GUEST MENTORS MALUMA AND SAWEETIE JOIN “THE VOICE” SEASON 25 PLAYOFFS

They're working on Teams Legend and Dan + Shay.

The Voice season 25 is getting down to the nitty gritty of things — this week marks the start of the Playoffs, in which each team will go from five artists to three ahead of the Live Rounds (and public vote). But along with the final coach cut, the Playoffs herald in a round full of new guest mentors. Unlike the Mega Mentor, who hangs out in the rehearsals of all four teams to offer advice during the Knockouts — this season the honor went to Keith Urban, who had the perfect blend of kindness and criticism — in the Playoffs, each team gets its own guest mentor. The first week of the Playoffs focuses on Teams Legend and Dan + Shay, and joining their coaches are global recording star Maluma and Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum rapper, and singer Saweetie.

Maluma is no stranger to The Voice family: He’s been a coach on two seasons of La Voz… Mexico as well as the kid versions of The Voice in both his home country of Colombia and Mexico. You can tell, too. As soon as he sits down with coach John Legend and the artists start showing off their stuff, Maluma is at ease. He’s encouraging and positive, but not afraid to give notes, either; the two guys make a great tag-team. When John asks Nathan Chester to sing with more urgency for his performance of “Oh! Darling,” Maluma agrees and adds some technical advice about stepping away from the mic to let the strength of his voice shine without overpowering things. The notes lead Nathan directly into a spot in the Lives. 

Maluma feels especially connected to Team Legend artist Mafe. The Venezuelan-born power vocalist was thrilled to work with a Latin music icon, and Maluma is beyond excited to see the Latin music rep on The Voice. Unfortunately, Team Legend’s top five is pretty stacked, and Mafe’s cover of Adele’s “Someone Like You” isn’t enough to save her from the dreaded Playoff cut. Joining Nathan in Team Legend’s Top 3 winds up being Bryan Olesen (the Playoff Pass winner who covers Toto’s “Africa”) and Zoe Levert (the one-chair turn who's been getting better every week, including with her take on “Iris” by The Goo Goo Dolls). 

Although Saweetie is new to The Voice, if she’s using this as an audition for a future coaching gig, she accomplishes that mission. On paper, having her mentor alongside Dan + Shay seems like a wild choice, but they actually wind up being a nice balance for one another. Saweetie can really speak to certain aspects of the industry Dan + Shay cannot, specifically for the young female artists on their team. When 17-year-old Anya True arrives to rehearse her performance of Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version),” Saweetie immediately wants more connection with the audience, she wants more eye contact — good advice for the intimate lyrics of that song. 

Although Saweetie isn’t super familiar with country music (perhaps we'll get a Dan + Shay + Saweetie collab in the future?) she is a huge fan of Karen Waldrup. She tells Karen to worry less about being so technically perfect: “Don’t strive for perfection, strive for personality,” Saweetie says. She wants to know who Karen is through her vocals and wants her to stand apart. The advice is helpful: Karen crushes her rendition of Lainey Wilson’s “Heart Like a Truck,” and along with Madison Curbelo (who performs Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide”) and Tae Lewis (he does Randy Houser’s “Runnin’ Outta Moonlight”), she earns a spot in the Playoffs representing Team Dan + Shay.

The Playoffs continue next week when Team Reba and Team Chance are both up — we’ll see who will be mentoring their 10 artists next Monday.

The Voice airs Mondays on NBC.

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2024-04-23T02:01:44Z dg43tfdfdgfd