Kelly Clarkson Reveals Her Biggest Competition on ‘The Voice’ Season 23, and It’s Not Blake Shelton: ‘I Was Threatened’
Kelly Clarkson is back on The Voice in season 23, and she’s ready to take home another trophy. However, her fellow coaches are proving to be tough competitors as they build their teams during the Blind Auditions. In a recent interview on her talk show, Clarkson revealed the coach who made her feel “threatened” with their talent while filming the early rounds of season 23.
Who are the coaches in season 23?
Clarkson took a season off The Voice last year to spend a summer with her two kids, River Rose and Remington Alexander. However, she couldn’t stay away from NBC’s singing competition for long. Clarkson is back this year alongside fellow longtime coach Blake Shelton, who will leave The Voice after this season. Meanwhile, newcomers Chance the Rapper and Niall Horan are also on the coaching panel.
We’d expect Clarkson to name Shelton as her biggest rival this season. After all, the two coaches often butt heads trying to land country artists, and they’ve established themselves as frenemies. We’d also expect her to say Horan, since he, like Clarkson, has experience as a contestant in a singing competition and a huge One Direction fan base. However, Clarkson said she has felt most intimidated by Chance the Rapper. Here’s why.
Kelly Clarkson told Chance the Rapper she felt ‘threatened’ by him on ‘The Voice’
Chance recently appeared on The Kelly Clarkson Show, where he and Clarkson discussed their chances of winning The Voice Season 23. He felt confident that he could win with his “fire” team, and Clarkson agreed that he picked great artists in the Blind Auditions. (At the time of this writing, NBC has aired four episodes. Chance has six artists so far, including a group.)
While Clarkson has competed on American Idol, Chance has judged on Netflix’s Rhythm + Flow. Both coaches said those experiences differed greatly from The Voice. Chance said The Voice was more “hands-on” than he expected, giving him the opportunity to arrange music and show off his skills as a producer. Clarkson’s “favorite” part about the season was watching Chance do that, but it also left her feeling intimidated.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever really done it with a full-on producer before. You know what I’m saying? You’re a rapper, a singer and a producer,” she said. “And it was interesting to do the Blinds with you ’cause I was threatened. ‘Cause I was like, ‘Oh wait, what? I can’t do that, like, what he just did.’ It was cool. You were, like, producing during the Blinds, like, that was part of your pitch.”
How many times has Kelly Clarkson won ‘The Voice’?
Clarkson has won The Voice four times, including her historic season 21 win with trio Girl Named Tom.
“I took a minute, but I’m back and I’m very excited. I won last time,” Clarkson said in a promo video for The Voice Season 23, as seen above. “I’m going to win again. I know it’s the cowboy’s last season, but I’m not going easy on [him.]”
Despite his confidence about winning, Chance feels just as intimidated by Clarkson as she does by Chance. In the same video, he praised her as the OG singing competition veteran because of her American Idol Season 1 win.
“She kind of solidified and validated vocal competition shows, so a lot of us have her to thank for even being here at this point,” Chance said. “I think she’s probably the strongest vocal performer out of all the coaches, and she can make her case every time she pitches. Like, it just feels like she’s gonna win.”
Fans will have to wait until the live shows later this spring to see if Kelly Clarkson can take home another trophy. New episodes of The Voice Season 23 air on Mondays at 8 p.m. ET and Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.
