Previous The Voice winner Jake Hoot stopped by the show on Monday night to perform with coach Kelly Clarkson, the pair taking the stage with their recently-released duet, “I Would’ve Loved You.” The show’s stage was set up to resemble the song’s music video, which was filmed in a theater. A large chandelier hung from the stage’s ceiling and screens showed images of an ornate venue.
Hotot and Clarkson were both dressed in black, and the pair traded off verses before harmonizing during the song’s sweeping chorus. Ahead of the show, Hoot wrote on Instagram that he was “so honored to be on that stage again, and be singing beside my coach!” Hoot won Season 17 of The Voice as a member of Team Kelly, and he released his first EP, Love Out of Time, in January, with “I Would’ve Loved You” as the first single from the project.
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Hoot wrote the song with Jamie Floyd and Lonestar’s Dean Sams, and the 32-year-old told Everything Nash that he thought of Clarkson for his duet partner right away.
“When we wrote it, I said, ‘I think this would be awesome if we got Kelly to sing on this,’” he recalled. “When I was on The Voice, she said, ‘Hey, let’s do something together.’ So I sent it to her and didn’t hear anything. And then later on in the year, when we were seriously considering putting this on the album, I said, ‘You know what? I’m just going to text her again,’ because I had to ask her a couple of questions about other things.”
When Hoot originally sent Clarkson the song, she didn’t have a chance to hear it, but once she did, she was on board. “She called me back immediately and she said, ‘I want to shout this from the rooftops. Yes, I’m in,’” he continued. “Like, let’s get this done. And so trying to coordinate her incredibly busy schedule with mine, recording everything and then also a wedding coming up and then having to fly to LA to record, or having to send stuff out there, it just all worked perfectly.” The Voice airs Monday nights on NBC at 8 p.m. ET and is available the next day on Hulu. You can sign up for Hulu here.