The Voice coaches are ready for season 19 to kick off — and no one’s more excited than Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani!
The lovebirds are reunited on the upcoming season of NBC’s singing competition show, as Stefani reclaims her coach’s chair after newcomer Nick Jonas stepped in for her last season.
“Having Gwen back is very comforting to all the coaches,” Shelton shared from the set of the upcoming season. “We were all able to just go back to the game we already knew. We all know how to play each other at this thing. It felt like the old gang got back together again, and we’re having a blast.”
“I’m so grateful to be here,” Stefani said, noting that this season feels extra special amid the coronavirus pandemic. “It’s different, definitely different. Everyone has all these rules and we’re all being safe — it’s just actually a little bit more exciting than usual, even though I didn’t think that was possible because it was already super exciting.”
“We’re so excited to have Gwen Stefani back,” fellow coach John Legend agreed. “I know Blake is very excited and very happy to have Gwen back but we all love Gwen. She’s such a kind person, she has such a great spirit and energy and I love having her back.”https://www.youtube.com/embed/dB4hP-QM5Q0?feature=oembed
For Stefani and Shelton, the COVID lockdown meant lots of time together away from set. The pair spent most of their time with Gwen’s kids and extended family at Shelton’s ranch on Oklahoma, which Stefani said was “actually really wonderful.”
“We got to be in Oklahoma as a family. We got to do things we never get to do, like try to make sourdough bread, like everybody else in America, and just do so many fun things — garden, tear down trees, plant tons of different things.”
“But also I think after all of that happened, I got quite creative,” she continued. “I’m in the middle of writing new music, which is just a shock to me, because I realized that, in my life, out of every single thing I’ve ever done, writing new music makes me feel the best and makes me feel the most alive. And it always kind of gets in sync to me being on The Voice, which is weird, because I think it’s just really inspiring. Like, it’s really inspiring to be here.”
And Stefani said that pause was a positive for others, nothing she’s heard some of the new music fellow coach Kelly Clarkson has been working on, and “whoever loves Kelly Clarkson like I do, they’re gonna really like what she’s doing right now. It’s very real, it’s very pure. It’s just really good.”
