‘The Voice’ Singer Calls out Coaches for Barely Spending Time With Contestants

The Voice coaches may fight to get talented contestants to join their teams, but according to one hopeful in the singing competition, the coach-singer relationships don’t go much further than that. Speaking with Yahoo Lifestyle, one contestant from the 2024 series of The Voice Australia described a “contrived” relationship between coaches and the contestants, revealing that the stars and their singers barely spend any time together.

“We really didn’t have any time to really connect with our coaches,” the contestant, who asked to remain anonymous, revealed. “They don’t seem to step outside of their characters. They are either told not to get too deep or promise too much because what you see is really uninspired.”

The Voice centers around a simple premise: four celebrity coaches – The Voice Australia’s most recent lineup features Guy Sebastian, LeAnn Rimes, Adam Lambert, and Kate Miller-Heidke – listen to contestants sing without actually seeing them. If they like what they hear, they press a button and turn their chairs to see the singer, who then joins their team. Although coaches are then supposed to act as mentors to their teams, guiding contestants through the competition and helping further their contestants’ music careers with the hopes that one of their teammates will become the next superstar Voice, the 2024 contestant revealed that never happened.

“Our coach was really fun to meet and it was a pinch-me moment when they walked into the room but it felt more like a meet and greet than a coaching session,” the 2024 contestant said. “The focus on their hair and make-up was a priority and that disappointed us.”

Although the contestant initially believed that the lack of true mentorship could have been due to the fact that they were paired with an international coach, they said they “heard all the competing artists had a similar journey with their coach.” The contestant said they were “sold this dream that you are getting quality coaching from these huge ‘artists’ but the interactions were quite contrived.”

Reflecting on what appeared to be a shared experience among contestants, the contestant suggested that Channel Seven, the network on which The Voice Australia airs, uses the big-name coaches “to bring in the ratings.” They said they have been left wondering “what this show could be if they had coaches that were actually helping us get prepared for more than just a TV moment.”