Wednesday, May 7, 2014

'The Voice' landing Gwen Stefani and Pharrell is 'such a score,' Adam Levine says - Entertainment Weekly

'The Voice' landing Gwen Stefani and Pharrell is 'such a score,' Adam Levine says

By Pamela Gocobachi on May 6, 2014 at 6:19PM
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Image Credit: Trae Patton/NBC

Fans of NBC's The Voice have still got a ways to go before they see Gwen Stefani and Pharrell sit in the infamous rotating judge's chairs, but that didn't stop the newly appointed season 7 judges from hitting the stage at Monday night's show to perform one of their most successful collaborative hits, "Hollaback Girl." We caught up with current coach Adam Levine after the show to find out what he's looking forward to most about working with Stefani and Williams:

Despite a bit of healthy competition among the coaches, above all, Levine said everyone on the show is looking to have a good time, something he looks forward to doing with Stefani and Williams when they join the show next season.

"What people at home have to understand is it's not really about us beating each other — maybe it's more about me beating Blake! That's really the only one that's important to me," Levine joked.

Good-natured ribs aside, the Maroon 5 frontman also said he's looking forward to working with two musicians who are not only tremendously accomplished, but also very well-respected. "I've been a fan of Gwen's and Pharrell's for so long — they're both such inspirational people," Levine told EW. "They're incredible, and it's such a score to be able to get them on this show."

We also caught up with a few of the season 6 contestants hoping they get voted into next week's semifinals, including Team Adam's Delvin Choice, whose song choice for the week brought him to tears during his studio session. "My biggest regret is that they caught the ugly-cry moment," Choice joked. "But I can honestly say that there's nothing like being able to put the visual emotions with what you hear. I can tell the audience that I'm full and I can tell you that I'm happy or that I'm sad, but if they don't see that, it's harder to comprehend." Though Choice is hoping his emotional performance of R. Kelly's "I Believe I Can Fly" will be enough to get him into the semifinals, if he ends up in this week's bottom four, the singer said fans can expect to see him perform "an upbeat song with a lot of heart, a lot of love, and a lot of resentment."

Despite knowing three contestants will be going home Tuesday nighgt, Team Blake's Jake Worthington kept things optimistic when we spoke to him after his performance of "Hillbilly Delux" by Brooks & Dunn. "Honestly, you gotta keep levelheaded," Worthington said on how he keeps from letting emotions get the best of him. "The ride's been wild, and something that I know and look forward to at the end of it all is that nobody's going downhill — it's straight up from here whether America decides to keep me on the show or not." Despite the bright outlook, like his fellow contestants, Worthington has a song prepared just in case he ends up in tonight's bottom four. Expect "a little more of a down to earth, gospel tone" from the country crooner if he ends up having to sing for America's Twitter votes during the live eliminations.

Finally, we caught up with fellow Team Blake contestant Sisaundra Lewis, who wowed the audience with an upbeat performance of "River Deep Mountain High" by the iconic Tina Turner. "I got a little emotional after my performance just because of all the pressure of knowing three of us will be going home, but that was also overshadowed by knowing my mom was in the audience tonight," Lewis told EW. "For her to see me sing in this kind of venue was really just an honor, so really, they were mostly tears of joy!"

Tune in to The Voice at 8 p.m. Tuesday night to see which contestants make it on to the season 6 semifinals.

Tags:

Adam LevineDelvin ChoiceGwen StefaniJake WorthingtonPharrellSisaundra LewisThe Voice