The Voice US: My Guilty Pleasure

4 min readDec 1, 2016

A few years ago I started watching The Voice (US) via YouTube. It began to change my perception of music for it was a singing competition unlike any other. I mean, it was dope! The passion with which the contestants performed and the way the coaches reacted made it addictive to watch.

Speaking of why this wonderful show is a guilty pleasure of mine — I have spent hours, if not days, watching the show. For me, it was the discovery of a new dimension of music. I have witnessed 12 seasons of the journey where artists strive to be successful, to be heard, and to turn their dreams into realities. I have never been a good singer myself. However, looking at all those people perform and soar and climax; that was such an awe-inspiring experience. To paraphrase Adam Levine:

The show has discovered infallibly unique individuals — singers who convey what’s in the deepest recesses of their heart and soul through music.

Okay, for those of you who aren’t familiar with The Voice, here’s how it works.

Blind Auditions

Alison Porter’s Blind Audition (The Voice Season 10)

There are four coaches who sit in four BIG red chairs each of which has a button. Initially, the chairs are turned away from the singer. The judges know nothing about the contestants. They select artists based solely on what they hear — the voice. If a coach likes what they hear, they push their button and turn around. If more than one coach turns around, the contestant gets to choose among one of the turned judges to be his/her coach. If no coach turns around during the audition, the contestant will be eliminated. Other than the coaches, there’s an audience as well. The contestants’ job is to make the judges turn around by their vocal abilities; while they’re at it, they take pleasure in entertaining the crowd as well.

At the end of blind auditions, the four coaches would be having 12 artists each on their teams.

Battles and Knockouts

Next in line are the battle rounds followed by the Knockouts. Two singers will battle in order to proceed to the Knockout rounds. After the Knockout rounds are the Live Playoffs. There are many additional rules that take charge in these rounds — ‘steals’ for instance (where a coach can steal an artist who loses a battle on other coaches’ teams and give them a second chance to advance to the next round).