hear how emotionally connected he was to what he was singing, and of course, his voice is simply unmatched. It had me in tears by the end, and I can’t wait for you all to be able to hear what I did Wednesday.
This show was a great reminder that these people are not “reality show talent.” They are musicians who happened to be on a reality show, people who have had careers before the show and will continue to have careers after. They’ve got loyal fans; in particular there were plenty of Dia Frampton fans going all the way back to her Meg & Dia days who turned up at The Grove. These four artists, and the people they shared the Voice stage with, are legitimate singers, songwriters and musicians who should be taken seriously – regardless of how they came to our attention.
In New York, Team Cee Lo’s Tony Vincent visited Rockwood Hall. I’m still waiting for pics and video from that show to share with you, but the feedback I’m hearing is that it was amazing (no surprise, right?).
Also on the West Coast, Team Adam’s Nathan Parrett has officially hit the stage in his production of Spring Awakening. His teammate Pip will be the opening act tomorrow. You can pick up tickets for the very limited engagement here.
New Music: Another Epic Shields Brothers Video
Team Cee Lo’s Shields Brothers are back with another vid that they’ve passed on to me so that I can share it with you. Click here for the lyric video to their first single, “Run Away With Me.” You have to love any video that can be made with duct tape. It reminds me of the gleeful awesomeness that was the OK Go treadmill video. And that thing won a Grammy.
Getting Music Made: Raelynn Signs A Record Deal
Congratulations to Team Blake’s Raelynn, who landed a record deal while we were out! That makes her the second member of Team Blake Season 2 to land a deal since the end of the show.
If you’re keeping score of record deals overall, here’s an interesting fact: Universal Republic (the record label partnered with NBC for the show) has seemingly hedged their bets this time around. They’ve signed two contestants from season two: winner Jermaine Paul and Chris Mann. That’s down from last year, when they signed four artists: winner Javier Colon, runner-up Dia Frampton, finalist Vicci Martinez and semifinalist Xenia.
Coach News: Maroon 5 Wins Teen Choice Award and Cee Lo’s Vegas Residency Delayed
Coach Adam Levine and Maroon 5 picked up a Teen Choice Award this week for their song “Payphone.” Meanwhile, you’ll have to wait a little longer to see coach Cee Lo Green in Las Vegas, as his Planet Hollywood residency has been pushed back to 2013 due to his commitments to Season 3 of The Voice, according to this article. (If we’re lucky, that might be about the same time Maroon 5 starts their North American tour for Overexposed…?)
Fan Stuff: The Pipster Project
The awesomely loyal Pip fans are at it again! The “Pipsters” had a little contest going on earlier this month where fans could submit their fan stories. Click on over here for the 411, courtesy of Steph Pham and my buddies at @Team_BowTie, and click here to read some of the submitted stories so far. I do so love it when fans come together. As if that’s not awesome, Pip rewarded all the entries with a signed T-shirt and a signed picture. That’s because he is clearly awesome, like his fans.
Birthdays!
Happy birthdays are in order for Team Cee Lo’s Tony Vincent and Season 2 champion Jermaine Paul. Happy b’day to the both of you fine gentlemen, and I hope the celebrations were/are excellent!
That’s all I’ve got for this week; as usual, for up-to-the-minute updates, follow me on Twitter at @bigredchairs.
Hey fans! Lots to do on this Tuesday morning after another exciting set of battles! Firstly, if you missed any of last night’s action, I’ve got you covered with this handy recap and review at Starpulse.
But now, it’s time for a whole lotta interviews.
Enjoy!
This being Tuesday it’s time for a new Voice blog – and this one is chock full of video! In addition to Nakia‘s new single, you can see video catching up with Team Blake’s Dia Frampton and Xenia, as well as the coaches’ fantastic Prince medley from last night and their hilarious Super Bowl commercial. For all that and more, plus your weekly event calendar, click on over.
Our four coaches chatted with Rolling Stone for a feature about season two. There’s a lot of interesting stuff here, from commentary on whether or not Christina is a diva to how long Cee Lo thinks the show might last! You can read the first part of the story at Rolling Stone’s website and pick up the issue on newsstands now.
NBC.com also has a new web series following Team Blake finalist Dia Frampton post-show. You can check out the first video here. Congratulations, Dia!
There’s a lot going on in the world of The Voice this week, and I’ve got it all for you. First, I have two new interviews with Team Blake’s semifinalist Xenia and season one social media correspondent Alison Haislip. Hear what they had to say about their time on The Voice and what they’re doing next.
Next, I cover the show’s GLAAD noms, the Voice Chair Tour, and a pair of new videos from season 2: a backstage tour with host Carson Daly and a sneak peak introducing us to season 2 artist Jesse Campbell.
Maroon 5 fans will want to download the band’s cover of Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released” which dropped today.
And there’s an updated calendar that includes Vicci Martinez‘s upcoming performance at The Viper Room in Los Angeles this Thursday, January 26!
To see all of the above and more, visit my Starpulse blog. We’re less than two weeks away from season two!
Dia Frampton fans: Team Blake’s semifinalist has just announced quite a few dates where she’ll be headlining gigs in between dates on coach Blake Shelton‘s Well Lit and Amplified Tour. Check the Calendar page to see where you can catch Dia, both with Blake and on her own, through March 2012.
Congratulations to Team Blake semifinalist Xenia, whose EP Sing You Home is now available on iTunes! You can download the four-track release by using this link.
It’s Xenia’s second post-show release, after she appeared on Jon McLaughlin‘s recent album Forever If Ever, singing half of the duet “Maybe It’s Over.”
She’s the second member of Team Blake to release music after the competition, following Dia Frampton‘s Red.
Here’s wishing Xenia all the best…
