The Voice Australia has been given a massive facelift with three new coaches signing up to take on the spinning chairs in 2024. “LeAnn Rimes, Adam Lambert and Kate Miller-Heidke are the latest batch to take on the long-running singing competition and their genuine personalities are going to be a hit with viewers,” teases Woman’s Day source.
But with a new line-up of coaches comes a load of new drama too!
ONSCREEN BATTLES!
According to our spy, the show’s longest-running coach Guy Sebastian, 42, is set to be put through his paces by the show’s new recruit and fellow Australian Kate, 42. Any chance at an alliance between the Aussies will be left in the dust once the competition kicks off and the two start to compete to win the best contestants for their respective teams.
“It actually brings a new dimension to this season. We haven’t really seen Guy getting called out and put through his paces like this. Not since Kelly Rowland back when the show was on Nine,” reveals the source.
“Producers didn’t foresee that putting two personalities like Guy and Kate up against each other would create so much tension, but it does make more of a meal out of who is Team Guy and who is Team Kate! Which the show has really lacked in the last three years.”
The source adds, “Bringing in two Americans like Adam, 42 and LeAnn, 41, producers thought there would be a battle of the countries – USA vs Australia – but the tension is between Guy and Kate, who really wanted to outdo each other in their coaching.”
Our homegrown coaches really do seem to be enjoying one-upping one another on technique advice. “They are certainly each other’s biggest rivals and the other two [Adam and LeAnn] really don’t seem to buy into that drama. Maybe they feel like they’re the most established. That they have less to prove – and they’re not on home turf.”
BLIND AUDITION LOVE!
Michael Vaiasinni and Violeta Bozanic may be the couple who steal the audience’s hearts this season of The Voice.
The pair hit the stage together on episode two of the series, and there is more to their story than just their vocal chops. Their performance will leave one of the coaches in tears when they sing in the blind audition stage of the competition.
Behind their talent, Michael, 34, has been living with a rare eye condition called retinitis pigmentosa, which has left him legally blind. His love, Violeta, 20, stands by his side as they perform a loving tune together, hoping to make it past the blind audition phase together. Michael studied opera in Italy and Violeta has an R&B background.
“Not only do we want to travel and perform, but music has brought us closer in more ways than one. Michael was born with retinitis pigmentosa. And this is something that has affected his day-to-day living and working together has actually helped me understand his experiences,” Violeta tells Woman’s Day, “It’s a joint passion of ours to one day start our own foundation supporting those with low vision.”
GUY’S SURPRISE PERFORMANCE!
As the longest-running coach in the history of this Australian format of The Voice, Guy Sebastian knows talent when he hears it!
And this season contestant Priscilla Stanley, from Melbourne, catches the eye of the coach, who jumps on stage to perform one of his hit songs alongside her.
Priscilla shares exclusively with Woman’s Day what that moment meant to her as a part of her blind audition process. “Oh, that was a surreal, shocking moment of my life,” the 25-year-old contestant says.
“I genuinely was just not prepared for that, but I loved every moment of that and it definitely is going to be one of my top memories of my life.”
She went on to reveal if she could pick any artist to sing on stage with she would pick Celine Dion and would choose to sing My Heart Will Go On with her. “I love that song,” she says.
With Guy on stage with Priscilla, we’ll have to wait and see if she makes it past the audition stage of the series – and to the final!
LEANN WHO?
LeAnn Rimes was reportedly disappointed in the contestants’ lack of knowledge of her work and that was a little awkward at times, a source spills.
“The younger singers wouldn’t have even heard of Coyote Ugly and that was really what put her on the map,” says Woman’s Day’s source, adding, “Some of the contestants weren’t even born when that film was released.”
The talented singer rose to fame at the age of 14, winning a Grammy and remains to this day the youngest Grammy Award Winner in history, but she’s less well known in Australia.
“It did feel like when Natalie Imbruglia filled in for Dannii Minogue on X Factor UK. With only one big hit Torn, there was a general feeling she wasn’t as deserving of her chair. That kind of awkwardness was picked up from the live audiences,” says the source.
“Behind the scenes the contestants really got a hard sell on why they should pick LeAnn and once you realise how big she was back in the day and who she has worked with, people quickly changed their minds.”
